Courant Research Centre in Mathematics officially opened

Opening colloquium with the inauguration lectures of the three leaders of the junior research groups

With an opening colloquium the Courant Research Centre “Higher Order Structures in Mathematics” which the University of Göttingen has established as part of its “Future Concept” in the Excellence Initiative has officially begun its activities. Junior professors Dr. Hannah Markwig, Dr. Chengchang Zhu and Dr. Dorothea Bahns, three scientists who as highly qualified researchers lead their own junior research groups at the Centre, presented their inauguration lectures. The event took place at the end of April in the Aula [auditorium] on the Wilhelmsplatz.

With an opening colloquium the Courant Research Centre “Higher Order Structures in Mathematics” which the University of Göttingen has established as part of its “Future Concept” in the Excellence Initiative has officially begun its activities. Junior professors Dr. Hannah Markwig, Dr. Chengchang Zhu and Dr. Dorothea Bahns, three scientists who as highly qualified researchers lead their own junior research groups at the Centre, presented their inauguration lectures. The event took place at the end of April in the Aula [auditorium] on the Wilhelmsplatz.


Leaders of the junior research groups (from left to right): Dorothea Bahns, Hannah Markwig and Chenchang Zhu


Junior research group “Quantum fields on noncommutative spaces”
Dorothea Bahns (born 1976) studied physics in Freiburg and worked at the University of Hamburg on her thesis addressing questions in the area of quantum field theory. Research visits took her to Rome (Italy) and Cambridge (Great Britain). After completing her Doctorate at the end of 2003 Dorothea Bahns undertook research at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo (Canada) and at the Institute for Mathematics of the University La Sapienza in Rome, before moving to the Max-Planck-Institute for Gravitational Physics in Golm in October 2004. One year later she took on a junior professorship for mathematical physics in Hamburg. At the Georgia Augusta the scientist has been leading the junior research group “Quantum fields and noncommutative spaces” since May 2008.

Junior research group “Tropical Algebraic Geometry”
Hannah Markwig (born 1980) studied mathematics at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern and also took an interest in questions of physics and philosophy. She spent a semester abroad at the University of California in Berkeley (USA). In Kaiserslautern she then also undertook a mathematical Doctorate course, which she was able to complete in July 2006. Her thesis dealt with questions in the field of enumerative geometry. As post-Doctorate researcher she initially worked at the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis before moving to a position as assistant professor at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in September 2007. Since June 2008 Prof. Markwig has been leading the junior research group “Tropical Algebraic Geometry”.

Young scientists’ research group “Differential Geometry”
Chinese native Chenchang Zhu (born 1977) completed a degree in mathematics in Beijing. For her thesis on so-called Lie-groups she moved to the University of California in Berkeley (USA). She was able to complete her Doctorate in May 2004, after which the scientist spent two years working at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, before taking on an assistant professorship at the Institute Fourier in St. Martin d’Hères (France) in November 2006. Since September 2008 Prof. Zhu has been researching and teaching at the Georg-August-University, where she leads the young scientists’ research group “Differential Geometry”.