Münster University welcomes Michael Weiss
"An outstanding success" was how Prof. Stephan Ludwig, Pro-Rector for Research at Münster University, described it last October, when the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of the Federal Republic of Germany had approved a Humboldt Professorship for the mathematician Prof. Michael Weiss. The internationally renowned mathematician, who was engaged in research at Aberdeen University in Scotland, had been proposed by Münster University. Michael Weiss has now taken up his Professorship in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science.
Michael Weiss is an expert on topology, a field of research related to geometry. He is famous for having proven, together with his Danish colleague Ib Madsen, the so-called Mumford Conjecture – a mathematical problem which had not been solved for over 20 years. It was the first time that the Foundation had approved a Humboldt Professorship for a candidate that WWU had nominated.
It is normal procedure for an academic who has been accepted to begin negotiations on his appointment with the university which nominated him. Michael Weiss negotiated with WWU and decided to take up his Professorship in Münster in April 2012. The German Ministry of Education and Research is providing 3.5 million euros for the Professorship for five years.
The nomination proceedings on behalf of WWU were led by Prof. Arthur Bartels from the Mathematical Institute, himself an expert in the field of topology. As Pro-Rector Stephan Ludwig says, "In Michael Weiss we have been able to secure another internationally leading mathematician for our University. We are delighted that he has taken up the Humboldt Professorship here." WWU is regarded as one of the universities with the most research in the field of topology. With Michael Weiss at the University, the aim now is to close the gap on the world leaders in this field.
Michael Weiss was born in Berlin on 14 December 1955. After studying in Tübingen and Warwick, in England – where he also took his PhD – he undertook research at a number of universities and research institutes in Europe and the USA, including Brown University in Providence (USA) and the Max Planck Institute of Mathematics in Bonn. Since 1999 he had been working at the University of Aberdeen, and since 2033 as a professor. He is a recipient of the Fröhlich Prize, which the London Mathematical Society awards for outstandingly innovative research work.