Welcome,

It is an honor and pleasure to present to you today the second BMS newsletter 2008. The summer term has been very exciting for the Berlin Mathematical School:

We welcomed our new colleague Elisabeth Schwidtal, to the One-Stop Office team, and we celebrated the opening of the new FU Lounge for the BMS - just to mention some of the highlights.

We hope you will enjoy the following topics. Please feel free to forward this to anyone interested in Mathematics.

Sincerely yours,

Professor Jürg Kramer
Chair of the Berlin Mathematical School

Inside BMS: Anna von Pippich Reports from the BMS

BMS student Anna von Pippich tells us from her experience in Berlin: "For two years now, I have been a Ph.D. student at the BMS working on a dissertation in the theory of automorphic forms...

Financially, I am supported by a scholarship from the International DFG Research Training Group “Arithmetic and Geometry”, a joint project of HU Berlin and ETH/University Zurich. In our weekly “graduate seminar” we meet to either study a specific topic chosen by the graduate students or to report on the progress of our individual work. I benefit a lot from the interesting and fruitful scientific discussions in this seminar. A highlight not only from the scientific point of view is the annual summer school, bringing together doctoral students and faculty members of HU Berlin and ETH/University Zurich. A valuable experience within the joint graduate program were the six months I spent at ETH Zurich.

What I like particularly about the BMS are the BMS Fridays: the lectures give insights into various topics of mathematics and are all very enlightening and motivating for my view towards mathematics. In addition, it is a wonderful opportunity to meet Ph.D. students working in other areas of mathematics before the BMS Fridays lectures. Worth mentioning is also the Kovalevskaya lunch where the female students have the possibility to talk in a relaxed atmosphere to women mathematicians who have been highly successful in their career. All in all, the BMS provides a great and very supportive platform for my Ph.D. project and I am very happy to be part of this dynamic and inspiring mathematical community."

Be Part of the Berlin Experience!

Curious about our program? Interested in Mathematics? Would you like to study in Germany's capital city? If you like to join our program in October 2009, please find further information below.

The new application period will start on September 1st and will end on December 31st for admission with scholarships for the 2009/10 academic year (winter semester 2009/10 and summer semester 2010). As the BMS aims to have 50% of its student body to be female we especially encourage women to apply!

Applicants who hold a bachelor’s degree or equivalent can enter the BMS Phase I, in which they will complete five courses on a master’s level within 3 to 4 semesters. For students who are further advanced, part of the Phase I course requirements may be waived. Advisors will be allocated according to the areas of interest given in the application.

Applicants seeking to start their Ph.D. project immediately by entering the BMS Phase II are expected to hold a master’s degree or equivalent, or must pass the BMS Qualifying Exams and meet the regular admission requirements of the Berlin universities' Ph.D. programs. Phase II applicants are expected to name a advisor in their application.

Life in Berlin: The Opening of the BMS Lounge at FU

After the opening of the BMS Lounge at HU some months ago, eventually the lounge at FU open its doors for the BMS students.

It took almost a year from the first planning stages to the grand opening. But on July 11 the BMS could proudly celebrate the opening of the joint BMS and Matheon Lounge at FU Berlin. After the HU Lounge was opened last November, the lounge at FU is the second of the three BMS lounges to be completed.

Different in character from the HU lounge, the center of the lounge at FU have is the small kitchen with a full-service coffee machine and the surrounding common area with access to the outdoor terrace. Next to the lounge there are computer labs, seminar and study rooms for the BMS students and Matheon researchers. Starting in the upcoming winter semester 2008/09, the BMS One-Stop Office will have regular office hours there. The FU Lounge is located on the ground floor of the “pi-building” in Arnimallee 6 at the FU campus in Dahlem.

Honoring Prof. Föllmer

We have exciting news to share: BMS faculty member Professor Hans Föllmer was appointed as "Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large" at Cornell University. 

At any one time, twenty outstanding intellectuals from across the globe hold the title of Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large and are considered full members of the Cornell faculty. During the six-year term of appointment, each Professor-at-Large visits the campus three or four times for a period ranging from one to two weeks under a single mandate - to enliven the intellectual and cultural life of the university. Congratulations, Professor Föllmer! Here you can visit the Webpage of the "Andrew D. White Professors-at-Large" at Cornell University.

Did You Know? Mathmatics and Keltis...

Simple, exciting, and cooperative: In Germany the Game of the Year 2008 has been named. But what has it to do with maths?

What do the Tigris and Euphrates, the Taj Mahal, Modern Art, and The Lord of the Rings all have in common? They have all won the German Game of the Year Award and they all share the same creator. Do you know wer war’s? Here is another hint: He just won two more German Game of the Year Awards for 2008, one for his game Keltis and one for his children’s game Wer War’s. The answer is the mathematician Reiner Knizia.

Knizia was born in Germany in 1957 and recalls having invented his first game at around the age of six. Years later, Knizia studied mathematics at the University of Ulm and went on to receive a M.Sc. in mathematics from the University of Syracuse in the United States. He returned to Ulm to write his doctoral thesis on the characterization of multi-dimensional Perron-Integrals.

After his studies, Knizia worked as a quantitative analyst until he turned full-time game developer in 1997. Despite other employment over the years, Knizia never lost his passion for creating games. Beginning in the mid 1980s, he began developing professionally and since then is the proud father of over 400 games.

The German Game of the Year Title was first awarded in 1978. In 2001, the competition was broadened to include a category for children’s games, which target children five to six years of age. The aim of the award is to encourage game playing as a cultural and family pastime. Knizia’s most recent game, Keltis, received the honor of being named German Game of the Year on June 30th, making it is fifth title in this category. Knizia also won the German Children’s Game of the Year Award this year for the first time in his career.

The award has many advantages beyond just the title. Game fans often pay close attention to such tributes and commonly purchase award winning games. An award winning game usually sells between 2,000 and 400,000 exemplars.

Keltis is an exciting board game involving cards and stones to race towards the finish line. Critics commended the simple game rules. A game lasts about 30 minutes as players battle each other along five racecourses. The children’s game, Wer war’s, gives kids the chance to play detective in the search for a thief, while combining board game and electronics. Both games were praised by the jury as an exciting pastime for the whole family, children as well as adults.

New Faces at the BMS: Elisabeth Schwidtal

The BMS is happy to welcome its newest staff member, Elisabeth Schwidtal. From June 2008 onwards she reinforces the One-Stop office at the TU Berlin.

Hello! My name is Elisabeth Schwidtal and I joined the BMS One-Stop Office in June.

I am the TU liaison in our group and your contact for TU enrollment questions. I am also your contact person in the BMS group for Summer Schools, so right now I am working on the 2008 Summer School in September.

Besides this, I do some central administration work concerning finances. I am very pleased to be here, and am looking forward to meeting everyone!

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