Departmental Description – what we do

  • The Department’s scientific focus is primarily on the qualitative theory of differential equations and mathematical modelling, especially the analysis of difference equations and their systems.
  • We specialise in processing data of biological systems obtained through collaboration with specialised departments.
  • We follow both modern and traditional teaching trends and actively participate in conferences focused on education in mathematics.
  • We are coordinating the creation of a multilingual database focused on the of real-world aplications of mathematics. This database is a part of application of mathematics in world tasks as part of a European Union project MATH4U.

    Background – where we work

    • Building B on the University campus – the Department’s offices are located on the 5th and 6th floors, as are its main facilities for research and teaching.  
    • Due to the Department’s focus, we do not have any laboratories or sophisticated equipment; even today, the primary working tool of a mathematician is a blank piece of paper and a pencil. Nevertheless, we maintain access to several specialised databases, including those of mathematical publications, and are equipped with all necessary software to conduct numerical simulations.

    Departmental Staff – who we are

    Our staff is structured in a way that ensures a balance between experts both mathematics and descriptive geometry.

    doc. Mgr. Robert Mařík, Ph.D.
    Academic staff – Associate Professor – Department of Mathematics
    Head of department – Department of Mathematics
    DM FFWT, Zemědělská 3, 61300 Brno (Černá Pole)
    Office: B6.16
    +420 545 134 030
    Department of Mathematics
    Faculty of Forestry nad Wood Technology
    Zemědělská 3, 613 00 Brno
    +420 545 134 140
    List of employees

    Department of Mathematics

    Staff

    History

    • Mathematics has been taught at Mendel University in Brno since its foundation in 1919 (at that time, the university was named the University of Agriculture in Brno). Initially, it was taught within the agricultural-economic programme by Dr. Jan Vojtěch, a professor from the Brno University of Technology. From 1920, mathematics was also taught in the forestry programme, which additionally included descriptive geometry, delivered by Dr. Vladimír Mašek, an associate professor at the Czech Technical University in Brno. In 1921, Dr. Mašek was appointed Professor of Mathematics and Descriptive Geometry. This marked the establishment of the Department of Mathematics and Descriptive Geometry, making it one of the oldest departments at the faculty.
    • Prof. Mašek was the department’s first and long-term head. He founded the department’s library and authored the first teaching materials. His scholarly focus was on the geometry of curves and surfaces, and he worked intensively in descriptive, synthetic, analytical, and kinematic geometry. In addition, during the academic year 1924–1925, he served as the Dean of the Forestry Programme, and in 1937–1938 and again in 1945, he was the Dean of the Economic Programme. He remained the head of the department until his retirement in 1956.
    • His first assistant, RNDr. Ing. Zdeněk Hustý, succeeded him. Hustý specialized in the theory of differential equations. He was appointed professor in 1965 and, in 1971, moved to the Brno University of Technology. Prof. Hustý established a scientific seminar at the department, joining the tradition of Brno seminars on differential equations led by Prof. Ráb, Prof. Neumann, and Prof. Voráček, all of whom continued the work of Prof. Borůvka. Differential equations became the foundation of the department’s research focus. Prof. Hustý’s own research was devoted to global invariants and the asymptotic and oscillatory properties of even-order linear differential equations.
    • After the departure of Prof. Hustý, he was briefly replaced by the head of the Department of Geodesy, Prof. Fausek, and in the years 1972-1979 the department was externally led by Assoc. Prof. Číhal. In 1980, the mathematician Assoc. Prof. Ivo Res became the head of the department. The special focus of the Department continued to be the study of asymptotic properties of linear differential equations. In January 1990, RNDr. Gabriela Vosmanská, CSc., became the new head of the department. Under her leadership, a second area of fundamental research was introduced—differential geometry (theory of jets). In 2004, she was succeeded by RNDr. Petr Rádl, who served in the position until 2007. Since that year, the department has been led by Assoc. Prof. Robert Mařík.
    • Throughout the history of the department, in addition to basic research, considerable attention has always been paid to teaching. Mathematics has been (and continues to be) taught at all faculties of the university and across most study programmes. The department has almost always provided its own tuition at all faculties, since 2008 the teaching of mathematics at the Faculty of Business and Economics has been provided by the local Department of Statistics and Operations Research. Tuition of the second discipline, constructive (descriptive) geometry, has always been carried out only at the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology.