Rate My Professor Jörg Hennig

Jörg Hennig is an Associate Professor in Applied Mathematics in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Otago, where he also serves as Director of Studies for 200-300-level Mathematics. Born in the late 1970s in Eisenach, Germany, he obtained his Diploma in Physics in 2003 and PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) in theoretical physics in 2007 from Friedrich Schiller University Jena, under the supervision of Gernot Neugebauer. From 2007 to 2011, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam, Germany. He joined the University of Otago in 2011 as a Lecturer in Applied Mathematics, advanced to Senior Lecturer in 2016, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2026. His teaching includes courses such as COMO 303 Numerical Methods, MATH 203 Calculus of Several Variables, MATH 130 Fundamentals of Modern Mathematics 1, and MATH 4NT Analytic Number Theory.

Hennig's research centers on general relativity, encompassing axisymmetric and stationary spacetimes for equilibrium configurations like those with central black holes and surrounding matter. He has established universal inequalities for rotation rates of disturbed Kerr black holes, proven the non-existence of stationary two-black-hole configurations using soliton methods, and advanced the black hole balance problem for multiple black holes. Additional foci include Gowdy-symmetric cosmological models with varied spatial topologies, some featuring closed causal curves, and pseudo-spectral methods for accurate numerical solutions of hyperbolic PDEs in numerical relativity. Notable publications comprise 'Soliton methods and the black hole balance problem' (Wave Motion, 2025), 'The characteristic initial value problem for the conformally invariant wave equation on a Schwarzschild background' (Classical & Quantum Gravity, 2023), 'Non-existence of stationary two-black-hole configurations' (General Relativity and Gravitation, 2011), and contributions to conferences such as GR24 (2025). He received the University of Otago Early Career Award for Distinction in Research in 2015 for outstanding contributions to applied mathematics and mathematical physics on general relativity and black holes, accompanied by a $5000 research grant, and a Marsden Fast-Start Grant in 2012 worth $345,000 for 'Causality and cosmological models in general relativity'. His 43 research works have garnered 1289 citations on ResearchGate, influencing studies in black hole dynamics and cosmology.