The author, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Eberhard Zeidler, is retired director of the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences in Leipzig (Germany). In 1996 he was one of the founding directors of this institute. He is a member of the National Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina. In 2006 he was awarded the "Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftspreis" of the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach-Stiftung.
