Günter Matthias Ziegler (born 19 May 1963) is a German mathematician who has been serving as president of the

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...

since 2018. Ziegler is known for his research in discrete mathematics and

geometry Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is ...

, and particularly on the combinatorics of polytopes.

Biography

Ziegler studied at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich from 1981 to 1984, and went on to receive his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston ...

, in 1987, under the supervision of

Anders Björner Anders Björner (born 17 December 1947) received his Ph.D. from Stockholm University in 1979, under Bernt Lindström. He is a Swedish professor of mathematics, in the Department of Mathematics at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Swe ...

. After postdoctoral positions at the

University of Augsburg The University of Augsburg (german: Universität Augsburg) is a university located in the Universitätsviertel section of Augsburg, Germany. It was founded in 1970 and is organized in 8 Faculties. The University of Augsburg is a relatively you ...

and the Mittag-Leffler Institute, he received his habilitation in 1992 from the Technical University of Berlin, which he joined as a professor in 1995. Ziegler has since joined the faculty of the

Awards and honors

Ziegler was awarded the one million

Deutschmark The Deutsche Mark (; English: ''German mark''), abbreviated "DM" or "D-Mark" (), was the official currency of West Germany from 1948 until 1990 and later the unified Germany from 1990 until the adoption of the euro in 2002. In English, it was ...

by the

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft The German Research Foundation (german: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft ; DFG ) is a German research funding organization, which functions as a self-governing institution for the promotion of science and research in the Federal Republic of Germ ...

(DFG) in 1994 and the 1.5 million Deutschmark Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, Germany's highest research honor, by the DFG in 2001. He was awarded the 2005

Gauss Lectureship The Gauss Lectureship (''Gauß-Vorlesung'') is an annually awarded mathematical distinction, named in honor of Carl Friedrich Gauss. It was established in 2001 by the German Mathematical Society with a series of lectures for a broad audience. Eac ...

by the

German Mathematical Society The German Mathematical Society (german: Deutsche Mathematiker-Vereinigung, DMV) is the main professional society of German mathematicians and represents German mathematics within the European Mathematical Society (EMS) and the International Math ...

. In 2006 the Mathematical Association of America awarded Ziegler and Florian Pfender its highest honor for mathematical exposition, the Chauvenet Prize, for their paper on

kissing number In geometry, the kissing number of a mathematical space is defined as the greatest number of non-overlapping unit spheres that can be arranged in that space such that they each touch a common unit sphere. For a given sphere packing (arrangement o ...

s.January 2006 prizes and awards

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

. In 2006 Ziegler became president of the

for a two-year term. In 2009, the European Research Council (ERC) awarded Ziegler one of the ERC Advanced Grants in the amount of 1.85 million

Euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

s. In 2012 he became a fellow of the

. In 2013 Ziegler was granted the Hector Science Award and became a member of the Hector Fellow Academy. Since 2016 Ziegler has been chair of the Berlin Mathematical School. In 2018 he received the

Leroy P. Steele Prize The Leroy P. Steele Prizes are awarded every year by the American Mathematical Society, for distinguished research work and writing in the field of mathematics. Since 1993, there has been a formal division into three categories. The prizes have b ...

for Mathematical Exposition (jointly with Martin Aigner) for ''Proofs from THE BOOK''.

Other activities

* Berlin Institute of Health (BIH), Member of the Supervisory Board (since 2020) *

German Institute for Economic Research The German Institute for Economic Research (german: Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung), or, more commonly DIWBerlin, is a economic research institute in Germany, involved in basic research and policy advice. It is a non-profit acad ...

(DIW), member of the board of trustees (since 2018) * Genshagener Kreis, member of the board of trustees (since 2018) * Einstein Foundation Berlin, Member of the Council *

Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association The Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC) in Berlin, Germany is one of the sixteen research centers of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres. MDC is member of EU-LIFE, an alliance of leading ...

(MDC), member of the supervisory board * Berlin Social Science Center (WZB), member of the board of trustees (since 2018) * Klaus Tschira Foundation, member of the board of trustees (since 2017) *

Urania Urania ( ; grc, , Ouranía; modern Greek shortened name ''Ránia''; meaning "heavenly" or "of heaven") was, in Greek mythology, the muse of astronomy, and in later times, of Christian poetry. Urania is the goddess of astronomy and stars, he ...

, Member of the BoardBoard

Selected publications

*; 6th ed, 2018. * . *

References

External links