Holder

About me

© Friedemann Thomas

Since September 2014 I am Open Topic-Professor for Applied Analysis at the mathematics departement at TU Dresden. Prior to joining TUD I was a postdoc in the research group Partial Differential Equations at WIAS Berlin and at the Max-Planck-Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences (Leipzig) in the group of Felix Otto. In the winter semester 2013/14 I was visiting professor at the University of Heidelberg. 
I received my PhD in 2010 at Technische Universität München within the doctoral program TopMath under the supervision of Martin Brokate. I also studied violin at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München and received a master class degree (Meisterklassendiplom) in 2008.

Research

I am interested in the analysis and modeling of multiscale problems based on partial differential equations and the calculus of variations. A leitmotif of my research is the theory of homogenization, which is about the derivation and rigorous justification of effective models and properties for media with microstructures (e.g. PDEs or energy functionals with spatial oscillations).

In previous works I developed a theory for homogenization of nonlinearly elastic materials in the context of other small parameters. This includes applications to problems that combine homogenization and dimension reduction (to justify effective rod- and plate-models) as well as the question of the commutability of homogenization and linearization in small-strain limits.

Recently, in a series of joint work with Antoine Gloria and Felix Otto, we developed a quantitative theory for stochastic homogenization. E.g. we obtained optimal estimates on the approximation error of the periodic representative volume element scheme based on a quantification of ergodicity. Stochastic homogenization is closely related to the derivation of central limit theorems for random conductance models.

I am fascinated by problems arising in the natural and engineering sciences. In particular, I study problems with applications to mechanics and materials sciences. In September 2014 I received the ISIMM Junior Prize for my contributions at the interface between mathematics and mechanics.

Curriculum Vitae

My CV can be found here.