Bringmann Receives One Million Euro Krupp Prize (z)
Bringmann Receives One
Million Euro Krupp Prize
Kathrin Bringmann (at left), a
number theorist at the University of Minnesota and the University of
Cologne, has been awarded the Alfried Krupp-Förderpreis for Young
Professors. The one million Euro prize, for a five-year period, is
awarded by the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation. She
is the third mathematician to win the annual prize--Ursula Gather
received the prize in 1987 and Albrecht Böttcher won in 1992.
Bringmann is well known for her joint work with her postdoctoral
mentor Ken Ono (University of Wisconsin-Madison) on Ramanujan's mock
theta functions, which Ramanujan wrote about in 1920 as he was
dying, although he did not provide details about the functions,
including their definition. Following seminal work of the Dutch
mathematician Sander Zwegers, Bringmann and Ono have built and
applied their theory to many topics in mathematics: partitions and
q-series, Moonshine, and elliptic curves, to name a few. On the mock
theta functions, Bringmann said, "Imagine that a famous composer
left, after his death, a symphony written in a secret code that only
he himself could read." More information about the prize and
Bringmann's research (in German) is at the DMV (Deutsche
Mathematiker-Vereinigung) website. (Image courtesy of Kathrin
Bringmann.) [Item posted 7/2/09] |
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