High Performance = Innovative Computer Systems + Efficient Algorithms
High computing performance can only be achieved with a combination of powerful computer systems and algorithms that solve the given application problems as efficiently as possible. Therefore, the development of efficient algorithms has established itself as a classical branch of computer science.
In our research area, we concentrate on solutions where current technological possibilities, such as high performance computer networks, mobile wireless communication networks or systems supported by specialised hardware, pose new challenges for algorithm development.
Prof. Dr. Friedhelm Meyer auf der Heide has been retired since 1.8.2023. We therefore no longer offer Bachelor's and Master's theses or internships.
From 1.8.2023, the research assistants are members of the working group of Prof. Dr. Christian Scheideler [homepage].
Curriculum Vitae
Friedhelm Meyer auf der Heide is Full Professor of Algorithms and Complexity at the Heinz Nixdorf Institute and the Department of Computer Science in the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Mathematics at Paderborn University since 1989. He received his doctorate in mathematics from the University of Bielefeld in 1981 and habilitated in computer science at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt in 1986. From 1984 to 1985, he was a visiting researcher at IBM Research in San Jose, California, USA. From 1986 to 1989, he worked as Professor of Theoretical Computer Science in Dortmund and moved from there to Paderborn. He has been retired since 2023.
In 1986, he was awarded the prize for the best habilitation at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt. In 1992, he was awarded the Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation together with his colleague Burkhard Monien. In 2007, he was admitted to the German Academy of Sciences "Leopoldina", in 2013 to the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts and in 2017 to the German Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech). In 2021, he was awarded the SIROCCO Prize for Innovation in Distributed Computing. In 2024, he became an EATCS-Fellow.
Friedhelm Meyer auf der Heide was director of the DFG Research Training Group "Parallel Processor Networks in Production Technique " (1992-2001), the Collaborative Research Centers 376 "Massive Parallelism" (1995-2006) and 901 "On the Fly Computing" (2011-2023), as well as coordinator of the EU Integrated Project "Dynamically Evolving Large Scale Information Systems (DELIS)" (2004-2008). He has worked for the DFG in various functions, including as a member of the Review Board for Computer Science (2000-2008), the Heisenberg Committee and the DFG-DAAD program "Doctoral Studies at Universities in Germany" (2003, 2008). He was also a member of the Scientific Directorate of the Leibniz Center for Computer Science "Schloß Dagstuhl" (2005-2008) and the Advisory Board of the Max Planck Institute for Computer Science, Saarbrücken (2001-2011), as well as General Chair of the ACM Symposium Series "Parallelism in Algorithms and Architectures (SPAA)" (2007-2011), Head of the Federal Jury Mathematics/Computer Science of the Federal Competition "Jugend Forscht" (2007-2016) and Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Leibniz Center for Computer Science "Schloß Dagstuhl" (2014 - 2021). He has been a member of numerous program committees, including the SPAA, ICALP and ESA conferences.
His research interests include algorithmic and complexity-theoretic issues in parallel computing, communication and data management in networks, dynamics in networks, computer graphics algorithms, and randomization methods. He is (co-)author of over 200 publications and several patents. To date, he has supervised over 50 doctorates and 14 of his students now hold professorships.