A recent history of Functional Analysis research at Oxford

The Functional Analysis research group at Oxford was led by Charles Batty for many years, and as Emeritus Professor of Analysis, Emeritus Research Fellow and (former) Tutor in Mathematics at St. John's College, he is still an active and engaged member of the group today.

As an undergraduate, Batty picked a course in functional analysis at random and enjoyed it; it became the focus of his research career. Nowadays his research is in operator theory methods for (partial) differential equations typical of models arising in mathematical physics, engineering and biology.

The specialist focus for the group under Batty’s leadership included semigroups and algebras of linear operators on infinite-dimensional spaces (Banach spaces, Hilbert spaces), long-time asymptotic behaviour, and functional calculus of unbounded operators.

Research Partners

From 2006 until 2010 the group was a partner in the (now defunct) EU Programme on Operator Theory Methods for Differential Equations (TODEQ). 

From 2013 to 2016 the group was also a member of an EU International Research Staff Exchange Scheme (IRSES) project on Asymptotics of Operator Semigroups.

Past Events

Highlights from meetings held over the last two decades include:

18-22 July 2022 New Challenges in Operator Semigroups: A conference at St. John’s College in honour of Charles Batty's ongoing outstanding contributions to the field.  AbstractsOxford2022.pdf

1-2 November 2018 North British Functional Analysis Seminar: Speakers Sylvie Monniaux (Aix-Marseille, France) and Mark Veraar (Delft, Netherlands)

3-7 June 2013 Operator Semigroups meet Complex Analysis, Harmonic Analysis and Mathematical Physics: A conference in Herrnhut Germany in honour of Professor Charles Batty's 60th birthday. The proceedings volume is available from Birkhäuser.

23-24 March 2012 North British Functional Analysis Seminar: Speakers Magdalena Musat (Copenhagen), Gilles Pisier (Paris VI and Texas A&M University) and Mikael Rørdam (Copenhagen).

21-22 March 2012 Young Functional Analysts' Workshop: Speakers Charles Batty (Oxford), Matthew Daws (Leeds), Olga Maleva  (Birmingham), Wilhelm Winter (Münster). The Young Functional Analysts’ Workshop (YFAW) is an event aimed at early-stage researchers (postgraduates and postdocs) in functional analysis and related areas.

2-4 September 2009 Asymptotics of Operator Semigroups: inaugural event at St.John's College. Download the talks.

Book

The second edition of the book Vector-valued Laplace Transforms and Cauchy Problems by Arendt, Batty, Hieber, Neubrander is available from Birkhäuser.

^{Banner photo: Simon Sällström (instagram @simonsallstromphoto)}