About
Prof. Franz Rothlauf is a Professor of Information Systems at the University of Mainz, serving as Chief Information Officer (since 2016) and Academic Director of the Executive MBA program (since 2013). He holds a Diploma in Electrical Engineering from the University of Erlangen (1997), a Ph.D. in Information Systems from the University of Bayreuth (2001), and a Habilitation from the University of Mannheim (2007). His research focuses on metaheuristics, evolutionary computation, neural networks, and combinatorial optimization, with key contributions to genetic programming and algorithm design.
He has authored influential books like Design of Modern Heuristics and Representations for Genetic and Evolutionary Algorithms. His professional roles include Editorial Board memberships for journals like Evolutionary Computation Journal and ACM Transactions on Evolutionary Learning and Optimization, and leadership in ACM SIGEVO, including serving as Chair since 2019. He has organized major conferences like GECCO 2009 and EvoWorkshops series, and his work spans algorithm design, optimization, and applications in healthcare and logistics.
Key research trends include advancing evolutionary algorithms, symbolic regression, and anomaly detection in healthcare. His recent work explores AI-driven program synthesis and ethical AI. He has advised numerous graduate students and contributed to editorial and academic leadership roles, emphasizing interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation.
