Rate My Professor Norbert Franken

Norbert Franken obtained his Dr. rer. nat. from RWTH Aachen University's Department of Mathematics in 2010. His dissertation, 'Shape Optimization of a Floating Body' (Gestaltsoptimierung eines schwimmenden Körpers), under primary supervision of Prof. Alfred Wagner and co-advisors Prof. Heiko von der Mosel and Prof. Catherine Bandle, explores variational formulations for floating bodies in stationary two-dimensional potential flows. Replacing velocity potential with stream function enables Dirichlet boundary conditions and characterization of fluid domains as positivity sets. The study employs direct methods to prove existence, boundedness, subharmonicity of penalized minimizers, Hölder and Lipschitz continuity via Morrey and Alt-Caffarelli techniques, nondegeneracy for density estimates and finite perimeter of free boundaries, gradient estimates from blow-up limits yielding C^{1,β} regularity for reduced boundaries (extended to full in 2D), and existence of optimal bodies in compact sets with fixed volume, bounded connected components, and density perimeter using Hausdorff and gamma-convergence. Classified under MSC 49 (Calculus of variations and optimal control), no doctoral students listed.

In 2019, Franken earned the FH Aachen Teaching Award (Lehrpreis) for 'Grundlagenveranstaltung,' commended for rapid innovative teaching post-appointment. He co-authored the 2024 Hochschulforum Digitalisierung discussion paper 'Strategische Gestaltung von Studiengängen für die Zukunft: Ein kollaborativ entwickeltes Self-Assessment' with Miriam Barnat, Kristian Arntz, Andreas Bernecker, Anke Fissabre, Daniel Goldbach, Felix Hüning, Jörg Jörissen, Ansgar Kirsch, Jürgen Pettrak, Matthias Rexforth, Josef Rosenkranz, and Andreas Terstegge. As Faculty 6 representative on the Scholarship Commission, he presented active learning strategies at Teaching Day 2022 with Prof. Dr. Ansgar Kirsch. Office: Hohenstaufenallee 6, Room 04103, 52064 Aachen; hours by appointment.