معرفی
David Russell Luke is a Professor of Continuous Optimization at the Institute for Numerical and Applied Mathematics, University of Göttingen, where he also serves as Managing Director of the Institute. He holds editorial positions as Area Editor for the Open Journal of Mathematical Optimization and Associate Editor for multiple prestigious journals including Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, ESAIM: Control, Optimization and Calculus of Variations, SIAM Journal on Optimization, and Advances in Computational Mathematics.
Dr. Luke earned his BSc with honors in Applied Mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1991, followed by an MSc (1997) and PhD (2001) in Applied Mathematics from the University of Washington under James Burke. His academic journey included positions at the University of Göttingen (2001-2003), Simon Fraser University (2002-2004), and University of Delaware (2004-2009) before returning to Göttingen.
His research focuses on Continuous Optimization, Variational Analysis, and Inverse Problems, with particular expertise in nonsmooth and nonconvex optimization, phase retrieval, and computational imaging. His work bridges theoretical mathematics with practical applications in photonic imaging, tomography, and adaptive optics. Current research projects include atomic orbital tomography, stochastic computed tomography for X-FEL imaging, probabilistic analysis in fixed point theory, and topological optimization for tree structure analysis.
Analysis of his recent publications reveals a strong trend toward computational methods for imaging science, particularly phase retrieval problems, with increasing focus on three-dimensional reconstruction techniques and applications in photoemission orbital tomography. His work consistently integrates theoretical convergence analysis with practical algorithm development, often implemented in the ProxToolbox software framework.
- NASA/GSFC Graduate Student Research Fellow (1998-2001)
- Editorial roles with multiple leading optimization journals
- Principal investigator on numerous DFG-funded research projects
Dr. Luke has advised several PhD students including Patrick Neumann and Thao Nguyen. His research has been supported by significant grants from the National Science Foundation, German Research Foundation (including Collaborative Research Center 755, Graduiertenkolleg 2088), Bundesministerium fuer Bildung und Forschung, German Israeli Foundation, and Australian Research Council. He leads the Working Group on Continuous Optimization, Variational Analysis and Inverse Problems at the University of Göttingen, which maintains the ProxToolbox software laboratory for proximal algorithms and optimization methods.
The group actively develops computational tools for inverse problems and optimization, with applications ranging from space telescope wavefront reconstruction to atomic-scale imaging. Current projects are organized within the Collaborative Research Center 1456 and Graduiertenkolleg 2088 frameworks, focusing on mathematical modeling of complex imaging scenarios and developing efficient numerical algorithms for large-scale optimization problems.
