Evolution Equations, Operator Semigroups and Beyond

Jacek Banasiak is DSI/NRF Chair in Mathematical Models and Methods in Biosciences and Bioengineering at the University of Pretoria. He obtained his MSc in Engineering from Lodz University of Technology, his PhD from the University of Strathclyde, and his Habilitation (DSc) from the University of Warsaw, and was awarded the State title of Professor of Poland in 2007. His research spans nonlocal and integro-differential models in kinetic theory, mathematical biology, fragmentation–coagulation theory, multiscale asymptotics, and epidemiological modelling. He has authored seven monographs and over 150 research papers, and has supervised 15 PhD students. A Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa, the African Academy of Sciences, and the Academy of Science of South Africa, he has received several national and international awards, including the SAMS Award for Research Distinction and the University of Pretoria Exceptional Academic Achiever Award. He is Editor-in-Chief of Afrika Matematika and serves on the editorial boards of several international journals.

Bálint Farkas received his PhD from Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, in 2004. During his doctoral studies, he was a Marie Curie Fellow and a student of Rainer Nagel in Tübingen. He has held research and faculty positions at the Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics, the University of Parma, the University of Tübingen, the Technical University of Darmstadt, and Eötvös Loránd University. Since 2017, he has been a professor at the University of Wuppertal. His research interests include functional analysis, operator theory, operator semigroups, and their applications in dynamical systems. He is a co-author of the book Operator Theoretic Aspects of Ergodic Theory (Springer, Graduate Texts in Mathematics), and, together with Tanja Eisner, the forthcoming A Journey through Ergodic Theorems(Birkhäuser, 2025). He currently serves as deputy editor-in-chief of Analysis Mathematica and as an editor of Zeitschrift für Analysis und ihre Anwendungen.

Marjeta Kramar Fijavž is an associate professor of mathematics at University of Ljubljana (Slovenia). Her primary research interest lies in the theory and applications of operator semigroups. She specialises in evolution equations on metric graphs, in particular. She is the author of a research monograph and over 30 research papers. She chaired the EU COST Action "Mathematical models for interacting dynamics on networks".

Christian Seifert is senior researcher at the Institute of Mathematics at Hamburg University of Technology, Germany. He received his Diploma in Mathematics with a minor in Physics from Dresden University of Technology in 2009 and his PhD in Mathematics from Chemnitz University of Technology in 2012. He works on partial differential equations, evolution equations, and operator theory including spectral theory as well as mathematical control theory with methods mainly stemming from functional analysis.

Sanne ter Horst received his Ph.D. in Mathematics (operator theory) from VU Amsterdam in 2007, complemented by system and control theory training at the Dutch Institute of Systems and Control. After a postdoctoral fellowship at Virginia Tech and assistant professorships at Utrecht University and Radboud University Nijmegen, he became a full professor in mathematics at North‑West University in South Africa. He serves as Editor‑in‑Chief of Quaestiones Mathematicae, sits on the editorial board of Complex Analysis and Operator Theory, has held various portfolios on the council of the South African Mathematical Society since 2013, and is Vice‑President of the IWOTA Steering Committee as well as a member of the MTNS Steering Committee. His research focuses on operator theory and matrix analysis with applications in systems and control theory, including metric constrained interpolation, unbounded Toeplitz operators, infinite‑dimensional and noncommutative multidimensional systems, structured control problems, and inverse problems.

Bruce Watson was born and grew up in Southern Africa. He completed his PhD at Wits University, under the supervision of Prof Melvin Faierman, on inverse spectral problems for two parameter systems. He spent a year at the University of Calgary as a PIMS post Doctoral Fellow, under the supervision of Prof Paul Binding. Following this he returned to the University of the Witwatersrand, where he have served in various capacities in including Head of the School of Mathematics and Director of the Centre of Excellence in Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (his current position). His research interests range through: theory of differential operators; inverse problems; vector lattices; ergodic theory; mixing processes and stochastic processes.