The afternoon started at 13:00 with the BMS PhD seminar “What are… gradient flows and optimal transport for machine learning and optimization?“ in which Dr. Jai-Jie Zhu introduced the topic of the following MATH+ Friday Colloquium on “Particle Methods in Machine Learning and Inverse Problems,” held by Martin Burger, a lead scientist at DESY and full professor at Universität Hamburg.
At 16:00, MATH+ Chair Michael Hintermüller welcomed everyone to the Certificate Ceremony and gave a laudation for the MATH+ Dissertation Award winners of 2023, a prize first initiated in 2020. In cooperation with the Einstein Foundation Berlin, the Berlin Mathematical School (BMS) of the Cluster of Excellence MATH+ awards up to three annual prizes for outstanding dissertations to BMS graduates. The MATH+ Dissertation Award 2023 was presented to Viorel Andrei Bud, Toyomu Matsuda, and Arturo Merino for their excellent theses. Congratulations to all of them! Arturo Merino was there to proudly receive his Dissertation Award certificate. Unfortunately, Viorel Andrei Bud and Toyomu Matsuda couldn’t participate in the ceremony as they already started their Postdocs in Frankfurt and Lausanne, respectively.
Michael Hintermüller continued and honored our two fellows of the Young African Mathematician (YAM) Fellowship Program, Wilson Tsuata and Samantha Glory Guiate Simo, both from Cameroon. They are the first fellows to complete the program within MATH+ and will go on to PhD positions this fall.
Afterwards, BMS Chair Holger Reich announced this year’s Phase I graduates, followed by BMS Co-Chair John M. Sullivan’s laudation for the Phase II graduates.
Between the certificate presentations, a cello quartet led by MATH+ Co-Chair Martin Skutella played and thus provided a festive and beautiful atmosphere.
Bright sunflowers, which were presented along with the certificates, created a sunny atmosphere. Photos were taken with happy, laughing BMS alumni in groups, with their supervisors, and with their loved ones. The evening closed with a lively reception and summer party that was the perfect opportunity to meet everyone, talk about science, and exchange memories with the graduates and the entire MATH+ community.
Photos: © Kay Herschelmann / BMS
