Department of Mathematics

Erich Kamke Colloquium (EKC)

The Department of Mathematics is starting a new colloquium series in November 2021, which usually offers a colloquium lecture once a year with distinguished and well-known speakers who report on current results that have received particular attention. This colloquium is named after the Tübingen mathematician Erich Kamke in his honour.

Erich Kamke came to Tübingen as an associate professor in 1926 at the age of 36 and was forced into retirement by the National Socialists in 1937 because of his wife's Jewish origins and because of his straightforward and unbending manner. Immediately after the Second World War, Kamke was rehabilitated and appointed full professor at the University of Tübingen. In the years that followed, he made lasting contributions to the reconstruction of the Mathematical Institute, the University of Tübingen and mathematics in Germany. For example, he organised the first major mathematics conference in Germany after the war in Tübingen in 1946 and also re-founded the German Mathematicians' Association (DMV) in Tübingen in 1948 (with the annual conference organised by him). In Tübingen he founded, among other things, the university's computing centre, of which he was chairman until 1960. From 1948-1952 he was chairman of the DMV.

Kamke worked scientifically primarily in the field of differential equations and wrote a two-volume work on this subject, which is still considered standard literature in this discipline today.

1st EKC: Prof. Dr. Bernd Sturmfels (19/11/2021, 2pm, N14)

Title: Algebraic Statistics with a View towards Physics

Abstract: We discuss the algebraic geometry of maximum likelihood estimation from the perspective of scattering amplitudes in particle physics. A guiding example is the moduli space of n-pointed rational curves. The scattering potential plays the role of the log-likelihood function, and its critical points are solutions to rational function equations. Their number is an Euler characteristic. Soft limit degenerations are combined with certified numerical methods for concrete computations.

About the speaker: Bernd Sturmfels is Director at the MPI for Mathematics in the Sciences (Leipzig) and Professor at UC Berkeley. His academic dignities are numerous. For example, he is ICM Speaker 2022, Honorary Doctor of Goethe University Frankfurt, Einstein Visiting Fellow at TU Berlin, George David Birkhoff Laureate in Applied Mathematics and member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences.

2nd EKC: Prof. Dr. László Erdős (22/07/2022, 4pm, N07)

Title: Universality in Random Matrix Theory beyond Wigner-Dyson-Mehta

Abstract:  Following E. Wigner’s pioneering discovery, the eigenvalues of large random matrices tend to exhibit a universal behaviour; most prominently the gap distribution converges to the celebrated Wigner-Dyson-Mehta statistics. In this talk an overview of more recent universality results concerning other physically relevant quantities is given, in particular the random matrix version of the Eigenstate Thermalisation Hypothesis and the normal fluctuation of the Quantum Unique Ergodicity is explained.

About the speaker:  László Erdös is a professor at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) in Klosterneuburg and one of the world's leading mathematicians, particularly in the field of random matrices. His academic honours are numerous. For example, he received an ERC Advanced Grant for his research on random matrices, he is a recipient of the Leonard Eisenbud Prize of the American Mathematical Society and a member of the Hungarian and Austrian Academies of Sciences as well as the Academia Europaea.

3rd EKC: Prof. Dr. Valentin Blomer (23/06/2023, 4:15pm, N03)

Title: Analysis on arithmetic manifolds

Abstract: An arithmetic manifold is a Riemannian manifold with additional arithmetic structure: it is acted on by a commutative algebra of "arithmetically defined'' operators. The most classical example is the complex upper half plane modulo the action of a congruence subgroup of SL(2,ℤ). The investigation of the analytic properties of the Laplace eigenfunction on such manifolds offers a fascinating interplay of analysis, number theory and automorphic forms.

About the speaker: Valentin Blomer is a professor at the University of Bonn and is one of the world's leading mathematicians in the field of number theory. He has received numerous academic prizes and awards. For example, he was awarded the Lichtenberg Professorship of the Volkswagen Foundation and an ERC Advanced Grant.
In addition to mathematics, he still finds time to pursue his second passion: music. He studied piano at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts and regularly performs as a soloist, chamber musician and song accompanist in Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Slovenia, Japan and Canada.