At Bielefeld University he completed his PhD in 1982 under Ludwig Elsner[1] and his Habilitation in 1987 with a dissertation on control theory.

From January 2011 to December 2013 he was president of the Gesellschaft für Angewandte Mathematik und Mechanik (GAMM).

In 2011 he received from the European Research Council (ERC) an advanced grant for modeling, simulation, and control of multiphysics systems.

Mehrmann's research deals with numerical linear algebra, differential-algebraic equations, and control theory.

Volker Mehrmann is on the editorial staffs of several journals, including Linear Algebra and Its Applications and Numerische Mathematik.