Calculus of Variations on the Lake

August 17−21, 2026, Frauenwörth Abbey

Aim of this Workshop

The workshop is devoted to variational problems in geometry and analysis: minimal surfaces and capillarity, curvature flows, Willmore-type energies and their phase-field approximations, and nonlocal variational models. Its purpose is to bring these strands into contact rather than to treat them separately.

Each of the three main days ends with a session reserved for the PhD students attending, in which the speakers explain the background needed to work in their area — what one has to know, which techniques matter, and where to learn them.

Tentative Program

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
08:50–09:00	Welcome
09:00–09:50	De Luca	Xia		Bi	Müller
09:50–10:40	Kreutz	X. Zhang		Scheuer	Schlierf
10:40–11:10	Coffee	Coffee		Coffee	Coffee
11:10–12:00	Maione	Rupp	excursion	Weng	Piovano
12:00–13:30	Lunch	Lunch	and	Lunch	Lunch
13:30–14:20	Simon	Pan	scientific	Schulz	Closing/discussion
14:20–14:50	Coffee	Coffee	discussions	Coffee
14:50–15:40	M. Zhang	Lussardi		Röger
15:40–16:00	Break	Break		Break
16:00–17:30	PhD session	PhD session		PhD session

Speakers and Titles

Name	Affiliation	Title
Yuchen Bi	Freiburg	Mean-convex smoothing of singular boundaries
Lucia De Luca	Rom	Periodic minimizers for nonlocal interaction energies
Leonard Kreutz	München	Γ-expansion of the Cahn–Hilliard functional with Dirichlet boundary condition
Luca Lussardi	Turin	On a variational model for nematic surfaces
Alberto Maione	Mailand	A variational approach to the homogenization of nonlocal composite materials: H-convergence and Γ-convergence
Marius Müller	Augsburg	Driving a wedge in a Willmore half-sphere
Shujing Pan	Frankfurt	Capillary quermassintegral inequalities in the unit ball
Paolo Piovano	Mailand	Variational modeling of two-phase and multilayer continua
Matthias Röger	Dortmund	On higher order phase field approximations of Willmore energy and mean curvature flow
Fabian Rupp	Wien	Mean curvature flow and calibration energy
Julian Scheuer	Frankfurt	Mean curvature flows in null hypersurfaces and foliations near MOTS
Manuel Schlierf	Salzburg	A Łojasiewicz–Simon method for stability of Willmore-type flows with nonlinear boundary conditions
Mario Schulz	Trient	Minimal surfaces in the sphere and the ball
Theresa Simon	Münster	tba
Liangjun Weng	Pisa	The Gauss curvature flow and its variation
Chao Xia	Xiamen	Anisotropic minimal/CMC hypersurfaces with free boundary
Xuwen Zhang	Freiburg	Regularity of branched stable minimal immersed hypersurfaces
Mingwei Zhang	Freiburg	The sharp curl-Sobolev inequality

Organizers

Simon Blatt (Universität Salzburg)
Patrick Dondl (Universität Freiburg)
Guofang Wang (Universität Freiburg)

Accommodation

Address

Frauenwörth Abbey
Frauenchiemsee Nr. 50
83256 Frauenchiemsee
Germany

Travel Information

Arrival on Sunday
In order not to miss the last ferry – and the welcome/introduction to the program and PhD sessions on Sunday – please make sure to arrive ahead of time. The last passenger ship departs already at 7.30 pm from Prien; there’s another option starting at 9 pm from Gstadt. Please refer to the time table; the destination is “Fraueninsel”. We suggest that you plan on taking an earlier connection. Please be aware of potential delay in train connections. The German rail service is unfortunately rather unreliable. Taxi transfer might not be available at all.

By airplane
International participants are supposed to arrive either in Munich or in Salzburg. Munich airport (F. J. Strauss) is approximately 100 km away from the conference venue. Take the metro (“S-Bahn”) line 8 to Munich-Ostbahnhof and take the Train to Prien; see below. Salzburg airport (W. A. Mozart) is approximately 65 km away. Take the bus or a taxi to Salzburg main station and board the train to Prien; see below.

By train
Prien is on the Salzburg – Munich railway line which is served by regional trains and intercity trains. You can check connections for instance via German Railways.

By bus
You may use also bus connections in order to get to Munich and then continue by regional train.

From Prien to the conference venue
From the train station to the harbor Prien-Stock about 20 minutes walk, alternatively bus, taxi (if available) or Chiemseebahn. The passenger ships to Fraueninsel are take 25 – 35 minutes.

By car
Leave the Motorway A8 Munich – Salzburg at Exit Bernau and continue via Prien in direction Rimsting / Breitbrunn to Gstadt. In Gstadt there are many pay parking lots available. Ships to Fraueninsel take 10 minutes.

Rooms

PhD students and students will be accommodated in double (shared) rooms, please bring your student ID card with you (due to availability of a special reduced rate).

Practical Information

Monastery

The seminar house is an integral part of the Abbey of Frauenwörth and thus belongs to the habitat of a Benedictine community. It is expected that the seminar participants and guests of this monastic environment adapt and behave considerately. The rules expect that after 9.30pm noone may be bothered by noise. Smoking is prohibited throughout the seminar area, including the monastery courtyard. Please note that swimwear may only be worn on the lakeshore, but not in the house or in the Klosterhof. In addition, sleeveless or crop tops, too tight shorts or too short skirts are not desirable.

Wifi

Wifi is available at the seminar area, but can be slow at times. Please do not rely on the availability of high-speed internet.

Meals and grocery

Make sure to bring everything you need as trips off the island might not be possible without missing a substantial part of the summer school. However, there is a tiny supermarket on the island where you can find a limited offer of products of basic needs. Meals will be served by the Klosterwirt restaurant. Upon approval, we kindly ask participants to let us know of any specific dietary requirements.