The Hausdorff Center for Mathematics is a research institute in Bonn, supported by the four mathematical institutes of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn (Mathematical Institute, Institute for Applied Mathematics, Institute for Numerical Simulation, Research Institute for Discrete Mathematics), the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics (MPI) and the Institute for Social and Economic Sciences. It was founded as one of the seventeen national Clusters of Excellence that were part of the German government's Excellence Initiative. It is the only cluster of excellence in the area of mathematics in Germany.[1] On 13 October, 2006, the proposal of the scientists in Bonn was approved. The centre was officially opened with a colloquium on 19 and 20 January, 2007.
Altogether, about 50 professors from Bonn form part of the centre: all professors for Mathematics, of the MPI and for Theoretical Economy. Among them, there are the director of the MPI, Gerd Faltings, who was awarded the Fields medal in 1986, and Reinhard Selten, who was awarded the nobel prize in economics for his research in Game Theory.
The centre is named after the mathematician Felix Hausdorff (born 8 November 1868; died 26 January 1942).