Nicolas R. Gauger

Prof. Dr. Nicolas R. Gauger is a Full Professor and Chairholder for Scientific Computing at the University of Kaiserslautern-Landau (RPTU), holding dual appointments in the Department of Mathematics and Department of Computer Science. Since February 2015, he has also served as Director of the Computing Center (RHRZ) at RPTU. His academic career includes positions as Assistant Professor at Humboldt University Berlin (2005-2010), Associate Professor at RWTH Aachen University (2010-2014), and a Visiting Professorship at MIT (March-August 2014).

Prof. Gauger earned his Master in Mathematics from Leibniz University of Hanover in 1998 and his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Braunschweig University of Technology in 2003. Prior to his professorial positions, he worked as a Research Scientist in Numerical Methods for Aerodynamics at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Braunschweig from 1998 to 2010, while also being a Member of the DFG Research Center MATHEON in Berlin from 2006 to 2010.

His research spans multiple disciplines within computational science and engineering, with primary interests in Nonlinear Optimization, Numerical Optimization, Optimization and Control with PDEs, Aerodynamic Shape Optimization, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Computational Aeroacoustics (CAA), Algorithmic Differentiation (AD), Machine Learning (ML), and High-Performance Computing (HPC). His work bridges theoretical mathematics with practical engineering applications, particularly in aerospace and medical physics. Recent publications show a strong trend toward integrating differentiable programming techniques with traditional computational methods, especially in optimizing experimental setups in fundamental physics and medical applications like proton therapy.

Among his notable recognitions are being named an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) in August 2018, receiving a Teaching Award (June 26, 2025), and a Best Student Paper Award at AIAA Aviation 2020. He serves on the Managing Board of ERCOFTAC (European Research Community on Flow, Turbulence and Combustion) and the Steering Committee of the ERCOFTAC Special Interest Group on Design Optimization.

Prof. Gauger has been actively involved in multiple research initiatives including the Research and Development Lab 'Data Analysis and Artificial Intelligence' of the Fraunhofer Performance Center (vice spokesperson since March 2016), AICES (2010-2019), (CM)^2 (2014-2019), MathApp (2019-2024), and currently MSO (Modelling, Simulation and Optimisation) since 2024. He leads a research team of approximately 15 members working on projects related to algorithmic differentiation, computational fluid dynamics, and optimization methods.

His laboratory, the Scientific Computing research group at RPTU, is involved in multiple interdisciplinary projects including SIVERT (pCT) for fighting cancer with AI and the 'AI Care' project. The team has developed several important software tools including CoDiPack, OpDiLib, and SU2, which are widely used in the computational science community for algorithmic differentiation and aerodynamic optimization.