PhD to PhD: Dennis Wulle

Dennis Wulle is a doctoral student in the differential geometry working group of the wwu and is supervised by Burkhard Wilking.
He does his thesis in the field of riemannian geometry. He studies riemannian manifolds with lower sectional curvature bounds and a high amount of symmetry.
In this interview he would like to share his experiences so far during his doctorate with you.

Why did you choose Münster for your PhD?
I already did my bachelor and master studies in Münster, so I was already quite familiar with the university and the faculty.
Additionally my hometown, where I still live, is very near to Münster, which makes it easier to spend time with my family and friends.

How was the beginning of your PhD and what would have been nice to know beforehand?
The biggest advantage in comparison to my master or bachelor studies was to finally get an office, which makes it easier to focus on work and separate it from free time. I also discovered that I like coffee, because of this nice coffee machine in the common room.
Although I just started, it happened that I became one of the speakers of the MMGS, only one month after I the beginning of my PhD. As a speaker I was for example in the organizing committee for the MMGS Retreat, which took place the first time this year. It was a very helpful experience, to organize something like a small conference. But the work as an MMGS speaker also includes the role as a contact person for the other PhD Students. So, if you have some questions about the graduate school, do not hesitate to ask me!

How did you find your research topic?
It did not take much time, since I started to work on my topic during my master's thesis, so I should maybe say how I found the topic back then: I first started with a very topological topic inside of equivariant differential geometry. But I did not like the methods used there, because they were ‘too topological’ for me, so after a while I switched to a topic, which needed more methods from differential geometry and the theory of Lie groups.

How was your supervision up to this point and how is the relationship to your supervisor?
I am fully satisfied with my supervision. I do not meet with my supervisor on a regular basis to talk about my topic, but, if I have questions, I can just go to his office and he will spend as much time as needed to answer them. We also have mathematical discussions during lunch or coffee break, which is helpful.

How long should a PhD thesis be?
I really do not know, but since I do not like writing so much, I try to keep it as short as possible :D
I hope this forces me to find more elegant proofs. But I guess, the length is not so important, the quality of the work should be.

Do you already have a plan for the time after your doctorate?
Currently, I want to stay in academia, but I do not have a concrete plan, yet.