2021

In the field of mathematics, the University of Münster is among the 75 best universities in the world according to the current "Shanghai Ranking". In a national comparison, Mathematics Münster is ranked among the top four, behind University of Bonn and Humboldt University Berlin.

ECIMT is a week-long conference happening in Münster, aiming to bring together young researchers interested in Model Theory, and to explore interactions between Model Theory and other mathematical fields, most notably Combinatorics, Algebra and Number Theory.

Congratulations, Franziska Jahnke! The North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Arts has accepted her as a new member of the "Junges Kolleg" for young uprising scientists. She is a junior professor at the Mathematical Institute and the Institute for Mathematical Logic and Foundational Research and a member of our Cluster of Excellence Mathematics Münster. [de]

After some organisational obstacles, Anupam Datta, Zhuang Kang and Shervin Sorouri have arrived in Münster and started their studies at Münster University. They are the first international students to receive the new full grant master’s scholarships. In this way, the Cluster of Excellence Mathematics Münster aims to support outstanding young mathematicians and attract them to Münster.

The master's programme in mathematics at the University of Münster has done very well in the current university ranking of the "Centre for Higher Education Development" (CHE) . When it comes to "Study organisation", "Research funds per scientist" and "Publications per scientist", M. Sc. Mathematics Münster was ranked in the top groups. [de]

If you have fun solving questions with a scientific background during Advent, you should click on the WWU Online Advent Calendar [de]. There is also a maths question included! For children, teenagers and school classes there are several online math advent calendars which offer a new tricky puzzle every day.

Last Friday, the second digital maths night took place. Many participants followed until midnight the varied programme that our Cluster of Excellence had prepared together with the "Hausdorff Center for Mathematics", University of Bonn. The hands-on workshops for children and teenagers were also well attended. [de]
 

Scientists of our Cluster of Excellence and the "Hausdorff Center for Mathematics" of the University of Bonn will show in digital workshops and lectures (in German) the fascination of mathematics - from 3 pm to midnight.

We welcome Anna Gusakova to the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science and the Cluster of Excellence Mathematics Münster. She commenced her appointment as a MATHRIX Junior Professor on 1 September 2021. Her major research area is Stochastic Geometry.

Between July and November this year, two junior professors, 20 postdocs and 17 doctoral students from more than 15 nations started at Mathematics Münster. At a digital Welcome Event they got some helpful information - and some real coffee afterwards.

Since January 2021, Prof. David Kerr has been member of the Cluster of Excellence Mathematics Münster and has been teaching and carrying out research at the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science. His research focuses on ergodic theory and operator algebras. In this new portrait you will learn more about his field of research, career and intellectual passion - beyond mathematics.

This year, the "Hochschultag Münster" will once again take place online. Some members of Mathematics Münster will offer first insights into mathematical topics for high school students. Prof. Dr. André Schlichting, Prof. Dr. Anna Siffert, Prof. Dr. Martin Huesmann and Prof. Dr. Ralf Schindler will present short online lectures (in German).
 

Artificial intelligence has long been part of our everyday lives. In the current issue of the university newspaper "wissen I leben", scientists from various fields shed light on the potential and problems that AI brings with it. Research projects by Mathematics Münster's researchers are also part of the focus topic. [de, page 4]

At the retreat of our graduate school MMGS, 30 young researchers got the opportunity to make new mathematical and social contacts. Exchange, discussions, short scientific talks, a workshop on rethorical skills and hikes around the venue in Brilon - the programme was very varied.
 

The recently published "DFG Förderatlas 2021" shows that the University of Münster is strong in attracting third-party funding. Regarding the subject of mathematics, the University of Münster ranks fourth among German universities, behind University of Bonn, TU Berlin and University of Bielefeld. The current edition of the "Förderatlas" covers the period from 2017 to 2019. [de]

We welcome Dr Claude Warnick (University of Cambridge) as a Münster Research Fellow. He is mainly known for his papers on asymptotically anti-de Sitter space times and developing a rigorous theory of quasinormal modes for a large class of black hole spacetimes. During his stay in Münster from 1 October to 31 December 2021, he will collaborate with Prof. Dr. Gustav Holzegel and other researchers of the Cluster.

This school is targeted at anyone interested to apply model order reduction in their work using pyMOR. The school will consist of both introductory lectures to model order reduction and pyMOR as well as programming sessions. Participants are encouraged to bring their own problems to work on. Basic knowledge of Python and packages from the SciPy stack (NumPy, SciPy, matplotlib) is assumed.

Viele Interessiere folgten am 27. September dem Livestream, in dem Prof. Dr. Anna Siffert zum Thema "Rund ist besser als eckig: das isoperimetrische Problem" sprach und live auf Publikumsfragen einging. Wer den Termin verpasst hat oder sich den Vortrag plus Fragerunde noch einmal anhören möchte, findet nun die Video-Aufzeichnung auf unseren Webseiten und in unserem YouTube-Kanal "Mathematics Münster".

The joint Annual Conference of the German Mathematical Society DMV and the Austrian Mathematical Society ÖMG will take place from 27 September to 1 October 2021 in a virtual format. One of the keynote lectures will be given by Prof. Dr. Angela Stevens from Mathematics Münster on Wednesday, 29 September, 9 am. She will talk about the important tools that mathematics has developed since more than 100 years for the understanding of epidemics. Phenomena like epidemic waves will be discussed as well as actual data.

In recent years, motivic techniques have been applied in several branches of representation theory, for example in geometric and modular representation theory. The goal of this workshop is to bring together researchers in these areas in order to foster new synergies in topics such as foundational aspects of the theory of motives, Tate motives on varieties of representation-theoretic origin, motivic aspects of the Langlands program, and motives of classifying spaces.

Prof. Dr. Anna Siffert zeigt anschaulich und allgemeinverständlich, was es mit dem isoperimetrischen Problem auf sich hat, das bereits in der Antike als "Problem der Dido" bekannt war. Sie stellt Anwendungen in der Ökologie sowie Physik vor und erläutert, welche Rolle das Thema in der modernen mathematischen Forschung spielt. Zum Livestream des Online-Vortrags am Montag, 27. September 2021, 19:30 Uhr, sind alle Interessierten herzlich eingeladen.

Congratulations to all doctoral students of Mathematics Münster who completed their dissertation in the past months. All the best for your future: Yannic Bröker, Tobias Leibner, Ramona Sasse, Hauke Hendrik Seidel, Divya Sharma, Markus Zeggel (né Schmetkamp)!

We welcome Prof. Nadia Larsen (University of Oslo) as a Münster Research Fellow. She is a highly renowned expert in operator algebras, in particular in semigroup C*-algebras and their equilibrium states. During her stay in Münster from 2 September to 24 November 2021, she will collaborate with several researchers at Mathematics Münster.

The scope of this workshop is to offer an overview of modern themes in Analysis on singular spaces, such as deep structured learning, numerical analysis, analysis on metric measure spaces and calculus of variations and partial differential equations.

Bridging the gaps between mathematical disciplines is a main goal of our Cluster. Prof. Dr. Peter Schneider, investigator at Mathematics Münster, is contributing to this strategic aim. At the conference "Branching from number theory: p-adics in the sciences" (30 August - 03 September 2021) of the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, he will give a mini-course on "Local p-adic analysis".

The members of the "Gemeinsame Wissenschaftskonferenz" (Joint Science Conference) have been convinced by the innovative concept for the research building "Centre of Mathematics Münster". After the "Wissenschaftsrat" (Science Council) recommended funding in April, it is now assured. The federal government and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia will support the project with around 31 million euros. Construction work will begin in spring 2022. [de]
 

Recently, the new journal "Model Theory" was launched and is now welcoming submissions. It is published by the nonprofit Mathematical Sciences Publishers (MSP). The editors-in-chief are Prof. Dr. Martin Hils from Mathematics Münster and Prof. Rahim Moosa (University of Waterloo).

In February, a film crew visited Mathematics Münster to shoot a short video about Gustav Holzegel, the new Humboldt Professor at the University of Münster. The video - including insights into his research and pictures of our deeply snow-covered department - has now been published on YouTube by the Humboldt Foundation. [de]
 

This workshop intends to be a first meeting point for specialists and young researchers active in noncommutative geometry, free probability, and topological recursion. We plan to run the workshop in hybrid form with a considerable number of participants present in Münster and video transmission to the outside world.

YMC*A is an annual conference organised for and by master/PhD students and postdocs in operator algebras and related areas, with the goal of fostering scientific and social interaction between young researchers. YMC*A 2021 has taken place in Münster in a hybrid format with online participation over Zoom and a limited number of participants present in Münster.

The purpose of the meeting is to study relationships between local and global invariants in Riemannian Geometry. Our intention is to bring together experts in the field as well as young mathematicians. The programme of the Workshop is structured so that beyond the lectures there will be many opportunities for intensive discussions.

WWU Münster is a partner of the "Mathematical Research Data Initiative" (MaRDI). MaRDI aims to enable the sustainable utilisation of mathematical research data. The consortium includes 25 partners (universities and research institutes, science infrastructure institutions, clusters of excellence as well as the German Mathematical Society DMV, and the European Mathematical Society EMS). It is coordinated by the Weierstrass Institute for Applied Analysis and Stochastics (WIAS) in Berlin. MaRDI will be funded as a consortium over a period of 5 years as of October 2021.

In May David Asperó and Ralf Schindler published their proof on a question from the 1990s about the relationship of two prominent axioms of set theory which both decide how many real numbers there are. Now Natalie Wolchover reports for the Quanta Magazine on the proof, its relevance and history.

The Cuntz semigroup is a geometric refinement of K-theory that was introduced by Cuntz in the 1970s in his pioneering work on the structure of simple C*-algebras. This powerful invariant has seen many applications in the structure and classification theory of C*-algebras. Recently, it has also become clear that Cuntz semigroups are interesting objects of study in their own right. This workshop will bring together researchers that are interested in the different aspects of Cuntz semigroups in areas such as C*-algebras, dynamical systems, and model theory.

Eduard Vilalta joins our Cluster as a Young Research Fellow from 11 to 25 July 2021. He is a doctoral student at the UAB Barcelona and is working on establishing connections between structural properties of C*-algebras and their categories of Hilbert modules (Cuntz semigroups). During his visit in Münster, he is collaborating with Dr. Eusebio Gardella and Dr. Hannes Thiel (TU Dresden).

Dr. Kilian Raschel (CNRS, Université de Tours and Université d'Orléans) joins our Cluster as a Münster Research Fellow from 7 to 31 July 2021. He works on the connections between combinatorics and probability, a principal topic being random walks in cones seen from a combinatorial and a probabilistic point of view.

Ass.-Prof. Dr. Martin Holler (University of Graz) will join our Cluster as Young Research Fellow from 9 July to 9 August 2021. His field of research is the mathematics of inverse problems and data science. "I am looking forward to the excellent research environment in Münster and to a productive time", says Martin Holler.

Dr. Tristan Ozuch (MIT) visits our Cluster as Young Research Fellow from 1 July to 8 August 2021. His research is focused on geometric analysis and particularly on Einstein manifolds and Ricci flows. "I look forward to interacting with the local world experts in my field and to visit Germany and Münster for the first time," says Tristan Ozuch.

Postdocs are a vital part of the Mathematics Münster research community. "In order to support the young scientists in their development and to strengthen their independence, we have now established a postdoc programme," says Prof. Dr. Tim de Laat, speaker of the Early Career Committee of the Cluster of Excellence Mathematics Münster. The core of the programme is the Postdoc Mentoring.

On 1 July 2021, Prof. Dr. Bernold Fiedler (FU Berlin) will give a talk entitled "On meanders" at the Colloquium Wilhelm Killing. The talk is dedicated to Prof. Dr. Angela Stevens on her birthday. It takes place at 4:30 pm via Zoom. The virtual tea time starts this time at 4:00 pm.

The conference will be organised as a hybrid event: Several talks will be given on site, the other talks will be delivered virtually. All the talks will be broadcast on Zoom.

Beim "Langen Abend der Studienberatung" bietet der Fachbereich Mathematik und Informatik digitale Informationen und Einblicke für Studieninteressierte. Prof. Dr. Matthias Löwe gibt mit seinem Vortrag "Ich habe ein Geheimnis - Zero Knowledge Proofs" einen kleinen Vorgeschmack auf Mathematik-Vorlesungen. Die Fachstudienberatung steht per Zoom für Fragen zu den Studiengängen zur Verfügung.

Ambrus Pál (Imperial College London) joins Mathematics Münster as a Münster Research Fellow. He is an international leading expert in the theory of p-adic cohomologies and function field arithmetic. During his research visit from 1 June until 15 July 2021, he will work with Prof. Dr. Urs Hartl on the projects "Crystalline Chebotarëv Density Theorems" and "Arithmetic Fundamental Lemmas over Function Fields".

Last year, the Felix Klein Prize was awarded to Prof. Dr. Arnulf Jentzen. The prize lectures have been postponed and will now take place during the virtual 8th European Congress of Mathematics. On Friday, 25 June, 2:50 pm, Arnulf Jentzen will give his talk "Overcoming the curse of dimensionality: from nonlinear Monte Carlo to deep learning". Everybody who is interested can attend the talk via Zoom.

On 28 June 2021, 14:00-18:00, an online workshop "PDE and Numerical Mathematics" is organised by the Mathematics Departments of the Universities of Münster and Twente. Please contact Mario Ohlberger via mario.ohlberger@uni-muenster.de if you are interested to join.

A great success! In the field of mathematics, the University of Münster is among the 50 best universities in the world according to the current "Shanghai Ranking". In a national comparison, Mathematics Münster is ranked in second place behind the University of Bonn.

Despite the Corona pandemic, the Cluster of Excellence Mathematics Münster is attracting a high number of scientists from all over the world. Dr. Bakul Sathaye from India, Dr. Tingxiang Zou from China and Dr. Christopher Kauffman from the USA are three of 29 international postdocs currently undertaking their research at Mathematics Münster. In guest articles and interviews, the three postdocs share their passion for mathematics and provide insight into their careers and and feelings throughout the pandemic in Münster.

Eva Viehmann is awarded a great honour: the National Academy of Sciences, Leopoldina, has recently appointed her as a new member. In doing so, the Academy acknowledges her outstanding scientific achievements.

The "International Women in Maths Day" on 12 May is a great opportunity to celebrate women in mathematics and make their achievements more visible. At Mathematics Münster, we are celebrating digitally with several virtual events throughout the month of May: scientific talks, social events, workshops and more. Everybody who is interested is invited to a free streaming of the inspiring documentary "Julia Robinson and Hilbert's Tenth Problem".
 

Antje Dabeler, Azul Fatalini, Martina Fruttidoro und Julia Schleuß are PhD researchers at our Cluster of Excellence Mathematics Münster. For today's “International Women in Maths Day”, we asked the four mathematicians in the video: "What has been the most important maths moment for you so far?".

Many subjects at the University of Münster have done very well in the current university ranking of the "Centre for Higher Education Development" (CHE) - including mathematics. When it comes to e.g. "General study situation", "Support at the beginning of studies" and "Research funds per scientist", Münster University's mathematics was ranked in the top groups. [de]

Prof. Dr. Annalisa Massaccesi (Università Degli Studi Di Padova) will give a talk entitled "Multi-material transport problems" on 6 May 2021, via Zoom. The talk takes place at 4:30 pm. The virtual tea time starts at 4:15 pm.

Congratulations to all PhD students of Mathematics Münster who completed their dissertation in the past months. All the best for your future: Julia Brunken, Nils Arne Dreier, Ina Humpert, Matthias Kemper, Marcel Dominique Koch, Timo Siebenand and Michael Wenske!

The innovative concept drawn up by the Centre of Mathematics Münster (CMM) completely won over the German Council of Science and Humanities, which has now designated the planned research building as a particularly outstanding project.

Das war der Girls' Day 2021: Am 22. April nahmen 17 Schülerinnen aus ganz Deutschland am digitalen Angebot des Exzellenzclusters Mathematik Münster und des Fachbereichs Mathematik und Informatik teil. Die Mischung aus Informationen aus erster Hand und Mitmach-Aktionen kam gut an.

Only a few days left: Until May 1st you can apply for a doctoral position or an Ada Lovelace Fellowship at the Cluster of Excellence Mathematics Münster and the Mathematical Institutes.

Postdoc Dr. Giles Gardam, postdoc at Mathematics Münster, has recently disproved an 80 year old algebra conjecture. Now Erica Klarreich, a renowned science journalist, has reported on his counterexample and its great significance for the research area.

Around 160 participants watched the livestream with Prof. Dr. Benedikt Wirth talking about mathematics and medical imaging. If you have missed the livestream or would like to listen to the lecture again, you will find the video recording (in German) on our websites.

"Mathematics for a Better World" - this is the theme of this year's International Day of Mathematics. A good example is medical progress: mathematics makes important contributions, for example for medical imaging. Get some insights into this research topic of Mathematics Münster - and join the global online celebration!

The video series “What’s Next? Junior Researchers at Münster University” takes a closer look at nine PhD students and postdocs at the University of Münster. One of them is Marco Mauritz, PhD student at Mathematics Münster. He presents his research topic and explains why mathematics is important for medical imaging and the development of cancer treatments. [de]

We welcome Prof. Hans-Joachim Hein to the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science and the Cluster of Excellence Mathematics Münster. In October he moved from Fordham University, New York, to the University of Münster in order to take up a professorship in Theoretical Mathematics. He carries out research in the field of differential geometry and partial differential equations.

Today's International Women's Day is a good opportunity to draw attention to some interesting and inspiring links:

Moderne Technik erlaubt den Blick in den Körper, ohne ihn zu öffnen. Es wird sozusagen berechnet, wie der Mensch von innen aussieht. Um die entsprechenden Technologien zu entwickeln, bedurfte es einiger fundamentaler mathematischer Erkenntnisse. Einen Einblick gibt Prof. Dr. Benedikt Wirth in seinem Online-Vortrag "Blick in den Körper: Über das Inverse und medizinische Bildgebung" am Mittwoch, 24. März 2021, 19:30 Uhr, im Livestream. Alle Interessierten sind herzlich eingeladen.

The Kaplansky conjectures are three long-standing open problems on the group rings of torsion-free groups. Last week, Dr. Giles Gardam, postdoc in Mathematics Münster's topology group, announced that he succeeded to disprove the strongest of these three conjectures, namely the unit conjecture. In this interview, he tells us what fascinates him about the conjecture, how he came to his findings, and how the research community reacted. 

To be world chess champion – that was the plan when he was just eight years old. Although Gustav Holzegel did not achieve his aim, he can still be satisfied. The mathematician is a recognised expert in the field of General Relativity and has undertaken research at leading international institutes. Since November he has been a professor at the University of Münster supported by a recently awarded a Humboldt professorship, the most valuable research award in Germany.

The scope of the Winterschool is to offer an overview of modern themes in Applied Mathematics, ranging from modeling issues in physics and materials science to their mathematical analysis by means of advanced techniques in the theory of PDEs and the Calculus of Variations. Speakers are Andrea Braides (Rome), Lucia Scardia (Edinburgh) and Ulisse Stefanelli (Vienna).

Do you already know the project “PhD to PhD” and “Postdoc to PhD”? In this interview series initiated by the Mathematics Münster Graduate School (MMGS), young researchers share their experiences and talk about their topics and academic background. The most recent contributions are from Kevin Poljsak (PhD) and Dr. Sahana H. Balasubramanya (postdoc).

We welcome Prof. Dr. André Schlichting to the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science and to the Cluster of Excellence Mathematics Münster. He took up a professorship in Applied Mathematics in November. His research topics include partial differential equations and numerical as well as stochastic analysis. The research questions he works on touch on thermodynamics, diffusion processes, chemical reactions, machine learning and variational methods.

Congratulations, Eugen Hellmann! He has been awarded the WWU Research Prize 2020 for his outstanding achievements. The mathematician, investigator at Mathematics Münter, is one of the world’s leading specialists in the field of arithmetic geometry. The eulogy and can be seen in the recording of the digital New Year's reception [de] on YouTube, as can find a video [de] with insights into Eugen Hellmann's research.
 

We welcome Prof. Hans-Joachim Hein to the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science and the Cluster of Excellence Mathematics Münster. In October he moved from Fordham University, New York, to the University of Münster in order to take up a professorship in Theoretical Mathematics. He carries out research in the field of differential geometry and partial differential equations.