Ingo Wegener

Ingo Wegener (December 4, 1950 in Bremen – November 26, 2008 in Bielefeld) was an influential German computer scientist working in the field of theoretical computer science.^[1][2][3][4]

Education and career

Wegener was educated at the Bielefeld University. He earned a diploma in mathematics there in 1976, a doctorate in 1978, and a habilitation in 1981.^[1] His doctoral dissertation, Boolesche Funktionen, deren monotone Komplexität fast quadratisch ist, was jointly supervised by Wolfgang Paul [de] and Rudolf Ahlswede.^[5]

He was a computer science professor at Goethe University Frankfurt from 1980 until 1987, when he moved to the Technical University of Dortmund. He remained at Dortmund until his death.^[1]

Contributions

Wegener's dissertation research concerned circuit complexity, and he was known for his research on Boolean functions and binary decision diagrams.^[1][2] He wrote two books on related topics, The Complexity of Boolean Functions (Wiley, 1987, also called "the blue book")^[6] and Branching Programs and Binary Decision Diagrams: Theory and Applications (SIAM Press, 2000).^[7]

Beginning in the 1990s, his research interests shifted towards the theoretical analysis of metaheuristics and evolutionary computation.^[1][2]

Awards and honors

Wegener was elected as a fellow of the German society for computer science, the Gesellschaft für Informatik, in 2004.^[8] For his merits on teaching and research in the field of theoretical computer science, he earned in 2006 the Konrad Zuse Medal from the Gesellschaft für Informatik.^[1]