The Faculty of Mathematics sadly acknowledges the loss of Prof. Dr. Jürgen Herzog, who passed away on April 23, 2024 at the age of 82. With Jürgen Herzog we lose one of our longest-standing members and a globally recognized personality who shaped the field of commutative algebra for over fifty years.

Jürgen Herzog was born in Heidelberg in 1941. He received his doctorate at Louisiana State University under the supervision of Ernst Kunz in 1969 and completed his habilitation at the University of Regensburg in 1974. Since 1975 he was a professor at the University of Essen, later Duisburg-Essen, where he retired in 2009. However, Jürgen Herzog remained scientifically active. He worked tirelessly on book and research projects, traveled extensively and shared his knowledge with colleagues all around the world. His mathematical and personal involvement in Pakistan and Iran was particularly dear to him. Jürgen Herzog was regularly to be found at our department conducting research in his office and discussing mathematics at the blackboard with his international guests.

During the course of his long scientific career, Jürgen Herzog published more than 250 research articles and had a significant impact on the development of his field, commutative algebra. Driven by scientific and human curiosity, he built a global network comprising more than 100 co-authors. His book on Cohen-Macaulay rings, written together with Winfried Bruns, now belongs to the classics of mathematical literature.

We are truly thankful that Jürgen Herzog enriched the life at our department and was able to dedicate himself to mathematics until the very end. We will miss him, even though his great mathematical legacy remains.

On behalf of the Faculty of Mathematics

Professor Jan Kohlhaase

Dean