Gerhard Huisken awarded the Federal Cross of Merit (Bundesverdienstkreuz)

(February 3, 2026) We are proud to announce that Prof. Dr. Gerhard Huisken, Director of MFO and Professor of mathematics at the University of Tübingen, has been awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in recognition of outstanding service and exceptional contributions to mathematics. We warmly congratulate Professor Huisken on this well-deserved distinction.

The prestigious national honor, bestowed by the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, acknowledges individuals who have demonstrated extraordinary commitment to the common good through their professional achievements and civic engagement. Following a nomination of the Minister President of the state of Baden-Württemberg, the Federal President justified the award by noting that Gerhard Huisken had rendered outstanding services to science in Germany and, as a dedicated teacher, has mentored many important researchers.

Petra Olschowski, Gerhard Huisken, Karla Pollmann
From left to right: Petra Olschowski, Gerhard Huisken, Karla Pollmann. (Copyright: Stephan Klaus, MFO)

The official presentation of the award took place on Monday, February 2, 2026, at a festive ceremony held at the Museum at Hohentübingen Castle of the University of Tübingen. Laudatory speeches were delivered by Prof. Dr. Rupert Klein (Professor at Freie Universität Berlin and Chair of the Gesellschaft für Mathematische Forschung), Prof. Dr. Jürg Kramer (Professor at Humboldt University of Berlin and President of the German Mathematical Society), and Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Karla Pollmann (President of the University of Tübingen). In their remarks, they highlighted the lasting enrichment of the mathematical community through Gerhard Huisken’s seminal research as well as his longstanding academic leadership and engagement. 

The ceremony concluded with the presentation of the Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit (Verdienstkreuz 1. Klasse, Cross of Merit 1st Class) by Petra Olschowski, Minister of Science, Research and the Arts of Baden-Württemberg. She emphasized that the Ministry is proud that Gerhard Huisken chose Baden-Württemberg as the base for his academic work and long-term commitment, despite having received numerous offers of professorships abroad.

Research and Engagement

Gerhard Huisken is Director at the Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach and Professor for mathematics at the University of Tübingen. His research focuses on partial differential equations, differential geometry, and their applications in physics. In the international mathematical community he is renowned for proving a version of the Riemannian Penrose inequality and for his foundational contributions to the theory of the mean curvature flow, including Huisken's monotonicity formula, which is named after him. In 2003, Huisken was awarded the prestigious Leibniz Prize by the German Research Foundation. He is a member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences, the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, and the Academia Europaea. He is also a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society and a recipient of the Medal of the Australian Mathematical Society.