The Institute of Applied Analysis and Numerical Simulation mourns the death of
Prof. Dr. Anna-Margarete Sändig
*26 July 1944 †3 March 2024
Anna Margarete Sändig studied mathematics at the University of Rostock. She obtained her doctoral degree with a thesis “On the Nonstandard Theory of Distributions“ under the guidance of Professor Dr. I. Fenyö in 1973. From 1968 till 1970 she participated in a project on functional analysis with Professor Dr. G.E. Shilov at the Lomonossov University. Afterwards she pursued further studies in analysis at the University of Rostock and became associate professor ibidem. After the collapse of the German Democratic Republic she joined the working group of Prof. Dr. W. Wendland at the Chair of Applied Mathematics in Stuttgart. In 1997 she has been awarded a prestigious Sofia Kovalevskaia guest professorship at TU Kaiserslautern. From 2003 on she hold an extraordinary professorship at the University of Stuttgart up to her retirement in 2011.
Anna-Margarete Sändig was an internationally well-known expert in applied analysis, numerical mathematics and mathematical modeling. Her scientific contributions to the analysis and numerics for the equations of continuum mechanics in non-smooth domains received worldwide appreciation. She made fundamental contributions to the understanding of interface problems for elliptic equations. Her work was always motivated by real world problems and she successfully applied the developed concepts to a wide range of complex multifield problems in solid mechanics. This comprises studies on multicomponent materials, dynamic crack propagation, piezoelectric effects and liquid phase epitaxy.
Anna-Margarete Sändig was a hardworking scientist and published more than 50 outlets which set standards in applied and numerical analysis. Her work combines mathematical depth with a dedicated interdisciplinary orientation. She was a member in several research initiatives funded by the German Research Foundation including the Priority Research Program “Boundary Element Methods” and the Collaborative Research Centre 404 on “Multifield Problems in Solid and Fluid Mechanics“ at the University of Stuttgart. Her successful research was embedded in a network of researchers not only from Germany but e.g. from the Czech Republic , France, Georgia, Russia and the United States.
As a teacher she gave inspiring lectures on a wide range of topics in applied analysis. In this way she attracted many young students to the field. She advised various master students and doctoral researchers with two of them becoming professors later on. They will carry on her visions and ideas at the interface between continuum mechanics and applied analysis.