Transforming the World
through Mathematics
The MATH+ Distinguished Fellowship is bestowed upon individuals in recognition of outstanding contributions to the mathematical sciences in general. The program’s goal is to support the work of world-leading mathematicians, who hold permanent professorships at one of the MATH+ partner institutions, i.e. FU, HU, TU Berlin, WIAS, or ZIB. MATH+ provides Distinguished Fellows with a fellowship allowance for fostering innovative ideas and research activities, initiating exciting, vibrant research collaborations, and expanding the international research network and activities of the Fellows.
There are currently five MATH+ Distinguished Fellows: Gavril Farkas, Peter K. Friz, Michael Joswig, Bruno Klingler, and Alexander Mielke.
For international colleagues, MATH+ offers funding as (Distinguished) Visiting Scholars.
MATH+ Distinguished Fellows
Gavril Farkas
HU Berlin, Algebraic Geometry
Gavril Farkas became a Professor of Algebraic Geometry at HU Berlin in 2007. His field of work is in algebraic geometry, particularly the geometry and topology of various moduli spaces. Varieties are central in his research, such as syzygies of algebraic varieties, abelian varieties and theta functions, Prym varieties, and resonance varieties. Some of his other research interests include enumerative geometry, vector bundles on curves, K3 surfaces and Brill-Noether type problems, and geometric group theory.
Gavril Farkas obtained his PhD from the University of Amsterdam in 2000. He then spent several years in the USA at the University of Michigan, Princeton University, and the University of Texas at Austin before coming to Berlin. Since he arrived in Berlin in 2007, he has been an active member of the Berlin Mathematical School (BMS), is currently a BMS chair, and a member of the MATH+ Council.
TU Berlin/WIAS, Stochastic Analysis — Quantitative Finance
Peter K. Friz has been a Professor of Probability Theory and Mathematical Finance at TU Berlin since 2009, and in 2017 was appointed Einstein Professor there. His research interests lie in stochastic analysis, especially rough paths and regularity structures as well as stochastic partial differential equations. In quantitative finance, he focuses on asymptotic methods and modeling volatility in financial markets.
Peter K Friz pursued mathematical computer science, physics, engineering, and mathematics at Vienna University of Technology, École Centrale Paris, and Cambridge University. In 2003, he earned his PhD at New York University’s Courant Institute. His research has taken him to Oxford University and the École Normale Supérieure, among others, and to lead a Research Group at the Johann Radon Institute for Computational and Applied Mathematics (RICAM) in Austria. In the world of finance, he spent over a year working on Wall Street at BNP-Paribas and Merrill Lynch. He currently serves as Co-Chair of the MATH+ Council.
Michael Joswig
TU Berlin, Discrete Mathematics/Geometry
Since 2013, Michael Joswig has been the Einstein Professor for “Discrete Mathematics/Geometry” at TU Berlin. His mathematical interests cover aspects of polyhedral, tropical, and algorithmic geometry, including topics such as optimization, combinatorial topology, and biology applications.
Michael Joswig studied mathematics and computer science at the Universität Tübingen, where he earned his doctorate in 1994. He obtained his habilitation in 2000 at TU Berlin on the topic of “Contributions to polytope theory and incidence geometry.” After research stays in the USA, including at MSRI in Berkeley, he was appointed as a professor for “Algorithmic Discrete Mathematics” at TU Darmstadt from 2004 to 2013. Since 2013, he has been the Einstein Professor for “Discrete Mathematics/Geometry” at TU Berlin. In 2019, he became a Max Planck Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences (MPI MiS).
HU Berlin, Algebraic Geometry
Bruno Klingler came to Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin as an Einstein Professor in 2016. His works in arithmetic and algebraic geometry, where his interest focuses on the topology of varieties and their algebraic and arithmetic structures.
In 1997, Klingler received his doctorate from Université Paris. He became Assistant Professor at Yale University in 2002, and in 2003 he moved to the University of Chicago. From 2007, he held a professorship at Université Paris VII (Denis Diderot) before coming to Berlin.
HU Berlin/WIAS, Applied Analysis — Partial Differential Equations
Alexander Mielke became a Professor of Partial Differential Equations at HU Berlin in 2004. His research field is in nonlinear partial differential equations, where he develops variational methods for problems in continuum mechanics and materials science. The same year, he took on the role of Head of the Research Group “Partial Differential Equations” at WIAS, whose focus is on the analytical theory of PDEs (existence, uniqueness, qualitative behavior). Additionally, they develop and implement related algorithms for their numerical solution. Some of Alexander Mielke’s most notable research has been in finite-strain elastoplasticity and the development of rate-independent systems theory.
Alexander Mielke received his doctorate from the Universität Stuttgart in 1984, after which he was a researcher at Stuttgart and Cornell University. Following his habilitation in 1990, he held professor appointments at the Universität Hannover and Universität Stuttgart before coming to Berlin in 2004. Having served as Deputy Director of the Weierstrass Institute from 2005 to 2015 and as Matheon Executive Board Member from 2009 to 2014, he currently occupies a position as MATH+ Council Member.
