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Gerd Faltings, Emeritus Director of the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in Bonn, was elected a member of the Order Pour le Mérite. The Order now has 34 German and 37 foreign members, including 17 Nobel Prize winners. Being elected to the Order Pour le Mérite is one of the highest honors that can be awarded to scientists and artists in Germany. The association of artists and scholars was founded in 1842 by Prussian King Frederick William IV and revived in 1952 by Federal President Theodor Heuss. The Order Pour le Mérite is under the protectorate of the Federal President. It is financed and organized by the Minister of State for Culture and the Media. Two other directors of the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics, Friedrich Hirzebruch and Yuri Manin, were already members of the Order.
Artificial intelligence and computer science are driving developments in many areas of society – including in scientific research. This has prompted the Max Planck Society and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to honour outstanding achievements in the use of algorithms in mathematics, microscopy and climate research in 2024: The Max Planck-Humboldt Research Award, endowed with 1.5 million euros, goes to Geordie Williamson, Professor at the University of Sydney. Williamson uses artificial intelligence (AI) for his fundamental work in mathematics. The prizewinner will also cooperate closely with the mathematics at the University of Bonn in this field. The awards will be presented on 3 December in Berlin.
There have never been so many ERC Starting Grants at once at the University of Bonn: no fewer than seven researchers have been successful with their applications in the highly competitive European Research Council (ERC) funding process. With a funding of some €1.5 million each, Markus Hausmann from the Institute of Mathematics, among others, will be able to realize his project “Bordism of symmetries: From global groups to derived orbifolds” (BorSym) over the next five years.
At this year's International Mathematics Competition for University Students (IMC) in Blagoevgrad (Bulgaria), held from August 5 to 11, the Bonn team was ranked second in the unofficial team score, making it the world's second most successful university in the competition behind Saint Petersburg State University.
Video Interviews
Panorama of Mathematics - Interview with Martin Hairer
Panorama of Mathematics - Interview with Karen E. Willcox
Panorama of Mathematics - Interview with Akshay Venkatesh
Panorama of Mathematics - Interview with Ola Svensson
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Stefan Hartmann