Professor Dr Adrian Constantin

Research Priorities: Differential equations, fluid mechanics, oceanography, atmospheric research
Adrian Constantin is an Austrian-Romanian-Swedish mathematician. His research focus is in differential equations which describe space- and time-dependent physical systems. He develops new mathematical methods which provide better insights into the dynamics of waves and currents in water and in the atmosphere. He mainly investigates non-linear phenomena in which the proportionality between cause and effect ceases to apply, often leading to fascinating outcomes.
Constantin refines known mathematical methods and develops new mathematical approaches. Data collection is a crucial part of modern investigations into natural phenomena and while the processing of available data by means of automated machines is very helpful, even the best computer simulations can only produce correlations. However, theoretical investigations, strongly mathematical in nature, enable a successful search for causalities, upon which reliable predictions can be made. Nonlinear phenomena and processes are essentially determined by non-proportional dependencies and interactions of the relevant physical variables. The insights into their dynamics strongly depend on the discovery of specific structures. These can open up unexpected possibilities, in which the mathematical pursuit of accuracy, consistency and systematisation often facilitates elegant syntheses which reveal hidden mechanisms and enable a deeper understanding.
Adrian Constantin has made essential contributions to the theory of nonlinear waves, above all in regard to the dynamics of nonlinear water waves and the interaction between waves and currents in the ocean and in the atmosphere. In his investigations he combines methods from various fields of mathematics, such as partial and ordinary differential equations, complex and harmonic analysis, functional analysis, topology, differential and symplectic geometry, asymptotic analysis, variation calculation, and representation theory.