Jan Mohring studied industrial mathematics in Kaiserslautern (Germany), Eindhoven (Netherlands), and Bologna (Italy). His Diploma and PhD theses (1992/96) deal with the numerical treatment of transport equations turning up in gas dynamics and semiconductor device simulation. Since 1997 he is member of the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics (Fraunhofer ITWM) and coordinates the field of continuum mechanical product and process design. His special expertise is in non-linear acoustics and model reduction for systems originally described by partial differential equations, which leads to state space descriptions applicable in control and optimisation. In 2006 he participated in the following projects related to acoustics and model reduction: !InMAR (IP on intelligent materials for active noise reduction) and Audio-visuelles Virtual-Reality-Darstellungssystem für simulierte Schallfelder (Stiftung Rheinland-Pfalz für Innovation). Moreover, he led several projects together with the loudspeaker company KS-Beschallungstechnik (Hettenleidelheim). In particular, the PhD thesis of J. Jegorovs on the Optimal Shape of a Bass Reflex Tube, which will be finished in October 2006, resulted from this collaboration.