Karl Kunisch

Prof. Karl Kunisch is the Scientific Director at RICAM (Johann Radon Institute for Computational and Applied Mathematics) and a Full Professor of Mathematics at the University of Graz, Austria. He has held academic positions worldwide, including visiting roles at Brown University, INRIA, and Technical University Berlin. His research focuses on Optimization and Optimal Control, Partial Differential Equations (PDEs), Inverse Problems, and their applications in mathematical imaging, medicine, and computational science.

Education:

• 1975: Diploma Degree, Technical University of Graz, Austria
• 1975: Master Degree, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA
• 1978: Ph.D. Degree, Technical University of Graz
• 1980: Habilitation, Technical University of Graz

Research Interests: Prof. Kunisch’s work spans theoretical and applied aspects of optimal control, including stabilization of PDEs, infinite horizon control problems, and feedback design. He explores numerical methods for PDE-constrained optimization and their applications in medical imaging, cardiac electrophysiology, and machine learning. His projects also address shape optimization and mathematical models for fluid dynamics and quantum systems.

Publications Trends: His recent articles emphasize feedback stabilization for nonlinear systems, sparse control approaches, and the intersection of optimal control with machine learning. Key themes include robust algorithms for uncertainty handling, efficient numerical methods for high-dimensional problems, and applications in biomedical engineering.

• Awards:
  • Pro Scientia-Scholarship (1974–1977)
  • Research Award of Theodor-Körner-Fonds (1979)
  • Fulbright Travel Scholarship (1979/80, 1985)
  • Max Kade Scholarship (1982–83)
  • Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science Fellowship (1990)
  • Christian Doppler Laboratory Fellowship (1992)

Advising & Grants: Prof. Kunisch leads the Optimization and Optimal Control research group at RICAM and has directed projects on mathematical data science and inverse problems. His work involves collaborations with institutions globally and has been supported by grants from NASA, the European Union, and national funding bodies. He has advised numerous researchers, though specific student names are not listed here.

Labs/Teams: Group Leader of the Group "Optimization and Optimal Control" at RICAM since 2004, contributing to interdisciplinary research in computational mathematics and its applications.