Prof. Dr. Markus Holzer

‘Above all, learn theory, otherwise you will remain a practical bungler all your life.’

I am a professor at the Institut für Informatik of the Justus-Liebig-Universität In Giessen, Germany. Moreover I am Editor in Chief of the Journal of Automata, Languages and Combinatorics (formerly Journal of Information Processing and Cybernetics / Elektronische Informationsverarbeitung und Kybernetik) and SC-chair of the Conference on Implementation and Application of Automata (CIAA).

My main areas of research include automata theory, formal languages, computational complexity, descriptional complexity, and other fun staff. A list of publications can be found, e.g., at DBLP or Google Scholar.

In the summer term 2021 I'm teaching
  • Grundlagen der Informatik III (4+2 SWS)
  • Schwerpunkte der Informatik - Seminarteil (2 SWS)
  • Spezialvorlesung Informatik - Petrinetze (3+1 SWS)
Due to the special situation because of COVID-19 these courses are held online--see the announcements at Stud.IP. For courses from previous semesters, please visit the electronic course catalogue.

The contact information is given on the right of the page. Consultation hour is offered on a regular basis. Another option is to make an appointment upon email request.

The banner image shows part of the blackboard after a research session together with Stefan Schwoon in summer 2001. This research resulted in the journal publication
[1] M. Holzer and St. Schwoon. Assembling Molecules in Atomix is Hard. Theoretical Computer Science, 313(3):447-462, February 2004. DOI
Finally, the above slogan is a literal translation of the German phrase "Vor Allem lernt Theorie, sonst bleibt ihr praktische Stümper euer Leben lang" by the zoologist and beekeeper Freiherr August Sittich Eugen Heinrich von Berlepsch (1815-1877).