Noticias en español
Raimund Bürger, researcher of the Center for Mathematical Modeling and the Center for Mathematical Engineering (CI²MA) of Universidad de Concepción was an invited speaker during the International Congress of Mathematicians 2018, a mathematical event organized by the International Mathematical Union that brought together mathematicians from all over the world in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from August 1st to 9th.
“The invitation came to me from the president of the organizing committee, Marcelo Viana, in April 2017. The organizers never asked me for a specific topic, but I suppose the invitation to give a talk in the section Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing” held in part jointly with the section Mathematics in Science and Technology was related to my work on sedimentation models, an area in which I started work in 25 years ago when I started my doctorate studies in Stuttgart, Germany,” Bürger recalls.
The researcher presented the conference On convection-diffusion-reaction and transport-flow problems modeling sedimentation: “My lecture addressed selected advances in the mathematical and numerical analysis of mathematical models, expressed by partial differential equations, which describe sedimentation processes with applications in mining and sanitary engineering, specifically, in thickeners and wastewater treatment plants.”
And he explains: “The base model is a scalar, non-linear diffusion-convection equation with strong parabolic-hyperbolic degeneracy and discontinuous flux. The advances presented refer to a novel mathematical method of identifying a coefficient function from measurements in a cone, to the extension of the model to processes of sedimentation with reaction (denitrification process in WWTPs) and to the numerical solution of flow-transport problems coupled in two spatial dimensions”.
The presentation was attended by more than a hundred mathematicians from around the world and summarized contributions published in journals with collaborators such as Stefan Diehl (Lund University, Sweden) and Ricardo Ruiz-Baier (University of Oxford) as well as the PhD students Julio Careaga (Lund) and Camilo Mejías (Hibring Ingenieria / UdeC).
Bürger was one of the three Chilean mathematicians at the event with Jairo Bochi, from Universidad Católica, and Andrés Navas, from the Universidad de Santiago.
“It is a great distinction to have been invited to talk at the congress,” explains the researcher from Universidad de Concepción, who also participated in the receptions organized by the German Consulate and the CNRS, in addition to the ceremony where Fields Medal was given during the inaugural act. “I have received some very positive comments about our work and a suggestion to publish the material as a monograph. This is an opportunity I will calmly analyze in the coming weeks.”
