John M. Sullivan, professor of mathematics at Technische Universität Berlin (TU), is the new chair of the Berlin Mathematical School (BMS).

Sullivan took up his post on 1 July 2018 in accordance with the rotating chairmanship, and succeeds Günter M. Ziegler of Freie Universität Berlin (FU). An assembly of BMS faculty members unanimously elected Sullivan as the new chair and paid tribute to his predecessor, who was recently elected president of the FU Berlin. BMS faculty members then elected Holger Reich, professor of mathematics at the FU, as the new BMS deputy chair to represent Freie Universität Berlin. He will carry out his duties alongside Jürg Kramer, the BMS deputy chair from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU). The rotational change of the BMS chairmanship occurs every two years between the three participating universities.

Sullivan studied at Harvard and Cambridge, before completing his PhD at Princeton in 1990. After holding positions at the University of Minnesota, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and at MSRI in California, he took up his current position at the TU in 2003. His research interests include discrete differential geometry and mathematical visualization.

Everyone at the BMS would like to extend sincere thanks to Günter M. Ziegler for his hard work and outstanding commitment as the BMS Chair over the past two years, and we would like to give his successor, John M. Sullivan, a very warm welcome!

Written by S. E. Sutherland-Figini