I studied mathematics in Braunschweig, Germany, 1986-1990, got my PhD there in 1992, held an assistantship in Greifswald. I joined the theoretical computer science group at the Free University Berlin in 1997, became Heisenberg Research Fellow of the German National Science Foundation (DFG) in 1998, and joined the City College of New York in 2002 as an associate professor, then professor. From 2021 to 2025 I served as program director at the National Science Foundation, mainly for Algorithmic Foundations, Robotics, and REU Sites.

• Ph.D. (Mathematics), Technical University Braunschweig, 1992.
• M.Sc. (Mathematics),  Technical University Braunschweig, 1990.

regularly taught

• Algorithms (undergraduate and graduate)

sometimes taught

• Advanced Data Structures (not any more, because CUNY disapproves teaching using one's own book)
• Computational Geometry
• Discrete Math

My research career started in mathematics, mainly discrete geometry, and extremal combinatorics, then I moved to computer science, especially algorithms. I am interested and have published papers in topics that touch algorithms and geometry, like computational geometry, sensor networks, and robotics. But my most recent interest is institutional history, of the school of engineering, and the NSF, and recent history of computer science of engineering: progress moves fast, and even recent history easily disappears.

Books:

• Peter Brass: History of NSF CISE 2000--2025: in preparation.
• Peter Brass: History of Engineering at the City College of New York, kdp 2020
• Peter Brass: Advanced Data Structures, Cambridge University Press 2008.
• Peter Brass, William Moser, Janos Pach: Research Problems in Discrete Geometry, Springer 2005

For a list of my papers, check dblp