Mathematical Research Institute Oberwolfach
The Mathematical Research Institute Oberwolfach (MFO) organizes and promotes mathematical research, international scientific cooperation and advanced training in mathematics and its border areas. It has been a member of the Leibniz Association since 2005 and is located in Oberwolfach in the Black Forest , on a slope above the Wolf River.
The reasons given for the institute's importance as a research location are mostly the excellent library and its special location in the middle of the Black Forest.
history
The institute was founded in November 1944, shortly before the end of the Second World War , by Wilhelm Süss , the chairman of the German Mathematicians Association and rector of the University of Freiburg , as the "Reich Institute for Mathematics". The conference building, the “Lorenzenhof” in the Walke district , was made available to Süss by Baden's Ministerial Director Karl Gärtner , whom Süss had proposed a few years earlier for an honorary doctorate from the University of Freiburg. It survived the Second World War, not least thanks to the initiative of the mathematician John Todd , who was on the road in Germany on behalf of a British military mission and fended off the risk of looting by the occupying forces. After the war, Süss headed the institute until his death in 1958. Together with his colleague Heinrich Behnke from Münster , he succeeded in making the MFO internationally known and important. Even after Süss' death, the management of the institute remained “in Freiburg hands” for a long time; only Matthias Kreck , who became director of the MFO in 1994, was not based in Freiburg. Today the institute is headed by the Tübingen mathematics professor Gerhard Huisken .
In 1967 a new guest house was built, in 1975 a new library and lecture hall building, both with funds from the Volkswagen Foundation . In 1989 an extension of the guest house was inaugurated, and in 2007 an extension of the library with funds from the Klaus Tschira Foundation and the Volkswagen Foundation.
Important steps towards the proof of the Great Fermat's Theorem found their origin in Oberwolfach, when Gerhard Frey presented in a lecture an idea to connect Fermat's theorem with the Taniyama-Shimura conjecture , which was taken up by Ken Ribet .
Every three years since 1991 the Oberwolfach Prize has been awarded to young European up-and-coming mathematicians.
Directors:
- 1944–1958: Wilhelm Süss
- 1958–1959: Hellmuth Kneser
- 1959–1963: Theodor Schneider
- 1963-1994: Martin Barner
- 1994–2002: Matthias Kreck
- 2002–2013: Gert-Martin Greuel
- since 2013: Gerhard Huisken
Legal form and financing
Since 2005 the MFO has been a non-profit GmbH with the Society for Mathematical Research e. V. (GMF) as the sole shareholder. The GMF is the owner of the property and the buildings of the MFO. As a member of the Leibniz Association , the MFO is largely financed from the budget of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the State of Baden-Württemberg . However, a substantial portion also comes from donations from the “Association for the Promotion of the Mathematical Research Institute Oberwolfach” and the “Oberwolfach Foundation”. In addition, the Institute of numerous other organizations received funding, for example from the Volkswagen Foundation , the Klaus Tschira Foundation , the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Foundation and the German Research Foundation .
Areas of activity and working method
The MFO's scientific program spans the full spectrum of mathematics, including its applications in science and technology. Guest scientists from all over the world do the majority of the research. Every year around 2500 mathematicians visit the MFO and use the institute's infrastructure for joint and individual research as part of various programs. More than 70% of the visiting researchers come from abroad. Most of them use the weekly changing workshops to present the latest results and to discuss them with others. The institute director invites up to 50 international experts from a specific research area to each workshop. In addition, there are so-called mini-workshops, to which around 15 people are invited. They serve to work focused on a certain mathematical problem. The results of the workshops will be published in the Oberwolfach Reports book series . A new volume appears four times a year.
Long-term stays at the institute are also possible. As part of the “Research in Pairs” program, scientists can work together in small groups for up to a month at the institute. The MFO offers the “Oberwolfach Leibniz Fellows” program especially for postdocs, with the option of doing research on an individual project for up to three months on site.
In addition to the purely research-oriented programs, the MFO offers various advanced training events. So-called working groups take place twice a year, in which the latest research results on a specific topic are explained. In addition, advanced training seminars are offered for doctoral students and postdocs ("Oberwolfach Seminars"). Its aim is to introduce young scientists to a current research area through leading experts. In addition, the MFO runs special training weeks for math teachers in Baden-Württemberg. The final seminar, in which the German team is prepared for the International Mathematical Olympiad , will also take place in Oberwolfach.
literature
- Willi Jäger (Ed.): Perspectives in Mathematics. Anniversary of Oberwolfach 1984 . Birkhäuser, Basel 1984, ISBN 3-7643-1624-1 .
- Michael Artin , Hanspeter Kraft , Reinhold Remmert : Duration and Change: Fifty Years at Oberwolfach . Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg a. a. 1994, ISBN 3-540-57214-7 .
- Allyn Jackson: Oberwolfach, Yesterday and Today In: Notices of the American Mathematical Society 47, 2000, pp. 758-765 ( Digital ).
- Volker Remmert : Wilhelm Süss (1895–1958): About the amalgamation of university and specialist politics . In: Karen Bayer, Frank Sparing, Wolfgang Woelk (Hrsg.): Universities and colleges during National Socialism and in the early post-war period . Steiner, Wiesbaden 2004, ISBN 978-3-515-08175-7 , pp. 147-166.
Web links
Coordinates: 48 ° 20 ′ 44 ″ N , 8 ° 14 ′ 7 ″ E