Matthias Heinkenschloss

Matthias Heinkenschloss is the Noah G. Harding Chair and Professor of Computational Applied Mathematics and Operations Research at Rice University. He joined Rice in 1996 after serving as an assistant professor at Virginia Tech and earlier at the University of Trier in Germany. His research focuses on large-scale nonlinear optimization, PDE-constrained optimization, and optimal control, with applications in engineering and scientific domains such as flow control, reservoir management, and structural acoustics.

He holds a Ph.D. (Dr. rer.nat.) and M.S. in Applied Mathematics from the University of Trier, Germany. His academic leadership includes six years as department chair at Rice and advisory roles on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Weierstrass Institute for Applied Analysis and Stochastics, among others.

Research interests span optimization under uncertainty, model reduction, iterative solvers for KKT systems, and domain decomposition in optimization. His work emphasizes integrating optimization algorithms with underlying differential equations to enhance computational efficiency and solution fidelity. Notable contributions include methods for PDE-constrained optimization, reduced-order modeling, and parallel-in-time algorithms for optimal control.

Key publications include advancements in nonlinear manifold reduced order models, domain decomposition techniques, and parallel-in-time solutions for linear-quadratic optimal control problems. His work has been recognized with awards such as the Mercator Fellowship (2016). He actively contributes to academic societies like the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) and teaches courses in numerical optimization and PDE-constrained optimization.