Remembering Klaus Schmitt

Last April, Klaus Schmitt, our Colleague of many years, passed away in Mesquite, Nevada.   Klaus was born in Germany, in May of 1940.   He received a BA in mathematics and physics from St Olaf College in 1962, an MA from the University of Nebraska in 1964, and a Ph.D. in mathematics, also from the University of Nebraska, in 1967.  He joined our faculty as an Assistant Professor in 1967 and spent his entire career at the University of Utah.   He retired as an Emeritus Professor in 2010.   Subsequently he and his wife, Claudia, moved to Mesquite, Nevada.

Klaus was an internationally renowned and versatile researcher with a distinguished career in mathematics, focusing on nonlinear functional analysis, nonlinear partial differential equations, and variational methods, among other subjects  

Klaus was the thesis advisor of 17 Ph.D. students, the first (Max Lund) in 1970, and the last (Nguyen Loc) in 2011.  Five of those students went on to their own academic careers and served as thesis advisors themselves.

Klaus was an author or editor of several books, and wrote over 150 research articles.   He received the Alexander von Humboldt Prize in 1978, and again in 1996.  During his long career he visited numerous places all over the world.

Klaus was deeply involved in departmental matters and those of us who knew him prior to his retirement remember his energetic leadership, including a stint as department chair from 1989-1992.