Romanian mathematician Adrian Constantin, from the University of Vienna, received the Wittgenstein Prize 2020 - the most valuable scientific prize awarded in Austria, local Mediafax reported, quoting FWF.

The Wittgenstein Prize, which is worth up to EUR 1.5 million, is awarded to excellent researchers from all disciplines. 

Adrian Constantin is a specialist in the waves and currents of the oceans and the atmosphere. His research helps to better predict the extent of climate phenomena like El Niño or natural disasters like tsunamis. 

Various large-format movements occur in the atmosphere and oceans, which can be described as currents or waves. However, previous models have been greatly simplified and do not take many geophysically relevant aspects into account. With the Wittgenstein Prize, Adrian Constantin would like to close these gaps and provide detailed mathematical descriptions of the physical processes, FWF said.

"Adrian Constantin has made groundbreaking contributions to the mathematics of wave propagation," said the START Wittgenstein jury in its reasoning. 

Adrian Constantin was born on April 22, 1970, in Timisoara, in western Romania. He has been a professor at the Department of Mathematics at the University of Vienna since 2008. Since 2010, he has been ranked among the "ISI Highly Cited Researchers" of the 250 most cited scientists in the field of mathematics.

Adrian Constantin has also received other prizes and awards, such as the Göran Gustafsson Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Prize from the German Humboldt Foundation, and an ERC Advanced Grant. 

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(Photo source:  FWF / Daniel Novotny)