The Institute for Experimental Mathematics (IEM) was founded, with the support of the Volkswagen Foundation, as a central scientific facility of the former University of Essen, now University of Duisburg-Essen in 1989. With the addition of the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation Chair on 1 January 1999, the Institute was expanded in the area of Computer Networking Technology. A.J. Han Vinck is currently the Institute's managing director.
The primary objective of the Institute is to foster interactions between the fields of mathematics, computer science and the engineering sciences. Mathematicians, computer experts and telecommunications engineers are engaged in trans-disciplinary collaboration under one roof. The main areas of research are discrete mathematics, number theory, digital communication, and computer networking technology.