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Mathematicians, physicists and economists open Bielefeld Graduate School in Theoretical Sciences

Bielefeld University’s Faculties of Mathematics, Physics and Business Administration and Economics along with the Institute of Mathematical Economics are expanding their collaboration: they are training doctoral students together. Their PhD candidates will be supervised by prestigious scientists from all three disciplines. What is special is that the doctoral students can receive interdisciplinary training. The opening ceremony of the new Bielefeld Graduate School in Theoretical Sciences (BGTS) will take place on Friday, 2 November, at 4 pm in lecture hall H2 of Bielefeld University.

The BGTS serves as an umbrella organisation for various programmes in Theoretical Sciences at the university aimed at encouraging high-flying young researchers at Bielefeld University and leading to internationally recognised qualifications. The new graduate school focuses on the simulation, modelling and analysis of complex systems, stochastic dynamics as well as symmetry, geometry and universality. Research topics range from the smallest particles of matter to the analysis of economic behaviour, markets and finance.

The BGTS sets great store by communicating knowledge and methods which link mathematics, economics and theoretical physics: it offers its doctoral students a framework programme which, besides lectures, comprises a colloquium, international workshops and summer schools. Courses in soft skills like group leadership, cultural and joint activities are also available to PhD students. Independent doctoral students, i.e. those not attached to a participating research training group or enrolled in an advanced research programme, can also take part in the programme. They can also benefit from what the BGTS offers, its support instruments and from doing their doctorate in a community of doctoral students.

With the BGTS, researchers from the fields of mathematics, physics and economics have formalised their collaboration in Bielefeld University’s strategic research area “Theoretical Sciences”. The Collaborative Research Centre 701 (SFB 701), a major project supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) in which pure and applied mathematicians work together, is part of this. Close cooperation between mathematics, theoretical physics, and business administration and economics (especially the Institute of Mathematical Economics [IMW]) has a long tradition in Bielefeld that has produced a series of major collaborative projects.

The BGTS is essentially an open structure, which can and should develop in many directions. In the long term, further faculties and institutions are to be included in its further development. 

One highlight of the opening ceremony will be provided by Professor Dr Christoph Schweigert from the University of Hamburg, who will give a talk on the mathematical observation of structures to be found in physics. International partners of the participating faculties will speak at the ceremony about future collaboration with Bielefeld’s Theoretical Sciences. Professor Shige Peng, PhD, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing will be one of them. In addition, BGTS spokesperson Professor Dr Michael Röckner will outline the objectives of the new graduate school. Young researchers on the four doctoral programmes participating in the BGTS to date will report on their experiences. During the evening, some of the current doctoral students in Theoretical Sciences will be awarded mobility grants for research stays abroad.

For further information in the Internet, go to:
www.bgts.uni-bielefeld.de

Members of the media are invited to report on the opening ceremony.

Contact:
Prof. Dr Michael Röckner, Bielefeld University
Spokesperson for the BGTS Initiative
Telephone: +49 521 106-4774
Email: roeckner@math.uni-bielefeld.de

Dr Claudia Köhler, Bielefeld University
Coordinator of the BGTS Initiative
Telephone: +49 521 106-4767
Email: ckoehler@math.uni-bielefeld.de