John M. Sullivan, professor of mathematics at Technische Universität Berlin, is the new chair of the Berlin Mathematical School (BMS). On 1 July he succeeded Professor Konrad Polthier from Freie Universität Berlin, who remains one of the deputy chairs along with Professor Jürg Kramer from Humboldt-Universität. The BMS chairmanship rotates every two years between the three participating universities. The first chair was Günter M. Ziegler, who was followed by Kramer and then Polthier. Sullivan was elected unamiously by the BMS faculty assembly on 20 April.

John M. Sullivan studied at Harvard and Cambridge before receiving his doctorate from Princeton University. He then held faculty positions in Minnesota, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and at MSRI. Since 2003 he has been a Matheon professor at TU Berlin where he works in the field of geometry and visualization.

The BMS is a joint graduate school of the mathematics departments of Freie Universität, Humboldt-Universität, and Technische Universität Berlin. Founded in 2006, the BMS is funded by the German "Excellence Initiative" and on 15 June it was announced that this funding will be extended through 2017. After that the BMS will continue as a permanent institution financed by the three host universities.

The BMS actively pursues the goals of internationality and gender equality: of its 175 doctoral students, about 40 percent come from abroad. About 30 percent of the students are women, and the long-term goal is to reach 50 percent. The BMS is one of the few graduate schools in the Excellence Initiative that accepts students directly after the bachelor degree and prepares them for a doctoral dissertation through a structured fast-track program. The BMS’s diverse program of specialized courses is augmented with mentoring, soft-skill seminars, summer schools, travel to conferences, and special support for students with children.

Further Information:
Prof. Dr. John M. Sullivan, TU Berlin, Chair of  Berlin Mathematical School, Tel: 030/314-29279, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Nadja Wisniewski, Berlin Mathematical School, Tel: +49 30 314 78651, Fax +49 30 314 78647, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.