The Institute of Algebra, Number Theory and Discrete Mathematics mourns the death of Prof. Dr. Christine Bessenrodt, who passed away on January 24, 2022 at the age of 63 after a serious illness.

Since 2002 she held the chair of Algebra and Number Theory at our university. She shaped the institute as executive director for 15 years until now. From 2013 to 2015, she was the Dean of Studies of our faculty. In her lectures and seminars, as well as in final theses, she supervised numerous students with great dedication.

She published over 100 scientific papers on an unusually broad range of topics. In particular, she was a leading figure in the representation theory of symmetric and alternating groups and their covering groups, where she masterfully combined methods from character theory and algebraic combinatorics to obtain profound results.

We lose in her a renowned and dedicated scientist and academic teacher, and a much appreciated colleague. We wish her family the necessary strength in these difficult days.

[Colloquium and conference in memory of Christine Bessenrodt (8/9 July 2022)]