BMS Days | 17–18 February 2025

The BMS Days 2025 took place on 17 and 18 February at Urania Berlin, bringing together invited BMS applicants from around the world. We were delighted to welcome 28 outstanding Phase I applicants from 15 different countries, each invited to experience a full week in Berlin.

The event kicked off on Sunday morning with a welcome session, organized by the BMS Student Representatives.


Throughout the week, applicants were introduced to the BMS graduate program, met potential supervisors, and gained insight into life as a graduate student in Berlin. The BMS Days not only allowed the Admissions Committee to conduct in-person interviews but also gave applicants a glimpse into the academic opportunities at BMS.

Applicants also had the chance to connect with current BMS students and faculty members. As always, the program included an overview of the BMS graduate program, Q&A sessions, and mathematical talks delivered by MATH+ faculty members. For those unable to travel to Berlin, an online info session was held on 13 February, providing applicants with the opportunity to ask questions about BMS and studying in Berlin.

    

The mathematical lectures were given by Falk Hante (HU Berlin), Anna Maria Hartkopf (FU Berlin), Marc Kegel (HU Berlin), Alexandra Wesolek (TU Berlin), Hanno Gottschalk (TU Berlin), and Max von Kleist (FU Berlin).

    
Falk Hante / © David Ausserhofer                                                                    Anna Maria Hartkopf / © David Ausserhofer     


BMS Student Conference | 19–21 February 2025

Following the BMS Days, the BMS Student Conference took place from 19 to 21 February at TU Berlin. The conference featured invited speakers Claudia Totzeck (U Wuppertal) and Marita Thomas (FU Berlin), as well as several BMS students who presented their research. Attendees enjoyed a diverse program showcasing the breadth of Berlin’s mathematical landscape, with BMS students delivering talks on various topics and sharing their research projects.

    
BMS Student Conference / © Apratim Choudhury

The highlight of the week, as always, was the traditional “Wine & Cheese” on 20 February bringing everyone together in a relaxed atmosphere.

To wrap up the event with a special occasion, BMS Alumni were invited to speak about career opportunities after Phase I or Phase II of the BMS program on 21 February.

Overall, the BMS Days and Student Conference were a great success, offering both formal and informal opportunities for networking and engagement. We hope to welcome many of our guests back in the fall as they begin their BMS careers!

On 4 December 2024, Freie Universität Berlin celebrated its founding in 1948 with the annual “Ernst Reuter Day 2024.” During the event, Helena Kremp, an alumna of the Berlin Mathematical School (BMS) and a 2023 doctoral graduate of Freie Universität Berlin, was awarded the prestigious “Ernst Reuter Prize” for her exceptional dissertation. Congratulations!

The ceremonial event, held in the Henry Ford Building, marked the university’s 76th anniversary and featured the presentation of the “Ernst Reuter Prize.” Since its establishment in 1985, the award has been sponsored by the Ernst-Reuter-Gesellschaft (ERG) to honor outstanding doctoral dissertations from young researchers at Freie Universität. Each year, up to four dissertations are recognized—ideally one per subject group—with recipients selected through a competitive process. Eligible dissertations must be graded “summa cum laude”, and each prize includes a €10,000 award. The fourth subject group encompasses fields such as Mathematics and Computer Science, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Pharmacy, and Geosciences.

Helena Kremp earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin before joining Freie Universität as a BMS PhD student under the supervision of Nicolas Perkowski. She contributed to the MATH+ project group “Stochastic Analysis of Particle Systems: Langevin Dynamics and the Dean-Kawasaki Model” in the Life Sciences application area. Kremp completed her PhD in April 2023 with her award-winning dissertation, “Topics in Particle Systems and Singular SDEs.” Following her doctorate, she began a postdoctoral position at TU Vienna and, as of December 2024, has returned to Berlin. She now works as a PostDoc within the CRC/TRR388 project “Rough Analysis, Stochastic Dynamics, and Related Fields” at both TU Berlin and the Weierstrass Institute for Applied Analysis and Stochastics (WIAS).

The laudatory speech for Helena Kremp was delivered by Hermann Kreutzmann, chairman of the Ernst Reuter Prize selection committee. Portrait videos of the four awardees from different subject groups were presented during the ceremony, followed by a keynote lecture by Jutta Allmendinger, former president of the Social Science Research Center (WZB). Other prominent attendees included Günter M. Ziegler, president of Freie Universität Berlin, and Matthias Dannenberg, chairman of the Ernst-Reuter-Gesellschaft.


Reflecting on the honor, Kremp shared: “It is a great honor for me to be awarded with such an important prize, which has been granted every year since 1985 on Freie Universität’s foundation day. The award ceremony was also a special experience, as I had the opportunity to meet the three other award winners from different subject groups and learn about their remarkable research. I feel deeply grateful for the unwavering support from my supervisor Nicolas, my family, and my friends, who made it possible for me to focus entirely on my PhD research.”

Her supervisor Nicolas Perkowski praised her work: “Helena’s thesis is an impressive contribution to the field of stochastic and rough analysis. Throughout her doctoral studies, I was struck by her technical strength, breadth, productivity and deep understanding of complex methods. She established several results that I had previously struggled to prove. Her contributions to singular diffusions and to interacting particle systems is already shaping and inspiring new research. I am incredibly proud to see her recognized with the Ernst-Reuter Prize and look forward to her future contributions to mathematics.“

The BMS and MATH+ staff mourns the death of our student assistant Hannah Rohwer. She was studying Scientific Computing towards a master's degree at TU Berlin and had previously completed her Bachelor's degree in Mathematics at U Münster where she also worked for the cluster of excellence "Mathematik Münster". She was an incredibly kind and intelligent person who is dearly missed. We are thinking of her family and friends and everyone who knew her. Our shock and grief can hardly be put into words.

Since 2001, the Forschungsverbund Berlin (FVB) has annually presented the “Marthe Vogt Award” to young female scientists who have completed outstanding dissertations in scientific fields represented by FVB within the Berlin and Brandenburg region. This year, Alexandra Quitmann, an alumna of the Berlin Mathematical School (BMS), who graduated in 2023, was honored for her exceptional thesis. Congratulations!

On 7 November 2024, the "Marthe Vogt Award" was conferred during a festive ceremony at the Leibniz Headquarters in Berlin on Dr. Alexandra Quitmann and Dr. Sara Hetzel. Alexandra Quitmann completed her bachelor’s and master’s studies at the Universität Münster before moving to Berlin to pursue her research as a BMS student at the Weierstrass Institute for Applied Analysis and Stochastics (WIAS) under the supervision of Wolfgang König. She was also part of the International Research Training Group Berlin-Oxford (IRTG) 2544 “Stochastic Analysis in Interaction” and earned her PhD from the Technische Universität Berlin in October 2023 with the award-winning thesis on “Phase Transitions in Random Loop Models.” The laudatory speech in her honor was given by Michael Hintermüller, Director of WIAS, professor at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, and former MATH+ Chair. Stefan Eisebitt, spokesperson of the Executive Board of Forschungsverbund Berlin, welcomed the attendees, while Micha Klapp, State Secretary for Labor and Equality, served as the keynote speaker.

Alexandra Quitmann is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher at La Sapienza University in Rome. Reflecting on the prestigious award, Quitmann said: “The Marthe Vogt Award is a great honor and special recognition of my work, particularly since the proportion of female researchers in my field, mathematical physics, remains very low to this day. It is extremely fascinating to capture and precisely describe complex physical phenomena mathematically. I am also deeply grateful for the close supervision and the numerous international experiences from my research stays in Rome and Oxford.” In her dissertation, “Phase Transitions in Random Loop Models,” she investigated the interacting Bose gas, one of the most active yet insufficiently understood areas of research in mathematical physics. Together with her primary supervisor, Lorenzo Taggi (initially at WIAS, now in Rome), Alexandra Quitmann adapted the method of reflection positivity to a variant of the Bose gas. This allowed them to answer a crucial question regarding the existence of a very long loops in this loop ensemble. This represents the first successful treatment of an interacting model of this type and can rightfully be considered a breakthrough.

Wolfgang König, her supervisor at WIAS, praised her work: “Throughout Alexandra Quitmann’s doctoral studies, it was a pleasure to witness her deep commitment to the topic and her relentless determination. She never gave up, constantly pushing forward until she succeeded. This remarkable perseverance has now been justly rewarded. I believe she has solved an extraordinary problem. Starting this project amidst the pandemic required a high degree of independence and discipline, which she mastered exceptionally well; I find that truly impressive.”

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The Marthe Vogt Award is conferred annually on an outstanding young female scientist for her excellent thesis in a field represented by the institutes of the Forschungsverbund Berlin (FVB). Notably, the research need not have been conducted at an FVB institute. The research fields covered include, but are not limited to, Molecular Pharmacology, Structural Biology and Chemical Biology, Advanced Materials, Aquatic Ecology and Biodiversity Research, Biology, Veterinary Medicine and Environmental Research, Nanomaterials, Quantum Materials, Optoelectronics and Materials Science, Laser Research and Light-Matter Interaction, as well as Applied Mathematics. The doctoral dissertation must have been completed at a non-university research facility or a university in the Berlin and Brandenburg region.

Marthe Vogt (1903–2003) conducted pioneer research on neurotransmitters and worked at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Hirnforschung in Berlin-Buch, now location of the Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP). She is an academic and personal role model for this award. Due to national policies against Jewish scientists, she left Germany in 1935 and continued her research in Great Britain.