
Discrete Mathematics and Biology: the legacy of Andreas Dress
This two-day workshop celebrates the scientific work of Andreas Dress who passed away in February 2024.
Andreas Dress made fundamental contributions to algebra, geometry and their applications in the life sciences. A long time Professor at the University of Bielefeld, he also served as the founding director of the Max Planck Partner Institute for Computational Biology in Shanghai. Following his early work in group theory and tilings, Dress became a leader at the interface of mathematics and evolutionary biology. He made groundbreaking contributions to the combinatorics of phylogenetic trees. This work also led to his discovery of valuated matroids, which are parametrized by a polyhedral space now known as the Dressian. A generation of scholars in matroid theory and tropical geometry was inspired by his research.
An attractive mix of speakers will showcase Dress' accomplishments, present exciting current research, and share their vision for the future in discrete mathematics and its interface with biology.