In cooperation with the Einstein Foundation Berlin, the Berlin Mathematical School (BMS) of the Cluster of Excellence MATH+ awards up to three annual prizes for outstanding dissertations to BMS graduates. We are delighted to announce that the MATH+ Dissertation Award 2022 have been presented to Dr. Luzie Helfmann, Dr. Patrick Morris, and Dr. Yizheng Yuan for their excellent theses. Congratulations!

Luzie Helfmann

After High School (Abitur), Luzie Helfmann moved from Germany to England to study Mathematics and Physics at the University College London from 2012 to 2016. Upon returning to Berlin, she enrolled at Freie Universität Berlin (FU Berlin) to obtain her Master’s degree in Mathematics, successfully graduating in 2019 with a Master’s thesis on “Stochastic Modeling of Interacting Agent Systems.” She continued her doctoral studies at FU Berlin and the Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research under the supervision of Christof Schütte and graduated with a PhD in 2022. Following her doctoral studies, she joined the Zuse Institute Berlin (ZIB) as a postdoctoral researcher, focusing on model reductions of social dynamics. In June 2023, Luzie Helfmann became part of the Climate Policy Team at Climate Analytics, a global institute for climate science and policy. Within her role as a Data Scientist, she contributes to several projects through modeling and software development, including the Climate Action Tracker.  

Patrick Morris 

Yizheng Yuan 

BMS Alumnus Martin Skrodzki received the 2023 SIAG/GD Early Career Prize at the 2023 SIAM Conference on Computational Geometric Design (GD23) on 05 July 2023 in Genoa (Italy), which is part of the International Geometry Summit 2023. Congratulations from the BMS and MATH+!

The Early Career Prize of the SIAM Activity Group on Geometric Design (SIAG/GD), established in 2018, is awarded to an outstanding early career researcher in the field of geometric design and processing for distinguished contributions to the field in the five calendar years prior to the year of the award.

SIAM GD Chair Hendrik Speleers (left) with awardee Martin Skrodzki (right) | Photos: © Henriette Lipschütz

Martin Skrodzki received his PhD from Freie Universität Berlin (FU Berlin) under the supervision of MATH+ member Konrad Polthier and with the support of the Berlin Mathematical School (BMS). He is currently an assistant professor at TU Delft in the group of Computer Graphics and Visualization. His research on 3D-scanning, point clouds, denoising, and visualization, as well as his novel activities on illustrations of mathematics, are described as exceptional.

Commenting on his award, Skrodzki said: “This award is a tangible recognition of the hard work and dedication me and my collaborators have put into this research. It validates our efforts, and we are both humbled and excited about this distinction. It will open up new opportunities, which can help me continuously develop myself as a researcher and further my career.”

He studied mathematics and computer science in Dortmund (Germany), Laredo (USA), and Berlin, where he graduated with a Dr. rer. nat. in 2019 from FU Berlin. While doing his PhD, he was also a member of the C05 Project "Computational and structural aspects in multi-scale shape interpolation" of the Collaborative Research Center (SFB) “Discretization in Geometry and Dynamics” SFB Transregio 109, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). After obtaining his PhD, he held postdoctoral positions at the Institute for Computational and Experimental Mathematics (ICERM) at Brown University, the RIKEN Institute (Japan), where he was funded by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes), and at TU Delft (Netherlands) with support of the Walter-Benjamin-Program of the DFG.

Martin Skrodzki’s research interests include the visualization of high-dimensional data, discrete geometry processing as well as interactions between mathematics and art. They are also set between Computer Science and Mathematics. He is concerned about all issues related to point and data sets. This includes the acquisition of point sets via 3D-scanning or higher-dimensional forms of data collection as well as their processing afterwards. Key terms for the latter are denoising, cluster algorithms, and visualization. In regard to visualization, he is interested in illustrations of mathematics in the broadest sense, including, e.g., virtual reality, 3D printing, and computer animations.

Please visit the personal homepage of Martin Skrodzki for more information.

On the occasion of the 30th Kovalevskaya Lunch on 12 May, the “International Women in Math Day”, Tanja Fagel, MATH+ Gender & Diversity Manager, gave us interesting insights into the popular tradition of the lunch in an interview. She describes the importance of the event for young female mathematicians, who experience female professors very closely as role models and can ask burning questions in a direct exchange.

The “Kovalevskaya Lunch” is coming up to its 30th anniversary this year, Congratulations! How will you celebrate?
It is a great reason to celebrate! Especially because the Lunch is being held on “International Women in Mathematics Day”, which is the 12 May. So it will be a double celebration.

Why was this event named after the Russian mathematician Sophia Kovalevskaya (1850-1891)?
Sophia Kovalevskaya is a fantastic role model, because she was the first woman professor for mathematics worldwide, and she stood up for the right of all women to an education. The idea of the Kovalevskaya Lunch is to introduce women mathematicians to one another, giving young scientists a chance to get to know other, more experienced women in their field who can serve as role models.

What was the reason and the goal for introducing this format and the event?
It is still the case that fewer women complete their doctorate in mathematics than men. Therefore, there are relatively few women professors of mathematics as role models for young women. On average, only about 12 percent of math professors are women. That means it can easily happen that a woman student or doctoral candidate completes an entire study course without having come across a single woman professor. The Kovalevskaya Lunch aims to help redress this balance in a small way. The young women get the opportunity to meet a woman mathematician, get to know her, and ask her questions. There might be questions that they would not ask a man in the same position. The lunch itself is quite informal, with a few snacks and a pleasant atmosphere. At the beginning of the event, every participant takes a short moment to introduce herself. This makes it easier to ask questions later. Everyone is also provided with a name tag so it is easier to remember one another’s names. Often the participants are still busy talking long after the Lunch is over, when they get a chance to network and to maybe meet up again at the next Lunch.

Do you have a personal highlight from all of the Kovalevskaya Lunches? Which women mathematicians have fascinated you the most?
I have enjoyed all of the Kovalevskaya Lunches immensely. The guests and their career paths have been very diverse, and that is the beauty of it. I especially remember Ingrid Daubchies (at the Lunch on 11 November 2011), who strongly urged the young women present to be very particular in their choice of life partner. It is enormously important that it is someone who is willing and able to support them. In a very different way, Sujatha Ramdorai (at the Lunch on 2 June 2017) was also special because of her tremendous energy. She was so unbelievably inspiring, captivating the young women – and me too. Another very different experience was with Maryna Viazovska (Lunch on 13 May 2022), who explained beautifully how mathematics gives her strength, especially since Ukraine had entered into a war only a few months previously, which was a huge challenge for Marya as a Ukrainian woman. Nevertheless, she exuded this calmness and she is in possession of a very engaging dry sense of humor – I will also certainly remember that Lunch for a very long time.For me, the great charm of this event lies in hearing from these different characters, how they have handled challenges and doubts, what they find frustrating, and what or who in one way or another has given them strength or enriched them. That is very individual. I always find it interesting to hear the next guest, and I would like to advise our women students, doctoral students and postdocs to take part in several Kovalevskaya Lunches and encourage those who have not yet been to sign up for it.

How do young BMS/MATH+ women mathematicians respond to the offer?
It varies. I experience young women who come to almost every Lunch during their time at the BMS and are real fans of it. And then there are some that do not take advantage of the offer. The offer is voluntary and that is a good thing. A few years ago at a BMS celebration, a doctoral candidate approached me who was just about to finish her PhD. She told me how grateful she was to me for what I organized at the BMS. At the beginning of her master’s degree she had not understood why there were events just for women. During the course of her PhD she realized how important that offer had been for her and how much strength it had given her. Then she thanked me and hugged me with tears in her eyes. That was an overwhelming moment for me.

What would you wish for in terms of your work in “Gender & Diversity“?
There is a lot and this is just a small selection. Above all, I wish for more men to speak out for gender equality, equal opportunities, and fairness. That the insight prevails that it is the structures that hinder women and also other marginalized groups and that the women and marginalized groups themselves are not the problem. That excellence and gender equality are not in opposition to one another, but should only be addressed in combination. That more fathers take parental leave for just as long as mothers, and that this becomes even more natural. That young parents get so much support from their working environment that they can manage their family and their work without burning out. That the professorate gets more colorful in every way. And to close the circle: That women mathematicians are not only invited to the Kovalevskaya Colloquia, but also more often to the regular MATH+ Fridays. In some semesters that has already worked really well.

Thank you very much for the interview and the interesting insights and reviews!

Beate Rogler

After a two-year break, we are happy that the BMS Days 2023 took place in person again on 20 and 21 February at the Magnus-Haus in the heart of Berlin. We welcomed 27 of the best Phase I applicants from 17 different countries who were invited to spend a whole week in Berlin and also attend the Student Conference on 22-24 February at TU Berlin.

The BMS Days allow the BMS Admissions Committee to interview the applicants in person and also give them a preview of the opportunities offered by the BMS. The applicants got the chance to meet current BMS students and learn about life as a graduate student in Berlin. As usual, the program included an overview of the BMS graduate program and the research opportunities in Berlin, mathematical talks by MATH+ faculty members and Q&A sessions with faculty and students.

The mathematical lectures were given by Maite Wilke Berenguer (HU Berlin), Pavle Blagojevic (FU Berlin), Tobias Breiten (TU Berlin), Angela Ortega (HU Berlin), Martin Skutella (TU Berlin) and Vikram Sunkara (FU Berlin, ZIB) and gave a great impression of the mathematical community in Berlin.

The BMS Days were followed by the BMS Student Conference from 22 to 24 February, organized by the BMS student representatives. They offered invited talks by Claudio Arezzo (U Parma and ICTP) and Günter M. Ziegler (FU Berlin). Furthermore, several BMS students displayed the broad spectrum of Berlin's mathematical landscape by presenting their own research projects and talks on various topics. The highlight, as usual, was the praised “Wine and Cheese Party” at the end of the week.

                                                                       
Everyone enjoyed the well-organized event in the beautiful location opposite the Pergamon museum and the opportunity for a formal and informal get-together.

We hope to see most of our guests again soon when they start their BMS careers in the fall!