Lars-Erik - The happy mathematician

About me

I am 78 years old but still I work as Professor at UiT The Arctic University of Norway. Moreover, I work as Senior Professor at Karlstad University in Sweden and I am Professor Emeritus at both Uppsala University and Luleå University of Technology in Sweden. I have also for a period worked as Professor at Lund University in Sweden. From 2005 I am also honorary professor at Eurasian National University, Astana, Kazakhstan. I have been supervisor for 70 students with PhD exams and additional 13 with Licentiate exams. At the moment I am supervisor for 5 PhD students in mathematics or engineering mathematics at four different universities in collaboration with the Persson Institute of Engineering Mathematics in Luleå, Sweden. The areas of research for my students and current positions can be found on the link PhD exams below.

I was the President of the Swedish Mathematical Society 1996-1998 and I have been ordinary member 1995-2010 (secretary during 1995-2002) of the National Committee of Mathematics equipped with the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. I have also been chairman 4 years for the board at Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet). which distributes governments money for research in the mathematical sciences. Moreover, I initiated Center of Applied Mathematics at Luleå University of Technology 1995 and was its Director till 2005. During 2008-2009 I  was director of Center of  Interdisciplinary Mathematics (CIM) at Uppsala University.

If you want to know more about me and my scientific work and the awards I have received you can look at my Curriculum Vitae and my list of publications below.  See also my remarkable list of coauthors/coeditors (at the moment around 170 persons from 42 different countries!).

I am also interested in berry picking, fishing and sports, mostly skiings. In particular, I have so far participated and always finalized the famous Swedish ski competition Vasa run (Vasaloppet) at 75 different occasions (48 times the ordinary day and 27 times as so called “Open track” the week before). For more information see the link “sport” below.

I still live mostly in the beautiful town Luleå in Sweden, where my house was well known as “Hotel Infinity” since so many students and researchers around the world have lived there for longer or shorter periods (two PhD students from Ghana lived there 3 years). So much of the supervision have been done there and in the equipped “Hardy Institute of Mathematics”. From 2021 I have moved to a nice flat in south harbor in Luleå and the famous Hilbert construction (Hotel Infinity) has accompanied me there and so far all visiting PhD students seem to be be very satisfied also with this more modern version. And a proof of the fact that Hotel Infinity still works perfectly is that this academic year four new students have defended their PhD thesis with me as a responsible supervisor. This means that, miraculously enough, I survived the dramatic year 2018 and recovered in a remarkable way. In particular, in the period 2018-2023 I have been a responsible scientific supervisor for 11 finalized PhD exams and one more is expected to finalize this year (see the link “PhD exams” below).

Remark: A short description of the dramatic year 2018 can be found in the link “additional information” below. Shortly the following happened:
a) LEP got a very serious heart attack,
b) LEP was unexpectedly divorced from Luleå University of Technology (the university of his heart in 43 years).
But also under these heavy conditions he, miraculously enough, with support of understanding collaborators, friends, family and several universities around the world, could continue his remarkable successful PhD education now even more with Hotel Infinity as his main basis. In fact, in the period 2018-2023 11 PhD students finalized successfully their PhD exams with LEP as a responsible scientific supervisor (out of the the 70 mentioned above). Moreover. at the moment further 5 PhD students are supervised by LEP.

 

Pictures from 2019 and 2020

A professional photographer named Patrik Öhman took some great photos of me 2019-09-09 and later on 2020-09-10.
They can be used in publications and similar after asking me for permissions. Of course also Patrik has permissions to use these pictures on his own blogg

 

www.larserikpersson.se