Duringthelastdecades,geosciencesand-engineeringwerein?uencedbytwo essentialscenarios. First, thetechnologicalprogresshaschangedcompletely the observational and measurement techniques. Modern high speed c- puters and satellite-based techniques are entering more and more all (geo) disciplines. Second, there is a growing public concern about the future of our planet, its climate, its environment, and about an expected shortage of natural resources. Obviously, both aspects, viz. (i) e?cient strategies of protection against threats of a changing Earth and (ii) the exceptional s- uation of getting terrestrial, airborne as well as spaceborne, data of better and better quality explain the strong need for new mathematical structures, tools, and methods. In consequence, mathematics concerned with geosci- ti?c problems, i.e., geomathematics, is becoming more and more important. Nowadays, geomathematics may be regarded as the key technology to build the bridge between real Earth processes and their scienti?c understanding. In fact, it is the intrinsic and indispensable means to handle geoscient- cally relevant data sets of high quality within high accuracy and to improve signi?cantly modeling capabilities in Earth system research.
Willi Freeden born in 1948 in Kaldenkirchen/Germany, Studies in Mathematics, Geography, and Philosophy at the RWTH Aachen, 1971 ‘Diplom’ in Mathematics, 1972 ‘Staatsexamen’ in Mathematics and Geography, 1975 PhD in Mathematics, 1979 ‘Habilitation’ in Mathematics, 1981/1982 Visiting Research Professor at the Ohio State University, Columbus (Department of Geodetic Sciences and Surveying), 1984 Professor of Mathematics at the RWTH Aachen (Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics), 1989 Professor of Technomathematics, 1994 Head of the Geomathematics Group, 2002-2006 Vice-president for Research and Technology at the University of Kaiserslautern.
Michael Schreiner born in 1966 in Mertesheim/Germany, Studies in Industrial Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, and Computer Science at the University of Kaiserslautern, 1991 ‘Diplom’ in Industrial Mathematics, 1994 PhD in Mathematics, 2004 ‘Habilitation’ in Mathematics. 1997–2001 researcher and project leader at the Hilti Corp. Schaan, Liechtenstein, 2002 Professor for Industrial Mathematics at the University of Buchs NTB, Buchs, Switzerland. 2004 Head of the Department of Mathematics of the University of Buchs, 2004 also Lecturer at the University of Kaiserslautern.
