HLF Review 2016

4t h H eid elb erg La u re ate For u m
Laureates of mathematics and
computer science meet
the next generation
Review 2016
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Upcoming Events:
5th HLF: September 24–29, 2017
6th HLF: September 23–28, 2018
7th HLF: September 22–27, 2019
8th HLF: September 20–25, 2020
9th HLF: September 19–24, 2021
10th HLF: September 18–23, 2022
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Mathematics and computer science pervade all aspects and
spheres of life. They provide the foundation for today’s highly
engineered and modern society, and they belong to our
culture. Their social relevance will continue to grow.
Dr. h. c. Dr.-Ing. E. h. Klaus Tschira
Review 2016
4th Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF)
September 18–23, 2016
Published by the Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation
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Contents
Welcome
8 Foreword
10 Revisiting the HLF
12 Review of the IMU
14 Three Abel Laureates at the 4th HLF
16 Young Researcher Testimonials
Participants
44 The Laureates
48 The Young Researchers
50 5 out of 200
54 Collaboration (in Cartoons)
56 On a Single Piece of Paper
About the Forum
20 Structure
21 Selection Process
22 Organizers
24 Supporting Institutions
32 Scientific Partners
35 Supporters & Partners
36 The Awards
38 Conference Elements
40 Heidelberg
HLF Diary
Sunday, September 18
60 Welcome
62 Opening Ceremony
64 Reception
Monday, September 19
66 Lectures on Monday
68 Workshops
69 City Tour & Welcome Dinner
Tuesday, September 20
70 Lectures on Tuesday
72 Hot Topic
76 Bavarian Evening
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Wednesday, September 21
78 Laureate School Visits
79 Young Researcher Institute Visits
80 Boat Trip
Thursday, September 22
82 Lectures on Thursday
84 Poster Session
86 Excursion to Speyer
Friday, September 23
88 Lectures on Friday
90 Farewell Dinner
Communications
94 Extending our Reach
96 HLF Blog
97 Journalists at HLF
Outreach
100 Outreach Activities
101 Heidelberger Frühling
102 Transcending Tradition
105 Film Festival – Mathematics and
Computer Science
106 Adventures in Computer Science
108 Schools at the Exhibition
109 Zuse Exhibition
111 HLF Around the World
Résumé
114 It will go on
116 Thank You
117 HLF Team 2016
118 Imprint
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Welcome
6

7

Welcome
Foreword
Beate Spiegel
Chairperson of the Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation
(HLFF) and Managing Director of the Klaus
Tschira Stiftung (KTS)
Andreas Reuter
Scientific Chairperson of the Heidelberg Laureate
Forum Foundation (HLFF)
Looking back at the Heidelberg Laureate Forum
2016, there are a couple of things that deserve
mention.
First, the event was very well received by all
participants: laureates, young researchers and
guests. You will find details on their feedback in
this review.
Second, the organizers tried a few modifications
to the program structure and its components,
responding to comments received by the participants
of previous HLF events. The most significant
change was applied to the organization of
the workshops. In previous years, the postdocs
among the young researchers could suggest a
workshop topic, and – if selected by the Scientific
Committee – they would autonomously prepare
and run the workshop. Many participants
commented that those workshops often discussed
highly specialized subjects, which were
only of marginal interest to the other young researchers.
So in 2016 we tried a new approach:
The laureates and the members of the Scientific
Committee were invited to suggest topics that
were both scientifically challenging and of interest
to many young researchers. This list was
sent out to postdocs, inviting them to organize
a workshop (ideally in groups of two or three)
on one of those topics. In addition, each workshop
had a topical expert acting as a mentor to
the organizers. All in all, this approach worked
quite well, as is demonstrated by the feedback
we received from the workshop participants
and from the mentors. For future HLFs we will
fine-tune this scheme a little bit but by and large
keep that structure.
The third noteworthy aspect was the special
exhibition that we prepared and ran during the
HLF week. It gave an overview of the work of the
German computer pioneer Konrad Zuse. It did
not focus on displaying many samples of (electro-)mechanical
devices; instead it explained
the variety of abstract concepts conceived by
Zuse many years (in some cases decades) before
they were re-invented and embraced by mainstream
computer science. In the future, the
HLFF will try to organize an exhibition on subjects
related to math and/or computer science
in parallel to each HLF event.
And finally, an important extension to the Heidelberg
Laureate Forum was discussed during
the 2016 event: The inclusion of the ACM
Prize in Computing into the HLF. The Scientific
Committee discussed the proposal, and it was
approved by all three award-granting organizations
shortly after the event.
So each year we try to make the HLF a bit more
interesting, more scientifically challenging, and
more rewarding for the participants. In doing
so, we completely depend on the insight and
collaboration of our partner organizations, the
laureates and our alumni.
We hope you will enjoy reading this review; it
tries to convey a little bit of the typical HLF spirit.
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9

Welcome
Revisiting the HLF
Vinton Cerf
ACM A.M. Turing Award 2004; Past President of the
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
The fourth annual Heidelberg Laureate Forum
(HLF) highlighted for me how very important
it has been for ACM Turing laureates to participate
in the program. Each year 200 math and
computer science young researchers participate
in the program, 100 each, roughly. Speeches by
laureates are mixed with postdoc workshops
and plenary open sessions. There is ample opportunity
for interaction among students and
laureates and between students.
This year, Brian Schmidt gave the Lindau Lecture
(from the annual Lindau Nobel Laureate
Meetings). Brian Schmidt discovered that the
universe is not only expanding, the expansion
is accelerating. It would be hard to imagine a
more profound discovery. In the very long term,
it appears that the universe will expand to the
point that only a certain amount of local gravity
will hold a galaxy or small group of galaxies
together. The rest will accelerate away and the
universe will end in a cold whimper.
Fortunately, there was plenty of attraction and
stimulating conversation at this year’s HLF. More
than ever we are seeing how mathematics and
computer science are interacting, especially
with the arrival of neural networks and quantum
computers that have capabilities quite different
from the conventional Von Neumann designs
that have dominated computing for over seven
decades. Fundamental questions about what is
computable, illuminated by Gödel, are getting
attention in the light of these new computing
engines.
Leslie Lamport delivered another extraordinary
lecture reinforcing the value of thinking mathematically
while considering the process of
programming. The value of abstraction to aid
in reasoning about expected program function
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Welcome
resonated very strongly with me and, I think,
with others in attendance.
As always, the mathematics and computer science
students were full of energy, ideas, and
eagerness to interact with each other and with
the laureates present. The organizers worked
hard to maximize student opportunities to meet
with laureates including a number of workshops
where some in-depth discussion could be supported.
Some of the laureates voiced a strong
recommendation that every effort should be
made to allow rich interaction between students
of the two disciplines.
Looking at the available laureate attendee lists,
I can’t help but imagine that the future events
would benefit from a cohort of additional
younger laureates so I look forward to the ACM
Prize in Computing awardees being invited to
attend the annual event.
I am continually struck by the increasingly important
role of computing in discovery science.
Simulations of physical phenomena are revealing
new insights into the nature of our universe.
One of the dramatic examples I have seen shows
an evolving universe from the Big Bang that
takes into account dark matter and dark energy
and produces a simulated universe with many
of the large scale structures we actually see in
the observable universe. We see huge reticular
structures emerging that are largely the product
of masses of dark matter that organize ordinary
matter into a lacework of stars and gas. That
these predictions can be tested through observation
reinforces the importance of computing
in our exploration of the natural world.
We are reaching an exciting period in scientific
discovery in which computation is as important
as laboratory experiment and observation. We
can invent our own universes and test them for
compatibility with the real one we can measure.
Indeed, we may find that our predictions could
draw our attention to phenomena we might
never have looked for, were it not for the revelation
of computation.
11

Welcome
Review of the IMU
Shigefumi Mori
Fields Medal 1990; President of the International
Mathematical Union (IMU)
On behalf of the International Mathematical
Union (IMU), I am very happy and proud as
always to be part of the Heidelberg Laureate
Forum (HLF) as president of a prize awarding organization
for HLF together with the Association
for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Norwegian
Academy of Science and Letters (DNVA);
in this context the IMU awards up to four Fields
Medals and one Nevanlinna Prize among other
IMU prizes at the International Congress of
Mathematicians (ICM) held every four years.
This year we were excited to meet and attend
the talks of Sir Andrew Wiles (Abel Prize 2016;
IMU Silver Plaque 1998) and Heisuke Hironaka
(Fields Medal 1970) at the HLF for the first time,
both of whom I knew very well since the 1970s.
I enjoyed the talk of Raúl Rojas on early German
computing machines and was soon amused at
the switching sounds of relays in the machines
at the exhibition held in the next door building
that are no longer existent in the IC computers.
Besides lectures on mathematics and computer
science, attending Brian Schmidt’s Lindau
Lecture State of the Universe was also a great
opportunity at the HLF to feel the cooperation
with the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings
(LNLM).
As well as the lectures, participants, young and
established, enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere
especially at coffee time, lunch, and dinner. I
myself enjoyed chattering with computer scientists
during breakfast, which is a rare opportunity
to meet them in a relaxed mood. I am grateful
to the HLF for the opportunity to talk with
people from the ACM and the DNVA. Especially
because this was my first time to meet the new
president of the ACM, Vicki L. Hanson, which I
am sure will contribute to the future cooperation
between IMU and ACM. Wednesday was
packed with various activities, from school and
institution visits to the boat trip and sightseeing
tours. In the morning I visited a local high
school in Eberbach, the Hohenstaufen-Gymnasium
(HSG), which was a unique opportunity for
me to explain to high school students how I feel
about and enjoy mathematics. I enjoyed talking
with young participants especially during the
boat trip, which is possibly one of the most enjoyable
moments. I encourage and even urge
them to talk to laureates because they are surely
welcomed much more than they expect.
Beyond these beautiful talks and enjoyable
workshops and Hot Topic events, the Scientific
Committee selects 200 promising young researchers
to the HLF out of the many applicants
and discusses other organizational matters
for the HLF. I deeply appreciate their contribution.
Only a few weeks before the HLF 2016,
Jean-Christophe Yoccoz (Fields Medal 1994)
passed away, who was a member of the Committee.
I recognized with sincere appreciation
his contribution to the HLF as a Committee
member, not to mention as a speaker.
HLF 2016 was extremely successful, thanks to
the commitment of the Heidelberg Laureate
Forum Foundation (HLFF) with the support of
the Klaus Tschira Stiftung (KTS) and the Heidelberg
Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS), and
the devotion of the helping hands.
Last but not least, I sincerely wish the HLF continued
success in the coming years.
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13

Welcome
Three Abel Laureates at the 4th HLF
Anne-Marie Astad
Information Adviser Norwegian Academy of Science
and Letters (DNVA)
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
(DNVA) is one of the institutions supporting the
Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF). The agreement
about the establishment of the HLF was
signed by the parties involved at the Academy
in Oslo on May 22, 2012. Later the same day Endre
Szemerédi received the Abel Prize from King
Harald of Norway. This year Endre Szemerédi
participated in his third Heidelberg Laureate Forum
where he generously continued to share his
knowledge with the next generation of mathematicians.
Sir Andrew Wiles who received the Abel Prize
this year for his stunning proof of Fermat’s Last
Theorem, drew a full house when he gave his
lecture Equations in arithmetic in the large New
Auditorium of Heidelberg University. For one of
the young researchers in particular this was a
very special moment. Dominique Mills-Howell
from the University of the West Indies told us
that this was the first time he could attend a
lecture with Sir Andrew Wiles who had inspired
him for so many years, ever since he was a
young student of mathematics in Jamaica.
To facilitate interaction between the winners of
the Abel Prize, the Fields Medal, the Nevanlinna
Prize and the ACM A.M. Turing Award and the
young researchers in mathematics and computer
science is at the core of the HLF. Scientific exchange
and inspiration are two key factors.
Exceptional young talents
The Scientific Committee reviewed 600 applications
and chose 200 young researchers from over
50 countries from all over the world. During one
week in September, these outstanding young
researchers met with 21 of the world’s most distinguished
mathematicians and computer scientists
in Heidelberg, Germany’s oldest and most
famous university town.
Heidelberg is also renowned for its baroque Altstadt
(Old Town), spirited student atmosphere,
beautiful riverside setting and evocative hilltop
castle where many participants of the HLF enjoyed
exquisite dinners while engaging in scientific
discussions.
The HLF is an “all inclusive” science week. Here
scientists will introduce their most recent research
findings and projects in plenary lectures.
Workshops offer the young scientists a unique
opportunity to discuss with the experts in their
fields in an informal environment. At the same
time the laureates appreciate the interactions
with the outstanding young researchers in mathematics
and computer science. It will come as
no surprise if among this group of exceptional
young talents there are future laureates.
Looking at the program of the 4th HLF, there
are many events that take place outside the lecture
halls. The participants can choose from a
variety of excursions and cultural events, not to
mention all the opportunities to taste local food
like at the Bavarian Evening. This creates many
informal meeting places and makes HLF unique.
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Welcome
“Klaus Tschira cultivated this format so that
mathematicians and computer scientists have
a platform for scientific exchange,” said Beate
Spiegel, Chairperson of the Heidelberg Laureate
Forum Foundation (HLFF) and Managing Director
of the Klaus Tschira Stiftung (KTS).
Importance of early recognition
Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, President of the European
Research Council and himself a mathematician,
shared in his address at the opening
ceremony his own story of how he in the beginning
of his career was contacted by a leading
mathematician in his field and what that meant.
In 1973, I was spending the summer at Stanford
University as a young researcher. At that time
I had not yet produced much in the way of scientific
work. One morning the telephone rang
in my office. And to my surprise on the line was
Professor Chern Shiing Shen, a leading mathematician
in my field of Differential Geometry. He
invited me to share a lunch with him in Berkeley.
I started to wonder why on earth this world famous
mathematician would want to talk to me?
It turned out that he was simply curious to know
what my projects were. But the fact that he
showed an interest in my work meant a great
deal to me. I felt that, contrary to the impression
I had formed in my own country, maybe what
I was trying to do had some value after all. In
research, confidence plays a huge role. Thanks
to Professor Chern’s supportive attitude I came
back to France with a different vision of my possible
contributions to the field.
I later discovered that he made such invitations
to a number of young people. And this willingness
to encourage and support young researchers,
and to learn from them, is shared by the
many leading scientists here at the HLF.
Mathematical dreams
Sir Michael Atiyah, who was awarded the Abel
Prize in 2004 together with Isadore Singer, talked
in his lecture about The Soluble and the Insoluble.
He finished his talk by giving the audience
a poem he had written.
In the broad light of day mathematicians check
their equations and their proofs, leaving no
stone unturned in their search for rigour
But, at night, under the full moon, they dream,
they float among the stars and wonder at the
miracle of the heavens
They are inspired
Without dreams there is no art, no mathematics,
no life
15

Welcome
Young Researcher Testimonials
The Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF) has
helped me get out of my bubble and remind
myself again of where the math and computer
science research stands today, where it is headed
and what challenges and opportunities lie in
store for the young researchers. Through their
stories and experiences the laureates provided
valuable guidance for shaping my own research
and plans for my career.
Ahmet Cengiz Oztireli
This was a week to remember! Healthy skepticism,
suspended judgment and disciplined
imagination.
Ujwal Gadiraju
A unique forum where the thinking of the older
generation of computer scientists and mathematicians
meet the younger and next generation
of computer scientists and mathematicians
to produce a good mix of what language of innovation
and development should be spoken in
the years to come. The event is nice. The organization
superb. The choice of speakers is sound.
Besides, drawing participants from several
countries of the world – developed, semi-developed,
developing – is unique in its own way. This
is a promoter to the fact that global cooperation
is a good approach towards providing solutions
to challenges of innovation and development. It
also implies that innovative ideas could come
from anywhere regardless of race or color. This
is a huge investment that will yield immense results
in years to come.
Adekunle Afolabi
Thank you for a wonderful week together! It has
been so amazing to meet such talent from all
over the world in a lovely fairy tale like setting!
Suzanna Schmeelk
It was an excellent and really inspirational meeting.
Thanks for the nice organization. And for all
young researchers reading this, remember, “It is
what you do in the dark, that puts you out into
the light.”
Lukas Breuer
This is one of those once in a lifetime experiences.
I’ve been able to speak to the authors of some
of the books I studied in college. I loved the expression
that “these are our Olympians” and I
felt it that way. Never in life had I dreamed to
be here, to talk to them, to meet as many smart
fellows from all around the world. I’m proud
of bringing the Venezuelan flag this far and to
learn from everybody. Lessons about life, what
to wait for in the future and a latent question
about what are we going to do next to create
a better society and more history in both fields.
HLF is motivating, exciting and brings you humility
and relativizes all our major worries. One
more challenge: Inspire the next generations as
they have done to me. I’m deeply thankful for all.
Claudia Rosas Mendoza
The HLF has been one of the best experiences
of my life. The events and opportunities I’ve experienced
have surpassed any other conference
experience I have had, or am ever likely to have.
A special thanks is required for the staff, who
made the week so easy and carefree. In particular,
the awesome driver who organized a volleyball
with which we were able to play with in
the break. Many thanks and hopefully see you
again!
Mark Bugden
16

Welcome
The HLF is a truly intellectually inspiring event.
Through talks from the laureates and interactions
with the young researchers, one is exposed
to a diverse mix of seminal ideas which
challenge one’s preconceived notions and thinking.
As a consequence of attending the Forum,
I will be resuming my research work motivated
by new questions (which I had previously not
considered) inspired by a collection of ideas and
insights to explore.
Vincent Bindschädler
One of the loveliest experiences of my life. I was
humbled by the hospitality of the organizing
committee and staff. Hearing all the laureates in
person has given me the inspiration to step on a
journey of my own, to explore and dream big. It
is my hope that the Forum will go on to become
one of the most influential platforms in the field
of science that can bridge the wide gap between
computer scientists and mathematicians at the
forefront of knowledge and young researchers
from different parts of the globe.
Syed Waqar Ali Shah
The HLF as a program is a genius idea. Communication,
outreach and an appreciation for math
and computer science is really something that
is fundamental. More often than not, people interested
in engaging in such activities find it difficult
to find like-minded people. To that end, the
HLF has been a perfect device. I have met many
“mathsies” and “compsies” genuinely interested
in these issues and I am really thankful for this
opportunity that I’ve been provided with. To me,
this program has simply been wonderful and I
will be advertising it across the institutes that I
interact with in the future.
Lashi Bandara
Quotes from the Young Researcher Survey:
The best professional experience of my life!
Great international diversity!
Eye opening, inspirational and deeply motivating.
A priceless opportunity.
It was my “dream come true” moment having
the chance to meet and interact with the laureates.
The best conference/forum that I have ever participated
in. Thanks!
An amazing experience. I think my language is
not good enough to explain this wonderful experience.
H- Happiness/L- Lifetime Experience/F- Forever
grateful for the opportunity!
Frontiers being moved forward via mutual collaborations;
lively and motivating talks, accompanied
by lots of laughter.
A nice opportunity for interaction and exchange.
It seems to be challenging to provide talks which
are both appealing to the experts and interesting
to young researchers from other areas. Impressive
program with clearly enormous efforts.
The social events encouraged a lot of scientific
interaction, in particular with the laureates.
It was impressive to see how simple principles
we learn in childhood can be translated into
great accomplishments if you really do follow
them. The atmosphere was very exclusive.
Attending the 4th Heidelberg Laureate Forum
has been a profoundly enriching experience. It
was an integral experience in my career in terms
of cementing my beliefs in gaining further education
in mathematics. Meeting the respective
laureates has had a profound impact on me.
Dominic Mills-Howell
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About The Forum
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About The Forum
Structure
The Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation
(HLFF) was established in 2013 to organize the
annual Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF), a captivating
assembly of some of the world’s most
brilliant mathematicians and computer scientists.
200 young researchers from all over the
world are granted the opportunity to personally
meet and acutely discuss with the laureates of
their specialized fields.
The HLFF understands that communication is
the fiber woven throughout scientific progress,
and that time is fundamental to cultivate meaningful
connections. In that vein, the recipients of
the Abel Prize, the Fields Medal, the Nevanlinna
Prize, and the ACM A.M. Turing Award engage
with young researchers in a profound scientific
dialogue for one gripping week in Heidelberg.
During the 4th HLF, a joint decision was reached
that beginning in 2017, the recipients of the
ACM Prize in Computing will be included among
the laureates invited to the HLF.
Leading up to the Forum, the HLFF stepped up
to the challenge of making the experience at the
4th HLF one that reaps benefits for its participants
for years to come. The unique structure
enables interactions between the laureates and
the young researchers to go beyond superficial
layers, creating a space where specific research
queries can be discussed in depth.
The HLF was established and is funded by the
German foundation Klaus Tschira Stiftung (KTS),
which promotes natural sciences, mathematics
and computer science. The Forum is organized
by the HLFF along with the KTS. It is strongly
supported by the award-granting institutions,
the Association for Computing Machinery
(ACM: ACM A.M. Turing Award, ACM Prize in
Computing), the International Mathematical
Union (IMU: Fields Medal, Nevanlinna Prize),
and the Norwegian Academy of Science and
Letters (DNVA: Abel Prize).
20

About The Forum
Selection Process
Each year, the Heidelberg Laureate Forum
Foundation (HLFF) receives several hundred
applications from aspiring mathematicians and
computer scientists from all over the world. To
ensure that only the most qualified are selected,
the application process of the Heidelberg Laureate
Forum (HLF) is structured in several steps.
In an open application process, every young
researcher working in mathematics, computer
science and closely related fields can register to
apply via the online application tool. After the
submission deadline, in the first of a two phase
process, all applications are reviewed by a group
of 50 international scientists. This first phase is
primarily handled by the award-granting organizations,
supported by the Heidelberg Institute
for Theoretical Studies (HITS), Mathematisches
Forschungszentrum Oberwolfach (MFO), and by
Schloss Dagstuhl, Leibniz Center for Informatics
(LCI).
In a second phase of the application process, a
shortlist of proposed candidates is submitted
to the HLF’s Scientific Committee, which makes
the final decision.
Young researchers can apply once in each stage
of their careers: as an undergraduate, a graduate
PhD and as a postdoc.
Members of the Scientific Committee
at the 4th HLF
(sorted by last name):
Jennifer Tour Chayes
(Microsoft Research)
Gert-Martin Greuel
(University of Kaiserslautern)
Helge Holden
(Norwegian University of Science and
Technology Trondheim)
Silvio Micali
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Andreas Reuter
(Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation)
Dierk Schleicher
(Jacobs University Bremen)
Srinivasa S. R. Varadhan
(New York University)
Anna Wienhard
(Heidelberg University)
Reinhard Wilhelm
(Saarland University)
Jean-Christophe Yoccoz †
(Collège de France Paris)
21

About The Forum
Organizers
Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation
The Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF) is organized
by the Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation
(HLFF), a non-profit foundation that was
established and is funded by the German foundation
Klaus Tschira Stiftung (KTS) in 2013. The
HLFF’s objective is to provide mathematicians
and computer scientists with a similar networking
meeting as the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings
(LNLM) have successfully been doing for
the disciplines of physics, chemistry, physiology
or medicine and economics for many decades.
Klaus Tschira Stiftung
In 1995, Klaus Tschira (1940–2015), physicist and
co-founder of the software company SAP, established
the Klaus Tschira Stiftung (KTS) in Germany
as a non-profit foundation. The Foundation
promotes the advancement of natural sciences,
mathematics and computer science and strives
to raise appreciation for these fields. The KTS
is one of Europe´s largest privately funded
non-profit foundations. The Foundation is jointly
managed by Beate Spiegel, Harald Tschira and
Udo Tschira.
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We support the Natural
Sciences, Mathematics
and Computer Science.
Our focal points:
Education | Research | Science Communication
By founding the non-profit Klaus Tschira Stiftung in 1995, Klaus Tschira
created a pillar of support for the natural sciences, mathematics and
computer science throughout Germany.
2013 he established the Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation to
connect young researchers and Prize winners of renowned awards in
mathematics or computer science.
www.klaus-tschira-stiftung.de
23

About The Forum
Supporting Institutions
Association for Computing Machinery
The Association for Computing Machinery
(ACM) is the world’s largest educational and scientific
computing society, uniting computing educators,
researchers and professionals to inspire
dialogue, share resources and address the field’s
challenges.
International Mathematical Union
The International Mathematical Union (IMU)
promotes, with its more than 70 member countries,
the development of mathematics in any of
its aspects, pure, applied, or educational. The
IMU encourages worldwide cooperations in
mathematics and organizes the International
Congress of Mathematicians.
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
(DNVA), founded in 1857, is a non-governmental,
nationwide body which embraces all fields
of learning. Its main purpose is to support the
advancement of science and scholarship in Norway.
The Abel Prize for excellent scientific work
in mathematics is awarded every year by The
Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.
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About The Forum
Schloss Dagstuhl –
Leibniz Center for Informatics
The Leibniz Center for Informatics (LCI) is one of
the leading research centers for computer science
in the world. Since 1990 it has organized
seminars of the highest scientific caliber. The
LCI fosters world-class informatics research by
bringing together internationally renowned researchers
and promising young scientists. Over
3,000 scientists from all over the world attend
Dagstuhl events each year.
Mathematisches
Forschungsinstitut
Oberwolfach
Mathematisches Forschungszentrum
Oberwolfach
The Mathematische Forschungszentrum Oberwolfach
(MFO) is a unique infrastructure in the
field of mathematics and holds internationally
a leading position, since it especially supports
scientific research with its excellent facilities,
highly qualified workshops and small “Research
in Pairs” groups.
Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings
Founded in 1951, the Lindau Nobel Laureate
Meetings (LNLM) bring together around 600 excellent
young scientists from around the world
with Nobel Laureates every year. The meeting
focusses alternately on the disciplines of physics,
chemistry and medicine or physiology. In
addition, the Lindau Meetings on Economic Sciences
are held every three years.
25

CELEBRATING
50 YEARS
OF COMPUTING’S
GREATEST
ACHIEVEMENTS
Since its inauguration in 1966, the ACM A. M. Turing Award has
recognized major contributions of lasting importance in computing.
Through the years, it has become the most prestigious technical award
in the field, often referred to as the “Nobel Prize of computing.”
During the next several months, ACM will celebrate 50 years
of the Turing Award and the visionaries who have received it.
Our aim is to highlight the significant impact of the contributions
of the Turing Laureates on computing and society, to look ahead
to the future of technology and innovation, and to help inspire the
next generation of computer scientists to invent and dream.
Our celebration will culminate with a conference on June 23-24,
2017 at the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco with lively moderated
discussions exploring how computing has evolved and where the field
is headed. We hope you can join us there, or via the web—we will be
streaming the sessions in real time.
www.acm.org/turing-award-50
Turing50-Ad_PF.indd 1
26
8/30/16 12:09 PM

IMU
International
Mathematical
Union
www.mathunion.org
An international non-governmental and non-profit scientific organization,
with the purpose of
■ Promoting international cooperation in mathematics
■ Supporting and assisting the International Congress of Mathematicians and
other international scientific meetings or conferences
■ Encouraging and supporting other international mathematical activities
considered likely to contribute to the development of mathematical science
in any of its aspects, pure, applied, or educational
IMU is one of the institutions supporting the Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF).
Winners of the Fields Medal and the Rolf Nevanlinna Prize, two prestigious IMU awards, are among the
laureates participating in the HLF events where the best students in mathematics and computer science
are brought together with winners of the most prestigious awards in these two disciplines.
■ Fields Medal
For outstanding mathematical
achievement for existing
work and the promise of future
achievement.
■ Rolf Nevanlinna Prize
For outstanding contributions
in mathematical aspects of
information sciences.
IMU is a member of the lnternational Council for Science (ICSU). The members of IMU are countries
represented through Adhering Organizations (AOs). IMU currently has 72 full members, 10 associate
members, and 4 affiliate members. Detailed information at http://www.mathunion.org/.
© IMU 2016
27

Three Abel Laureates at the 4th Heidelberg Laureate Forum
© Audun Braastad
left: Sir Andrew Wiles
right: Academy President Ole M. Sejersted
behind: Torbjørn Røe Isaksen, Minister of Education and Research
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters is one of the institutions supporting
the Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF). The agreement that established the HLF
was signed at the Academy in Oslo on May 22, 2012. Later that same day, Endre
Szemerédi received the Abel Prize from King Harald of Norway, and this year marks
his third time at the Heidelberg Laureate Forum.
Sir Andrew Wiles who received the Abel Prize this year for
his stunning proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem, will also take
part in the 4th HLF. Sir Michael Atiyah, who was awarded
the Abel Prize in 2004, has shared his knowledge, ideas
and thoughts at every HLF since 2013.
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters began
awarding the Abel Prize in 2003. The prize carries a cash
award of 6 million NOK (about 650,000 euros), and is
named after the exceptional Norwegian mathematician
Niels Henrik Abel (1802–1829).
© Calle Huth/Studio
For more information visit the Abel Prize website: www.abelprize.no
• March 21, 2017 at 12:00: The winner of the Abel Prize will be announced by the
Academy’s President
• May 23, 2017 at 14:00: Abel Prize Award Ceremony at the University Aula in
Oslo
• May 24, 2017 from 10:00 to 15:30: Abel Lectures 2017 at the University of Oslo
28

Mathematisches
Forschungsinstitut
Oberwolfach
Junior Scientists at Oberwolfach
Oberwolfach Leibniz Fellows
Junior researchers can apply for a stay from one to three months at
Oberwolfach in order to realize a research project either individually
or in small groups.
Oberwolfach Leibniz Graduate Students
We support the participation of an average of five junior researchers
per Oberwolfach Workshop, in addition to the usual capacity.
US Oberwolfach Junior Fellows
A grant of the National Science Foundation enables us to support the
participation of outstanding junior scientists from US universities and
institutes in all weekly activities at Oberwolfach.
Oberwolfach Seminars
The Oberwolfach Seminars introduce Ph.D. students and postdocs
from all over the world to a particular hot development. Travel to
Oberwolfach Seminars has in the past been supported by the Carl
Friedrich von Siemens Foundation.
For further information and details on how to apply please visit
www.mfo.de/scientific-programme
29

Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz Center for Informatics
sees its mission in furthering world class research
in computer science by facilitating communication
and interaction between researchers.
♦ The Dagstuhl seminar program attracts the
best scientists for 3–5 days to the seclusion
of Schloss Dagstuhl for undisturbed, in-depth
discussions about hot topics in and around
computer science.
♦ Dagstuhl publishing actively promotes and facilitates
open-access publishing in computer
science.
♦ Dagstuhl bibliographic services leads the support
of the computer science bibliography data
base dblp, which is heavily used by researchers
and decision makers in computer science.
For more information visit www.dagstuhl.de.
30

© Ch. Flemming / Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings
Since 1951, Nobel Laureates and young scientists meet in Lindau
to discuss the latest findings from medicine & physiology,
physics, chemistry, as well as economic sciences.
We are delighted that the Klaus Tschira Stiftung has extended
this exceptional format to laureates and young scientists
in the fields of mathematics and computer sciences.
The Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings would like to send their
best wishes for success to the 4th Heidelberg Laureate Forum.
Lindau Lecture at the Heidelberg Laureate Forum
with Nobel Laureate Brian P. Schmidt on Monday, 19 September 2016
WWW.LINDAU-NOBEL.ORG | BLOG.LINDAU-NOBEL.ORG | MEDIATHEQUE.LINDAU-NOBEL.ORG
The 2016 Heidelberg Lecture held by ACM Turing Award Winner Vinton G. Cerf during the 66th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting is available in the Lindau Mediatheque.
Anzeige HLF v2.indd 1 31.08.2016 15:46:17
31

About The Forum
Scientific Partners
Heidelberg Institute forTheoretical Studies
Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies
(HITS) is a private, non-profit research institute,
founded by the Klaus Tschira Stiftung. HITS
conducts basic research in the natural sciences,
mathematics and computer sciences with a focus
on the processing, structuring, and analyzing
of large amounts of complex data and the
development of computational methods and
software. The research fields range from molecular
biology to astrophysics. In 2016, the institute
was jointly managed by Gesa Schönberger
and Rebecca Wade.
Heidelberg University
Heidelberg University is Germany’s oldest university
and one of Europe’s most research-intensive
institutions. Its successes in the Excellence
Initiative and its internationally recognised rankings
substantiate the leading role and excellent
reputation of Heidelberg University.
32

FROM THE MOLECULE TO THE UNIVERSE:
THINK BEYOND THE LIMITS!
■ 120 researchers from 22 countries
■ From molecular biology to astrophysics
■ Mathematical methods and computer simulations
■ International and interdisciplinary
www.h-its.org
Scientific Partner of the Heidelberg Laureate Forum
33

GERMANY’S
OLDEST
UNIVERSITY
HEIDELBERG UNIVERSITY
MORE THAN
7,200
DOCTORAL
STUDENTS
STRONG
INTERNATIONAL
RELATIONS
EXCELLENT
RESEARCH
UNIVERSITY
RESEARCH
ORIENTED
TEACHING
www.uni-heidelberg.de
34

About The Forum
Supporters & Partners
35

About The Forum
The Awards
Abel Prize
The Abel Prize is awarded every year for outstanding
scientific work in the field of mathematics,
including mathematical aspects of computer
science, mathematical physics, probability,
numerical analysis and scientific computing, statistics,
and also applications of mathematics in
the sciences. In addition to honoring outstanding
mathematicians, the Abel Prize contributes
towards raising the status of mathematics in society
and cultivating the interest of children and
young people in mathematics. The Abel Prize,
named after Norwegian mathematician Niels
Henrik Abel (1802–1829), and the Fields Medal
have often been described as the “Mathematician’s
Nobel Prizes.”
The prize amount is NOK 6 million.
abelprize.no
ACM A.M. Turing Award
As an annual prize, the ACM gives the ACM A.M.
Turing Award, ACM’s oldest and most prestigious
award, for major contributions of lasting
importance to computing. The ACM A.M. Turing
Award is often regarded as the “Nobel Prize of
Computing” and is recognized as the “highest
distinction in computer science.” It was named
in honor of Alan Mathison Turing (1912–1954),
the British mathematician and computer scientist
widely considered as the father of theoretical
computer science.
The award is presented each June at the ACM
Awards Banquet and is accompanied by a prize
of USD 1,000,000.
amturing.acm.org
36

About The Forum
Fields Medal
The Fields Medal is one of the two prestigious
awards granted at the International Congress of
Mathematics every four years. It recognizes outstanding
mathematical achievement for existing
work and for the promise of future achievement.
Two to four medals are awarded to
mathematicians who have to be younger than
forty years of age on January 1 of the Congress
year. The Fields Medal, established in 1936 and
named after the Canadian mathematician J. C.
Fields, is one of the most prestigious awards in
the field of mathematics and often described as
the “Nobel Prize of Mathematics.” There is also
a monetary prize of CAD 15,000 accompanying
the Medal.
mathunion.org/general/prizes/fields
Nevanlinna Prize
The Rolf Nevanlinna Prize is presented on the
occasion of the International Congress of Mathematicians
as well, and signifies outstanding contributions
in “Mathematical Aspects of Information
Sciences.” For the prize winner, the same
requirements as for the Fields medalists apply:
An awardee’s 40th birthday must not occur before
January 1 of the year of the Congress at
which the prize is awarded. The prize was established
in 1981 and named to honor the Finnish
mathematician Rolf Nevanlinna.
mathunion.org/general/prizes/nevanlinna
37

About The Forum
Conference Elements
Plenary Lectures
Laureates hold plenary lectures, generally in
the morning sessions. The choice of the lecture
subject is entirely up to the speaker. Therefore,
topics range from technical subjects to science
and education or politics.
Postdoc Workshops
Postdoc young researchers are invited to apply
to present a workshop. Together with fellow
young researchers, selected groups will jointly
hold workshops during the HLF. Each workshop
is mentored by a laureate or member of the Scientific
Committee.
Poster Session
The poster session advertises the scientific work
of the young researchers. All PhD candidates
are invited to contribute to this session.
38

About The Forum
The Hot Topic
This session is an interactive discussion among a
panel of experts who dive into a consequential,
contemporary issue in order to confront difficult
questions and perhaps come away with original
answers. The purpose of the session is to
increase awareness in an area where progress
made in mathematics and computer science
has an especially profound impact on society.
Visits to Institutes and Companies
Young researchers are offered the opportunity
to visit various research institutes and companies
that are located in and around Heidelberg.
These excursions help the young researchers
to enlarge their occupational network and to
learn more about the research sites and working
conditions of Germany’s south-west.
Social Events
Extraordinary social events give all participants
the opportunity to meet outside the academic
surrounding. This part of the HLF is an important
and crucial aspect for young researchers to get
to know each other and to make new friends.
During the HLF, the beautiful landscapes and
scenery of the Rhine-Neckar region are discovered.
39

About The Forum
Heidelberg
The Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation
(HLFF) has designed a platform to advance research
ideas and cultivate creativity. The annual
Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF) takes place
in Heidelberg, one of the most renowned sites
for scientific research in Germany, which beckons
scholars and visitors from all corners of the
globe.
Heidelberg University, Ruperto Carola, founded
in 1386, is one of the oldest European universities
and the oldest university in Germany.
Heidelberg’s academic tradition not only spans
centuries, but includes a vast and extensive network.
Well over 39,000 students are attending
one of the ten colleges, universities or vocational
schools located in the city.
The city and science are inseparably linked and
are fundamental to Heidelberg’s popularity as a
focal point for international academic exchange.
Many prominent research institutes like European
Molecular Biology Laboratory, the German
Cancer Research Center and four Max Planck Institutes
contribute to Heidelberg’s esteem.
The region surrounding Heidelberg has also garnered
recognition on the global market as home
to software giants SAP SE and SAS. During the
HLF, the young researchers have the opportunity
to choose one out of several selected institutions
and companies to visit.
40

41
About The Forum

Participants
42

43

Participants
The Laureates
The laureates’ interaction with the young researchers
is the most pivotal element to the success
of each Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF);
therefore, the Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation
(HLFF) annually invites all recipients of
the Fields Medal, ACM A.M. Turing Award, Abel
Prize and Nevanlinna Prize. In 2016, the 4th HLF
was honored that 21 of these decorated scientists
accepted the invitation and came to Heidelberg
in the last week of September. For the
emerging generation of mathematicians and
computer scientists, the opportunity to attend
lectures given by their heroes and share quality
time in an informal setting is a milestone.
The laureates and the chairpersons of the HLFF at the Opening Ceremony
Laureate cubes arranged in front of the New University:
Portraits of the laureates are accompanied by
brief descriptions of which prize they were awarded
and the work that led to their recognition.
In addition to the laureate portraits, renowned photographer
Peter Badge also produced short video interviews
with some of the laureates.
44

Participants
Sir Michael Francis Atiyah
Fields Medal, 1966/Abel Prize, 2004
Frederick Brooks
ACM A.M. Turing Award, 1999
Vinton Gray Cerf
ACM A.M. Turing Award, 2004
Stephen A. Cook
ACM A.M. Turing Award, 1982
Gerd Faltings
Fields Medal, 1986
Heisuke Hironaka
Fields Medal, 1970
Sir C. Antony R. Hoare
ACM A.M. Turing Award, 1980
John E. Hopcroft
ACM A.M. Turing Award, 1986
William Morton Kahan
ACM A.M. Turing Award, 1989
45

Participants
Leslie Lamport
ACM A.M. Turing Award, 2013
Barbara Liskov
ACM A.M. Turing Award, 2008
Shigefumi Mori
Fields Medal, 1990
Ngô Bảo Châu
Fields Medal, 2010
Raj Reddy
ACM A.M. Turing Award, 1994
Joseph Sifakis
ACM A.M. Turing Award, 2007
Richard Edwin Stearns
ACM A.M. Turing Award, 1993
Ivan Sutherland
ACM A.M. Turing Award, 1988
Endre Szemerédi
Abel Prize, 2012
Robert Endre Tarjan
Nevanlinna Prize, 1982/ACM A.M.
Turing Award, 1986
Vladimir Voevodsky
Fields Medal, 2002
Sir Andrew John Wiles
Silver Plaque of the IMU, 1998/Abel
Prize, 2016
46

47

Participants
The Young Researchers
48

49
Participants

Participants
5 out of 200
5 out of the 200 young researchers at the 4th
Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF) were asked a
series of questions to shed light on how someone
is called to either mathematics or computer
science and how their research develops.
Jan Paul Toni Mueller
B.Sc.
Stanford University
USA
German
What is the focus of your research?
We are focusing on the whole pipeline of visual
computing. Take the rendering of water splashes
as an example: One starts with the mathematical
description of the underlying physical
systems, thinks about how this can be efficiently
computed, and finally how to get that onto the
screen. The end result is either something rendered
in a good-looking way or a visualization
of something that is not even visible in reality.
Why did you become a computer scientist?
Wind back the time to the 1990s. Cinema. Steven
Spielberg. Jurassic Park. Even though I could
not see the movie right when it came out, when
I finally got the chance to see it a few years later,
the film really left a lasting impression on me.
Why did you apply for the HLF?
At Stanford I have experienced both groundbreaking
research as well as very strong connections
to the industry and a real culture of startups
that I have never seen before. In the Silicon
Valley there is a butter smooth transition between
invention and innovation. But even here
I cannot meet so many amazing role models all
in one place like at the HLF – it is really a unique
opportunity.
Manalebish Debalike
Asfaw
M.Sc.
Addis Ababa University
Ethiopia
Ethiopian
What is the focus of your research?
My research is in mathematical modeling of ecological
systems. My interests are in understanding
the interaction between plants and herbivores
and how they react to weather changes
such as rainfall and different temperatures, and
how the altitude influences their interactions. I
am studying non-linear ODEs (ordinary differential
equations) and PDEs (partial differential
equations) in a stochastic and deterministic
model of dynamics, computing the solutions. I
am using the models to quantify the impact and
risk of overgrazing and the impact of us humans
on the environment, for example considering
climate change and land use. Modeling ecological
systems inspires interesting mathematical
questions and challenges. At the same time, it
helps improving the sustainable management
of livestock.
Why did you become a mathematician?
Mathematics gives rules to follow and uses logic.
I enjoy the abstractness of the subject and the
challenge it brings. There was also the positive
influence from my teachers on me to love mathematics.
Why did you apply for the HLF?
To meet and get experience from profound
mathematicians from all over the world.
50

Participants
Nikita Alekseev
PhD
George Washington
University
USA
Russian
What is the focus of your research?
My current research is on the edge between
comparative genomics and graph theory. One of
my current projects is about understanding random
graph models (like the Erdős–Rényi model)
in connection with rearrangements of chromosomes,
which is one of the driving forces of evolution.
The goal of the method we developed is
to estimate the evolutionary distance (the number
of rearrangements) between species under
the assumption that the rearrangements occurred
randomly along the chromosomes. As a
result, one can build a phylogeny more precisely
using our method.
Why did you become a mathematician?
I had very good teachers in high school, and
they showed me the beauty of abstract mathematical
constructions. Being a student I was impressed
by the variety of applications of math in
different areas. At that point I decided that this
was what I wanted to do professionally.
Why did you apply for the HLF?
I really hope I will be able to see the big picture
in math and science one day. I believe the HLF is
a very good place to learn how the most prominent
scientists see the world.
Bao Nhan Ho
PhD
La Trobe University
Australia
Vietnamese
What is the focus of your research?
I’m working on two-player combinatorial games.
Examples of these games include Go, Chess,
Checker, and Tic-tac-toe. My research focuses
on impartial games in which legal moves depend
on the position rather than who is about to
move. The game of Nim is an example, in which
the two players alternately remove tokens from
a row of piles until all tokens are removed. I
have analyzed many variants of Nim, studying
winning strategies, complexity, and numerical
properties including periodicity. Studying games
is enjoyable as I can see how mathematics exists
in real life. For example, it would help to explain
why some games look simple to play but are
very hard to analyze.
Why did you become a mathematician?
I enjoyed mathematics in high school, and the
main reason is possibly that I am better at mathematics
than other fields.
Why did you apply for the HLF?
This event is an excellent opportunity for young
researchers to network. Meeting new people is
enjoyable. Also, Heidelberg is a nice city.
51

Aastha Ketan Mehta
B.Eng.
Max Planck Institute for
Software Systems
Germany
Indian
What is the focus of your research?
Have you noticed that when you search for
something on Google or Bing, the search results
include not only public data, but also your private
data, such as your emails or flight information?
What if the search engine accidentally
shared your private data with somebody else?
Web services such as search engines, and social
networks are very complex, and often suffer
from such data leaks. My recent work enables
web service providers to protect confidentiality
of the data used in the services. The confidentiality
“policies” may come from the clients (end-users
of the services), the providers themselves, or
the local jurisdiction. I have been designing various
“policy compliance” systems, which provide
a framework to specify such policies concisely,
and a mechanism to enforce them systematically
and efficiently.
Why did you become a computer scientist?
Computer science has been a very popular field
in the recent years. I was interested in mathematics
and engineering, and decided to try out
computer science. I do not regret my choice!
Why did you apply for the HLF?
I have heard a lot about the HLF from some of
my colleagues who attended the Forum earlier.
The HLF provides an excellent platform to meet
with eminent computer scientists and mathematicians,
and socialize over a broad range of
research topics. I want to attend the HLF to hear
about the exciting research being carried out in
different areas, and understand how the different
areas interact and influence each other.
52

53

Participants
Collaboration (in Cartoons)
Ben Orlin (member of the 4th HLF Blog Team)
Mathematics is lonely work. Or so the romantic
stereotype has it: the lone genius in an empty
library. The sage on the mountaintop. Andrew
Wiles in the attic.
But most mathematical work is profoundly collaborative.
I caught four young researchers between events,
and gave them the prompt: On one piece of paper,
show me the essence of good collaboration.
Their drawings? Four different flavors of brilliant.
First, from Ana Djurdjevac, born in Serbia and
now studying partial differential equations:
“Their own Eden,” I said.
“The sun and the moon represent day and night,”
Ana said.
“So they work hard?”
“Yes, and each person plays a different role,” she
said. Then Ana pointed to her stick figures, from
left to right. “He is listening. She is teaching. He
is asking a question. And she is angry.”
“Angry?” I asked. “Is that important for collaboration?”
“Oh yes!” Ana said. “Someone must bring the
anger.”
Second, from Lashi Bandara, from Australia and
now studying harmonic analysis:
In pursuing PDEs, Ana perhaps missed her other
calling: as a painter specializing in stark symbolism.
“First, you need different types of people,” she
explained. “Men and women. Standing and sitting.”
“Gray and purple,” I added.
“They all share the same space,” she said, pointing
to the stage-like center of her drawing.
Lashi is effusively social, with a fondness for vulgar
humor – I had to warn him to keep it PG-rated.
He was disappointed, but resilient. “Can I at
least draw a beer?” he asked.
Lashi produced three playful sketches showing
the three pillars of good collaboration, Bandara-style.
First, communication: sharing a blackboard, and
sharing thoughts.
54

Participants
Second, socializing — although Lashi mused
that his handwriting looks more like “socialism.”
“That also works,” he said.
Thirdly, diversity — for which Lashi drew two topologically
distinct objects, representing topologically
distinct people. “So that torus-person
cannot be smoothly deformed into a sphere-?”
I said.
Personally, if I ran an MBA program, I would
totally build Tan’s illuminating charts into the
coursework.
And finally, from Helena Andres Terre, born in
Spain and now studying computational biology:
“Yes and that’s the essence of diversity!” Lashi
agreed.
Third, from Chenhao Tan, born in China and now
studying social networks:
Helena’s cartoon is equal parts cynicism and inspiration.
“So the guy with the roller skates is just coasting,
isn’t he?” I asked.
“No,” she insisted. “You need him. The collaboration
needs someone providing the carrot.”
As befits his academic interests, Tan laid out two
different graph theoretic models of collaboration:
efficient and inefficient.
In an efficient collaboration, everyone is connected,
offering compliments and constructive
discussion.
But in an inefficient one, the hierarchy is strict.
(Graph theorists would call it a tree.) Authoritarianism
reigns, and there is no goodwill between
collaborators.
“So the carrot is like the question being asked?”
I said.
“It could be,” Helena replied. “It’s whatever
drives the project forward, gives it a goal.”
“And which one are you?” I asked.
Helena, still working on her PhD at Cambridge
University, pointed to the one on the bike. Then
she smiled. “But, someday…” she said, and her
finger moved towards the other figure.
55

Participants
On a Single Piece of Paper
Ben Orlin (member of the 4th HLF Blog Team)
One of the hardest things about research in
technical fields: Explaining what the heck it is
that you do.
The natural sciences have it easy: they study
physical, tangible things. Perhaps those things
are weird and exotic (bosons, mRNA, kangaroos,
etc.) but hey, at least they’re things.
Here’s some poetic algebra for you: each vector
space is like a flourishing leaf, and linear maps
are the rough bark that runs between them. As
a researcher, Tetiana wants to understand the
whole tree.
From Opeyemi Aborisade, studying cryptography
in Senegal:
Mathematicians and computer scientists face
a taller order. They study concepts, processes,
algorithms. The “things” they research aren’t
really things at all: they’re creations of rigorous
human thought, abstract structures of logical
language. Not so easy to explain.
So as they sipped on coffee and Coke, waiting for
the Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF) opening
ceremony to begin, I ambushed seven young researchers
and goaded them into explaining their
work to me. Characterizing your specific research
can be simply too hard, so I gave them a slightly
broader invitation: On a single piece of paper, illustrate
what your research area is about.
Here is what they (very gamely!) contributed:
As Opeyemi was illustrating the mathematical
essence of internet security, I bugged her by asking
why the middle man has six limbs. “Because
he’s an attacker!” she explained.
From Mariia Fedorova, studying automata in
Ukraine:
From Tetiana Klychmuk, studying linear algebra
in Ukraine:
The graph in the upper left is a famous example
in the study of automata. To visualize the
program carrying out its commands, picture an
56

Participants
ant crawling from vertex to vertex on the graph,
choosing its next direction based on the instructions
it finds there.
From Pacome Ambassa, studying information
security in South Africa:
From Collins Amburo Agyingi, studying topology
in South Africa:
“That’s the attacker?” I asked. “But he looks so
innocent!” Apparently you can’t trust anyone
these days.
A quintessentially mathematical problem: how
can we embed this abstract structure in another
abstract structure? When are there lots of ways
to do this, and when is there only a single way?
And from Haji Ali, studying mobile health systems
in South Africa:
From Gilbert Bernstein, studying computer
graphics in the USA:
“Why is the mobile phone the same size as the
person?” I asked Haji. He politely laughed it
off, rather than pointing to my awful drawings,
which make his look like Rembrandt.
The furry fellow is an iconic character from the
history of computer graphics: the Stanford Bunny,
a ceramic rabbit that in 1994 became one
of the first objects to be reconstructed three-dimensionally
via scanning.
57

HLF Diary
58

59

Sunday, September 18
Welcome
Welcome to Heidelberg
An assemblage of some of the most innovative
and brightest minds in mathematics and computer
science in the world converged at the
Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF) for the fourth
successive year.
With young researchers from over 50 nations in
attendance, the vitality of the scientific network
was not in question. Participants immediately
began taking advantage of the HLF’s founding
principle: discourse paves the path of development.
As the enthusiasm of the young researchers
blended with the avidity of the laureates,
the dynamic ambience set the tone for the remainder
of the Forum.
Scientific Partners of the HLFF
Reasons for excitement were planted even prior
to the Opening Ceremony: the Heidelberg
Laureate Forum Foundation (HLFF) was officially
joined by two vigorous Scientific Partners in
the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies
(HITS) and Heidelberg University. A contract
signing between the organizations in the Neue
Aula made the partnership official.
from left to right:
Prof. Dr. Bernhard Eitel (President of Heidelberg
University), Prof. Dr. Andreas Reuter (Scientific Chairperson
HLFF), Beate Spiegel (Chairperson HLFF),
Dr. Gesa Schönberger (Managing Director of HITS),
Prof. Dr. Rebecca Wade (Scientific Director of HITS)
60

61

Sunday, September 18
Opening Ceremony
The joining of two new Scientific Partners
sparked an undertone of fellowship for the
Opening Ceremony. Günter Ziegler of the
Freie Universität in Berlin took the stage as
the Master of Ceremony for the second year
running and announced the laureates’ entrance.
Beate Spiegel, Chairperson of the Heidelberg
Laureate Forum Foundation (HLFF)
and Managing Director of the Klaus Tschira
Stiftung (KTS), welcomed all of the participants
and expressed her gratitude to everyone
that made the HLF possible. She was followed
by the Scientific Chairperson of the HLFF,
Andreas Reuter, who highlighted the underlying
purpose of the HLF and what lay in the week
ahead.
After a brief musical interlude from the saxophone
quartet Balanced Action Bernhard Eitel,
President of Heidelberg University, encouraged
the young researchers to fully utilize their week
at the Forum. Theresia Bauer, MA, Minister of
Science, Research and the Arts in the state of
Baden-Württemberg, stressed the importance
of staying at the head of the field in Artificial Intelligence
research. Eckart Würzner, Lord Mayor
of the City of Heidelberg, spoke about both
the scientific and scenic prowess of Heidelberg.
Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, President of the European
Research Council, quoted the late founder
of HLFF and KTS, Klaus Tschira, and told the audience
how much he learned from such a great
man.
Günter Ziegler kept the show rolling by introducing
the representatives of the prize-awarding
organizations who each took their turn at
the podium. Vicki Hanson, President of the
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM),
stressed the importance of the next generation
of researchers for science and emphasized
the 50th anniversary of the ACM A.M. Turing
Award. Shigefumi Mori, President of the International
Mathematical Union (IMU) and 1990
Fields Medalist, expressed his gratitude to each
of the representatives and participants, as well
as speaking to the importance of events like the
HLF. Ole Sejersted, President of the Norwegian
Academy of Science and Letters (DNVA), shared
his appreciation and spoke of how the DNVA
and the HLFF are like-minded in their goals.
The Opening Ceremony of the 4th HLF drew to
a close as Balanced Action took to the stage,
then the guests were encouraged to “follow the
music” across the square to the reception. The
promising start to the week pursued the participants
as they filed out and the music filled the
New University, pouring out into the streets.
62

Sunday, September 18
Laureates marching in
Balanced Action
Saxophone Quartet
Prof. Günter M. Ziegler
Master of Ceremony
Beate Spiegel
Chairperson HLFF
Prof. Dr. Andreas Reuter
Scientific Chairperson HLFF
Prof. Dr. Bernhard Eitel
President of Heidelberg University
Theresia Bauer, M.A.
Minister of Science, Research and the Arts
Baden-Württemberg
Prof. Dr. Eckart Würzner
Lord Mayor of the City of Heidelberg
Prof. Dr. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon
President of the European Research Council
Prof. Dr. Vicki Hanson
President of the Association for Computing
Machinery (ACM)
Prof. Dr. Shigefumi Mori
President of the International Mathematical
Union (IMU)
Prof. Dr. Ole Sejersted
President of The Norwegian Academy of
Science and Letters (DNVA)
63

Sunday, September 18
Reception
Escorted by the saxophone quartet, everyone
followed the music across University Square and
down to the Marstall Cafeteria for the reception.
Balanced Action continued playing in the courtyard
while the guests sampled the food and
beverages. Formalities were shed as the laureates
mingled amongst the young researchers,
shaping forthcoming interactions and the tone
for the week.
Even after the music faded, conversation filled
the building as the participants broke the ice.
The anticipation of what lay ahead was tangible,
and created an atmosphere that seemed to
grow more exciting as the night went on.
64

65

Monday, September 19
Lectures on Monday
The Scientific Program of the 4th HLF is Underway
The primary attraction of the Heidelberg Laureate
Forum (HLF) is, of course, the laureate
lectures. On Monday, the Scientific Program
of the 4th HLF kicked off with a fantastic lineup
of lectures. In addition to ACM A.M Turing
laureate John Hopcroft’s and Fields Medal and
Abel Prize laureate Sir Michael Atiyah’s lectures,
participants were also able to attend the Lindau
Lecture given by Nobel laureate in Physics, Brian
Schmidt. The lectures were concluded by Professor
of Computer Science Raúl Rojas of the
Freie Universität in Berlin. After the lectures,
the Scientific Program continued with the postdoc
workshops of the 4th HLF.
Session Chairs: Jennifer Chayes, Volker Springel
John E. Hopcroft
Exciting Computer Science Research Directions
Abstract: We have entered the information age
and this has changed the nature of computer
science and created many exciting research
problems. Two of these are extracting information
from large data sources and learning theory.
This talk will focus on two problems: first,
how to find hidden structure in social networks
and second some subareas of research in deep
learning.
Sir Michael Atiyah
The Soluble and the Insoluble
Abstract: What do we mean by a solution to a
problem? This is both a philosophical question,
and a practical one, which depends on what
one is trying to achieve and the means, time
and money available. The explosion in computer
technology keeps changing the goal posts. I
will reflect on these issues, primarily from the
viewpoint of an elderly mathematician.
Lindau Lecture
To symbolize the close ties between the HLF and
the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings (LNLM), a
guest laureate holds a lecture each year at the
respective events. The resounding success of
both the debut Lindau Lecture at the 3rd HLF
and the first Heidelberg Lecture at the 2016
LNLM ignited anticipation for the guest lectures
to come.
At the 4th HLF, Brian Schmidt, who won the 2011
Nobel Prize in Physics, led a packed auditorium
on a cosmic tour in his State of the Universe
address. Thus far, the resonance of bringing a
different dynamic that lies outside the realms
of mathematics and computer science has been
an emphatically well-received. In 2017 in Lindau
Joseph Sifakis will hold the Heidelberg Lecture
on June 28.
66

Monday, September 19
Brian Schmidt
State of the Universe
Raúl Rojas
Konrad Zuse‘s Early Computing Machines
(1935–1945)
Abstract: Our Universe was created in “The Big
Bang” and has been expanding ever since. I will
describe the vital statistics of the Universe, including
its size, weight, shape, age, and composition.
I will also try to make sense of the Universe’s
past, present, and future – and describe
what we know and what we do not yet know
about the Cosmos.
Abstract: The exhibition Konrad Zuse‘s Early
Computing Machines (1935–1945) about the
machines built by the German inventor Konrad
Zuse tells a story. It covers the years 1935 to
1945, which was the most creative phase of his
life. Raúl Rojas gives an overview of the life and
work of Konrad Zuse.
presents
EXHIBITION
Konrad Zuse’s
Early Computing Machines
(1935-1945)
September 17 to 22, 2016
every day 8:30 to 19:00, Old University Heidelberg
free
entry
67

Monday, September 19
Workshops
László Kozma, Hugo Macedo, Lianhua Chi
Randomized Algorithms
Kun He, Cengiz Oztireli
Neural Computing and Deep Learning
Richard Bubel
Specification and Verification of Software Libraries
Edmon Begoli, Vincent Schlegel
The Moving Frontier Between Informatics and
Mathematics
Marc-Oliver Pahl, Amel Bennaceur, Sai Manoj
Cyber-Physical Systems
Annette Bieniusa
Concurrency – Theory and Practice
Samira Samadi
Humanly Usable and Secure Password Generation
Methods
Ben Heuer
Ranks of Elliptic Curves
68

Monday, September 19
City Tour & Welcome Dinner
Following the conclusion of the workshops,
participants were able to join the Heidelberg
City Tour which took in some of the city’s most
recognizable sights before ending at the Heidelberg
Convention Center for the Welcome Dinner
supported by the Metropolregion Rhein-Neckar
(Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region). To set a scientific
tone for the dinner, Reinhold Ewald of the
European Space Agency (ESA) was the evening’s
keynote speaker. He captured the collective imagination
with phenomenal images, stories and insider
details from the astronaut’s perspective.
69

Tuesday, September 20
Lectures on Tuesday
Scientific Program Includes Hot Topic Session
The laureate lectures on the Tuesday morning
session began with Sir Andrew Wiles who received
the Silver Plaque of the IMU and the Abel
Prize, and was followed by ACM A.M. Turing
Award laureate Joseph Sifakis. Fields Medalist
Ngô Bảo Châu commenced the second session,
which was brought to a close with ACM A.M.
Turing laureate Fred Brooks. After the lectures,
the Scientific Program continued with the Hot
Topic of the 4th HLF which revolved around the
challenges presented by advancements in Artificial
Intelligence (AI).
Session Chairs: Dierk Schleicher, Anna Wienhard
Sir Andrew Wiles
Equations in arithmetic
Abstract: I will describe some of the interactions
between modern number theory and the problem
of solving equations in rational numbers or
integers.
Joseph Sifakis
On the Nature of Computing
Abstract: Computing is a domain of knowledge.
Knowledge is truthful information that embedded
into the right network of conceptual interrelations
can be used to understand a subject
or solve a problem. According to this definition,
Physics, Biology but also Mathematics, Engineering,
Social Sciences and Cooking are all
domains of knowledge. This definition encompasses
both, scientific knowledge about physical
phenomena and engineering knowledge
applied to design and build artefacts. For all
domains of knowledge, Mathematics and Logic
provide the models and their underlying laws;
they formalize a priori knowledge which is independent
of experience. (Full abstract available
online)
Ngô Bảo Châu
The Riemann zeta function and its generalizations
70

Tuesday, September 20
Abstract: Since the publication of Riemann’s
memoir on prime numbers less than a given
magnitude, the zeta function has never ceased
to fascinate mathematicians. We will discuss its
many appearances and generalizations in number
theory.
Fred Brooks
What Makes the Illusion Work? Studies in Effective
Immersive Virtual Environments
behave as if he is present elsewhere. The vision,
proposed by Sutherland in 1965, has driven
a half-century of research and development,
some at Chapel Hill. A major scientific challenge
is how to measure the effectiveness of a VE system,
the degree to which it causes the user to
behave as if the illusion is real. We have pursued
many measurement methods, arriving finally
at physiological measurement of subconscious
user responses, a measure that is objective,
valid, quantitative, and contemporaneous. Our
parameter studies of VE systems show, among
other things, that system latency is a major factor,
whereas the quality of illumination simulation
has little effect. Display to the senses of feel,
added to visual and aural, also makes a substantial
difference.
Abstract: A virtual environment (VE) is a technological
display to the senses that undertakes
to make the user believe (to some degree) and
71

Tuesday, September 20
Hot Topic
Artificial Intelligence
Christoph Drösser
Host of the Hot Topic at the 4th HLF
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a main
technology driver in recent years. Nearly all
big technology companies, in Silicon Valley and
elsewhere, have established AI departments or
bought up AI startups. Today, AI makes it possible
for us to talk to our smartphone and helps us
navigate the Internet. In the future, it will drive
our cars, and diagnose diseases better than a
human doctor. The growing importance of that
technology – science fiction just a decade ago
– was the reason that the Heidelberg Laureate
Forum Foundation (HLFF) picked AI as the Hot
Topic of the 2016 Forum.
Christoph Drösser
Hosted by science journalist Christoph Drösser,
seven experts from the field discussed the technology
and the consequences it will have for
society. The discussion was split into two parts,
each featuring three introductory presentations
from panelists, followed by a discussion on the
podium and with the audience.
Raj Reddy
The first hour focused on AI technology. Raj
Reddy, ACM A.M. Turing Award recipient from
Carnegie Mellon University, talked about how
language technology powered by AI can reach
people “at the bottom of the pyramid” – meaning
the three billion people that live on less than
USD 2.50 a day and are often illiterate or semiliterate.
He envisioned a voice computing app
named Asha that would always be on, listen to
its users, read the newspaper to them, find information,
point them to educational resources.
The app would learn to adapt to its user’s needs
and get better day by day. The technology needed
to develop such an app exists today, Reddy
pointed out – all that is needed is a publicprivate
partnership between technology companies
and governments to get a project like
this started.
72

Tuesday, September 20
Holger Schwenk
Holger Schwenk from Facebook Artificial Intelligence
Research in Paris gave an introduction
into the powerful new AI technology called
Deep Learning that takes the human brain as an
inspiration, not a direct model, to create intelligent
systems. Those artificial neural networks
consist of many layers of individual neurons
that are connected with each other. The system
learns from examples and is then able to apply
what it learned to new, unseen events. Deep
Learning has advanced dramatically over the
last five years in tasks like identifying objects
on pictures or understanding speech. Machines
outperform humans today in games like chess
and can recognize objects on the same level as
humans. Big progress is still needed in fields like
machine translation. While these systems are
good at very specific tasks, we are still far away
from creating the general intelligence that has
been the ultimate goal of AI for decades.
pointing out that we cannot build Raj Reddy’s
machine using only Holger Schwenk’s technology.
Machines are increasingly becoming a part
of our social world, but they lack a very specific
human ability: symbolic reasoning. Unlike humans,
machines cannot explain what they are
doing. Take for example a room in which you see
a baby, a dog, and a chair. The machine trained
by Deep Learning techniques can answer questions
like: Which one can you sit on? Which one
can bite which other one? But it wouldn’t have
a clue if we asked it which one it would save if
the house was on fire. And who would hire a
robot babysitter if it didn’t know the answer to
this question? AI systems work amazingly well
in a narrowly defined context, while humans are
still far superior when it comes to reasoning and
making sense of the world.
The following discussion focused on the question
of how computers could be equipped with
the background knowledge or common sense
that is necessary for intelligent reasoning. While
Reddy said that this kind of knowledge could
arise if you allowed machines to learn over a
period of time comparable to a human lifetime,
Hendler insisted that in humans there is clearly
more going on than just learning. Most animals
learn, but they don’t have human-like reasoning
capabilities. Vint Cerf, Vice President and Chief
Internet Evangelist at Google and ACM A.M.
Turing Award recipient, pointed out that neural
networks are good at classification tasks, but
not at forming structured memory. After all, humans
get their information from other sources
Jim Hendler
Jim Hendler from the Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute tried to connect the first two talks by
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Tuesday, September 20
than direct experience, for example from reading.
It was left open what technologies we will
have to add to Deep Learning to achieve these
higher reasoning functions.
Thomas Dreier
In the second hour, critics of AI voiced their concerns
about the legal and ethical consequences
of an uninhibited and unregulated development
of AI for society. Thomas Dreier, Professor
of Law at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
(KIT), talked about the legal consequences of AI
that are deployed in the real world. He focused
on questions of liability. Liability has traditionally
been a consequence of faulty behavior. If
you cause damage, you should reimburse the
person that you harmed. Behind it is the idea
of an autonomous human being that can make
decisions. But in the modern world, there is also
the idea of liability without fault, for example
for operators of inherently dangerous technical
devices. Does this have to change for AI devices?
Are they more like humans, are they legal
personalities? His answer: intelligent robots are
still essentially machines, humans have the duty
to supervise them and are ultimately liable for
the actions of their intelligent creations.
Dirk Helbing
Dirk Helbing, Professor of Computational Social
Science at the ETH in Zurich, gave a presentation
based on the Digital Manifesto that he
published in 2015 together with other German
researchers. He envisioned a big AI machine
that is capable of predicting the actions of individuals
and society as a whole. Will machines
become our benevolent dictators or wise kings?
Could societies be run like a giant machine?
Governments have plans to create such a machine,
Helbing said, based on Big Data and Deep
Learning. In his opinion, we have to stop these
plans. Instead, we should use the technology
in a decentralized approach to enable our collective
intelligence to create a better world. We
can build an efficient, liberal and participatory
economic system, a citizen web that rewards social
and ecological production and behavior.
Noel Sharkey
Noel Sharkey from the University of Sheffield
talked about the concerns that a growing number
of scientists have about robotic weapons
that make decisions about the life and death of
humans. The Foundation for Responsible Robotics
was established last year to discuss these issues.
A major subject of their discussions is the
use of autonomous robots by the military and
the police. The USA is developing autonomous
drones and submarines and Russia is working
on tanks and fighter jets. Sharkey himself has
been advocating a ban of autonomous killer robots
with international organizations like the UN,
with support from Nobel laureates and religious
leaders. His main argument against those weapons
is that nobody can guarantee that they will
74

Tuesday, September 20
comply with the established laws of war. And
nobody can predict what would happen when
two swarms of killer robots governed by secret
algorithms were fighting each other. As a consequence,
we should uphold the law that Isaac
Asimov established in 1942: a machine should
never be allowed to kill a human. A new bill of
human technological rights should be created
that determines how much control we should
cede to technology.
In the concluding discussion, Jim Hendler pointed
out that the ethics goes both ways: the question
is not only whether it is ethical to replace
humans with autonomous machines, but also
whether it is ethical to send people into harmful
situations when we have a robotic technology
that could do the job instead. The discussion
then focused on the question of whether AI is
more and more a proprietary technology of the
big companies that hire all the scientific talent.
Vint Cerf from Google and Holger Schwenk from
Facebook both emphasized that their researchers
publish their findings and that the companies
make a lot of their technology openly available.
The moderator then mentioned the new European
General Data Protection Regulation which
guarantees citizens a right to know the logic of
algorithms that make important decisions about
them. Can we fulfill that in the future when we
have AI algorithms based on Deep Learning that
do not operate with fixed rules? Can we point
out biases in those algorithms? While Cerf and
Schwenk denied any such biases and insisted
on keeping their companies’ source code secret,
other participants disagreed. Dirk Helbing gave
examples of algorithms biased against women
and people of color. A member of the audience,
Jennifer Tour Chayes from Microsoft Research,
talked about technical solutions to discover
biases in algorithms and even techniques to
de-bias them.
On a closing note, a question from the audience
brought up the discussion whether one day machines
could be smarter than us. The scientists
on the podium agreed that today there is no evidence
that machines are acquiring consciousness
and are becoming more intelligent than
humans. Jim Hendler pointed out that in many
situations it is the combination of a human and
a computer that will outperform either of them
alone. It was left to Vint Cerf to close the debate
by saying that our problem today is not allowing
too much autonomous AI, but “giving too much
autonomy to artificial idiots.”
75

Tuesday, September 20
Bavarian Evening
After the Hot Topic came to an end, participants
made their way to Heidelberg’s Kulturbrauerei
for the annual HLF Oktoberfest. The evening
was commenced by an authentic Bavarian who
explained the cultural origin and significance
of the Oktoberfest and concluded with the traditional
cry O’zapft is, which translates to “It’s
tapped” (referring to the keg).
Tuesday evening saw the first traditional costume
addition, in that participants were encouraged
to wear clothing significant to their cultural
heritage. International dress was sprinkled
throughout the Kulturbrauerei and added a few
more vibrant colors to the Oktoberfest.
No Oktoberfest would be complete without traditional
German cuisine, folklore, dancing and
of course freshly-brewed beer. The Kulturbrauerei
staff made sure that no one went home
hungry or thirsty, while the Bavarian entertainers
showed some classic dance moves.
76

77

Wednesday, September 21
Laureate School Visits
The younger generation being inspired by the
laureates is a cornerstone of the Heidelberg
Laureate Forum (HLF), which is why the laureates
are invited to visit local schools to give informal
lectures to the students.
In Heidelberg, Fred Brooks visited the Carl-
Bosch-Schule and Gerd Faltings the Kurfürst-
Friedrich-Gymnasium. Three laureates went to
the neighboring city of Mannheim with Barbara
Liskov going to the Liselotte-Gymnasium Mannheim,
Michael Atiyah to the Ludwig-Frank-Gymnasium
Mannheim and John Hopcroft to the
Integrierte Gesamtschule Mannheim-Herzogenried.
There were schools in the surrounding
area that also received some esteemed visitors.
For example the Hohenstaufen-Gymnasium in
Eberbach was visited by Shigefumi Mori, the
Hebel-Gymnasium in Schwetzingen by Ngô Bảo-
Châu and the Carl-Friedrich-Gauß Gymnasium
in Hockenheim by Endre Szemerédi.
Barbara Liskov
Advice, the importance of perseverance and the
value of following one’s passions awaited the
budding minds as they absorbed their lessons.
For the laureates, the chance to offer guidance
to students on the cusp of making important
decisions about their paths is one they readily
accept.
Michael Atiyah
John Hopcroft
78

Wednesday, September 21
Young Researcher Institute Visits
On Wednesday morning the participants made
their way to various locations all around Heidelberg
and the surrounding area. Young researchers
and even some of the laureates headed to
institutes either in the city or in metropolitan
region near Heidelberg. These excursions are
designed to help the young researchers enlarge
their occupational network and learn more
about the research sites and working conditions
of Germany’s south-west.
Institutes:
BioQuant
bioquant.uni-hd.de
European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL)
embl.de
German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ)
dkfz.de/en
Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies
(HITS)
h-its.org/en
Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing
(IWR)
iwr.uni-heidelberg.de
MAThematics Center Heidelberg (MATCH)
match.uni-heidelberg.de
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA)
mpia.de/en
Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (MPIK)
mpi-hd.mpg.de/mpi/en
NEC Laboratories Europe
uk.nec.com/en_GB/emea/about/neclab_eu
sovanta
sovanta.com/en
SAP SE
sap.com
SAS Institute GmbH
sas.com
Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies
NEC
sovanta
79

Wednesday, September 21
Boat Trip
After all participants returned to the Altstadt
(Old Town) of Heidelberg, they boarded the virtually
brand new Königin Silvia (Queen Silvia) for
a relaxing and scenic boat trip along the Neckar
River valley. The ship provided plenty of room
for the guests to mingle, while the majority
remained in the fresh air and sunshine on the
upper deck, some guests preferred the quieter
option of the large cabin downstairs. Everyone
shuffled amongst each other and the laureates
were surrounded by inquisitive groups of young
researchers.
The cruise passed through two different lock
systems and crossed the state line between
Baden-Württemberg and Hessen in order to
arrive in Neckarsteinach. There, the impressive
vessel made a U-turn to bring the passengers
back. Throughout the trip, the weather
only seemed to improve. With the boat safely
docked, most of those on board headed into
the city, while plenty stayed around to enjoy the
views from on the water and were rewarded
with a spectacular sunset.
80

81

Thursday, September 22
Lectures on Thursday
Laureate Lectures, PhD Posters and a Medieval
City
The Scientific Program of the 4th Heidelberg
Laureate Forum (HLF) was back in full swing on
Thursday with a strong line-up of laureate lectures.
Raj Reddy and Richard Stearns, who are
both ACM A.M. Turing Award recipients, took
the first round of lectures. The second duo was
handled by Fields Medalist Vladimir Voevodsky
and yet another ACM A.M. Turing Award recipient
Leslie Lamport. PhD students were also
able to present their work in the Poster Session,
which attracted quite the crowd.
Session Chairs: Raúl Rojas, Helge Holden
Raj Reddy
Too Much Information and Too Little Time
of our systems. Most systems don’t get better
with experience. Future opportunities lie in creating
tools for coping with 21st century world
of “too much information and too little time”.
In this talk we will present two families of intelligent
agents, viz., “cognition amplifiers” and
“guardian angels” to help with the problem of
scarcity of attention. A Cognition Amplifier is a
personal autonomic intelligent agent that anticipates
what you want to do and helps you to do
it with less effort. A Guardian Angel is a personal
autonomic intelligent agent that discovers and
warns you about unanticipated, possibly catastrophic,
events that could impact your safety,
security, and wellbeing. Both Cogs and Gats are
enduring, autonomic, nonintrusive intelligent
agents which are always-on, always-working,
and always-learning. Future breakthroughs will
emerge from those who understand human limitations
and can cater to such human needs.
Richard Edwin Stearns
Strategies for Extensive Form Games
Abstract: This talk is about having to cope with
too much information within human time limitations
given that we are not changing at exponential
rates like semiconductors. Humans
make errors, tend to forget, are impatient and
look for least effort solutions. Such limitations,
sometimes, lead to catastrophic results. At the
same time, humans learn with experience, tolerate
error and ambiguity, use vast amounts of
knowledge, and communicate using speech and
language. Such features are still lacking in most
Abstract: We want to describe sets of mixed
strategies using linear equations such that
1. The number of variables is small compared to
the game size.
2. Every mixed strategy has an equivalent strategy
in the set.
3. Implementing the strategies is easy.
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Thursday, September 22
It is known how to do this for players with perfect
recall using equations for behavior strategies
or equations for path probabilities. We
generalize the perfect recall techniques to cover
players without perfect recall. Although the
number of variables needed is not always small,
it will be small if the recall is close enough to
perfect.
Vladimir Voevodsky
UniMath
Foundations can be used with Coq to formalize
some real mathematics. After discovering
that it can we, Benedikt Ahrens, Dan Grayson
and myself, formed a GitHub organization called
UniMath. Today UniMath has 12 authors, about
seven of them, including all three of the founders,
are active in expanding and improving the
library.
Leslie Lamport
The PlusCal Algorithm Language
Abstract: UniMath is a library of formalized
mathematics that is based on the Univalent
Foundations and written in what we call the
UniMath language which is a small subset of the
language of the Coq proof assistant. I wrote the
core of the library under the name Foundations
in 2010–11 to try out whether the Univalent
Abstract: An algorithm is not a program, so why
describe it with a programming language? Plus-
Cal is a tiny toy-like language that is infinitely
more expressive than any programming language
because an expression can be any mathematical
formula.
83

Thursday, September 22
Poster Session
Pacome Landry Ambassa
Enabling Trust in Constrained Smart Micro-Grids:
Adversarial Cases
Cristina Ana-Maria Anghel
Geometric interpretations for quantum invariants
Shrutilipi Bhattacharjee
Climatological Analysis with Spatial Interpolation
by Modelling Land-Atmospheric Interaction
Andreas Bode
Towards a Beilinson-Bernstein correspondence
on rigid analytic flag varieties
Gregor Bruns
Moduli spaces of covers of curves
Kailash Budhathoki
Causal Inference by Compression
Freddy Pablo Castro Vicente
Generic Properties of Magnetic Flows
Sofía Nerina D’Alesio Souto
Deformations of Sridharan Algebras
Tamirat Temesgen Dufera
Boundary-Domain Integral Equations for Neumann
BVPs with Variable Coefficient in 2D
Florencia Fernández Slezak
On unit d-interval graphs
Ujwal Gadiraju
Crowdsourcing based solutions
Jan Gorzny
Partial Regularization of First-Order Resolution
Proofs
Basak Guler
Modeling human aspects of communication
Haji Ali Haji
Investigating mobile graphic-based reminders
to support compliance of tuberculosis treatment
Alexey Ilyushkin
An Experimental Performance Evaluation of Autoscaling
Algorithms for Complex Workflows
Tetiana Klymchuk
Systems of linear and semilinear mappings
Konstantinos Kosta
Distributed In-Memory Processing of All k Nearest
Neighbor Queries
Lalla Malika Mouatadid
Graph Searches on Structured Families of Graphs
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Thursday, September 22
Stephen Mussmann
Learning and Inference via Maximum Inner
Product Search
Vardan Oganesyan
Commuting differential operators
Thea Radüntz
A Tool for Cognitive Ergonomics: Classification
of Mental Workload
Tobias Ried
Gevrey smoothing of weak solutions of the homogeneous
Boltzmann equation for Maxwellian
molecules
Mrinmaya Sachan
Machine hit the School
Samira Samadi
Humanly Usable and Secure Password Schemas
Tian Sang
Geometry in structured optimisation problems
Suzanna Schmeelk
Android Malware Static Analysis Techniques
Ling Shuyang
Rapid, Robust, and Reliable Blind Deconvolution
via Nonconvex Optimization
Matthew Sinclair
Novel ways to make the memory hierarchy of
heterogeneous systems more efficient
Preethi Srinivas
Mediating ICU Patient Situation-Awareness
with Visual and Tactile Notifications
Guoming Tang
Energy Disaggregation and its Applications in
Smart Energy Systems
Helen Catherine Wauck
The Development of Spatial Skills in a Video
Game
85

Thursday, September 22
Excursion to Speyer
Participants of the 4th Heidelberg Laureate
Forum (HLF) enjoyed an entertaining evening at
the Technik Museum Speyer (Speyer Museum of
Technology). After a guided tour of Speyer, one of
the oldest cities in Germany, highlighted by the
Speyer Cathedral, they were greeted at the museum
by the SAP BIG BAND. Speyer’s Lord Mayor
Hansjörg Eger welcomed everyone to the museum
and to the city of Speyer. The keynote address
was given by Volker Springel, head of the Theoretical
Astrophysics (TAP) research group at Heidelberg
Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS), and
Nobel laureate in Physics, Brian Schmidt. Since the
evening was hosted by SAP, their Chief Financial
Officer, Luka Mucic did the honors of opening the
buffet. The participants were also encouraged to
enjoy the “Night in the Museum” and were free to
wander through the exhibits.
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87

Friday, September 23
Lectures on Friday
A Day at SAP in St. Leon-Rot, an Evening at
Heidelberg Castle
The final day at the 4th Heidelberg Laureate
Forum (HLF) began with a change of venue. All of
the participants met in front of the New University
in Heidelberg to hop on buses that brought
them to the SAP campus in St. Leon-Rot. ACM
A.M. Turing Award laureates Barbara Liskov and
Sir Anthony Hoare handled the first stage of
lectures. Fields Medalist Heisuke Hironaka and
Robert Tarjan, who received both the ACM A.M.
Turing Award and the Nevanlinna Prize, gave the
next round of lectures.
Friday also included the Scientific Interaction
which was a networking hour set aside to enable
participants to exchange freely and enhance
some connections made at the 4th HLF.
Session Chairs: Rainer Malaka, Gert-Martin Greuel
Barbara Liskov
The power of abstraction
Abstract: Abstraction is at the center of much
work in Computer Science. It encompasses finding
the right interface for a system as well as
finding an effective design for a system implementation.
Furthermore, abstraction is the basis
for program construction, allowing programs
to be built in a modular fashion. This talk will
discuss how the abstraction mechanisms we
use today came to be and how they are supported
in programming languages.
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Friday, September 23
Sir Tony Hoare
A finite geometric representation of computer
program behaviour
with permissible centers in smooth ambient
spaces. (I) is done in 1964, (II) is proven recently
with new concept and technique, while (III) is by
combination of (I) and (II). Technically elaborate
but conceptually interesting is the case of (II).
Robert Tarjan
Binary Search Trees
Abstract: Scientists often illustrate the behaviour
of a dynamic system by a geometric diagram, in
which one dimension represents the passage of
time, and the other(s) represent distribution of
objects in space. We develop a non-metric finite
plane geometry as an intuitive representation of
the behaviour of a computer program running
on a modern distributed network of concurrent
processors. Our hope is to prove a collection of
algebraic laws that are used for the implementation
and optimization of programs.
Heisuke Hironaka
Resolution of Singularities in Algebraic Geometry
Abstract: The binary search tree is one of the
most fundamental data structures in computer
science, with many applications. Binary search
trees support binary search in a set of totally
ordered items, and ideally reduce search time
from linear to logarithmic. A central question is
how to keep such a tree balanced in the presence
of updates. The first solution was offered
by Adelson-Velskii and Landis in 1962. In spite
of a huge volume of work during the intervening
64 years, the design space is rich, and basic
questions remain open, notably how best to
make a search tree adapt to its usage pattern. In
this talk I’ll explore relatively recent new work
and interesting open problems.
Abstract: Algebraic geometry in general has
three fundamental types in terms of its base
ground: (I) Q (and its fields extensions), (II) ()
with a prime number > 0 (and every finite field),
and at last (III) Z in the case of the arithmetic
geometry. In those three cases I will talk about
resolution of singularities by means of blowups
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Friday, September 23
Farewell Dinner
Following the Scientific Interaction, the participants
loaded back onto the buses and were
taken to the Heidelberg Castle for a guided tour.
As the sun began its descent over the Neckar
valley, one of the best vantage points was the
castle terrace, overlooking the city of Heidelberg.
Shortly after the Farewell Dinner started,
the participants were able to hear four final
talks: Fields Medal and Abel Prize recipient Sir
Michael Atiyah and ACM A.M. Turing Award recipient
Barbara Liskov took turns addressing the
crowd. In the spirit of what the Forum stands
for, a young researcher from mathematics, Ben
Heuer, and from computer science, Subarna
Chatterjee, spoke about their experience at the
Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF).
Later on after dinner had been served and the
interactions had time to progress, Beate Spiegel,
Chairperson of the Heidelberg Laureate Forum
Foundation (HLFF) and Managing Director of the
Klaus Tschira Stiftung (KTS), and Andreas Reuter,
Scientific Chairperson of the HLFF, expressed
their gratefulness to the young researchers
and laureates that made the HLF such a vibrant
event. Then they invited not only the HLFF team
onto the stage to thank them for another successful
Forum, but all of the supporting hands
that helped to make the HLF possible. The night
and the 4th HLF came to an organic end, with
the purpose in full swing: undeterred communication
strengthening bonds used to advance the
scientific progress.
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91

Communications
92

93

Communications
Extending our Reach
A fundamental aspiration of the Heidelberg
Laureate Forum Foundation (HLFF) is to create
an increasingly dynamic network to reach prospective
young researchers and to generate new,
while invigorating existing bonds in the mathematics
and computer science communities. As
a young event, the Heidelberg Laureate Forum
(HLF) recognizes that broadening and strengthening
recognition is at the forefront of the success
of future Forums. The cornerstones of
building a robust communications network are
social media, journalists, bloggers, press relations
and outreach activities. Each element plays
a pivotal role in amplifying awareness of the HLF
in essential areas.
The HLF Facebook page strives to be a portal
of relevant news for both mathematicians and
computer scientists, which is why our team devotes
significant efforts to seeking out pertinent
developments. Young researchers considering
their application to attend HLF and former participants
can find links to articles that are compatible
to their fields. HLF’s Twitter page, in addition
to linking all Facebook posts, enables a more immediate
response to current news in the worlds
of mathematics and computer science.
Efforts to increase awareness do not end with
social media, in fact many take shape in a much
more tangible or auditory way. Posters and flyers
with application details and requirements are
displayed at universities while HLF alumni and
supporters are encouraged to share their experience
with potential participants. HLF alumni
broadcasting their stories in their circles have a
ripple effect that can reach a wide audience.
In addition, participants receive a complimentary
HLF bag in the traditional blue and
white color scheme. It is a multi-faceted advertising
tool for the HLF and a practical companion
for the participants. A look inside reveals a multitude
of giveaways, from a power bank to a city
guide, there was something everyone could find
a use for. Trading contact information was made
seamless by the personalized business cards that
the young researchers and the laureates actively
exchanged. One of the more robust souvenirs
was a copy of Masters of Abstraction, a book of
laureate portraits made by the Berlin photographer
Peter Badge.
The HLF website endeavors to progress with the
event, so perpetual updates aim to avoid any
visual stagnation. Alumni, future participants
and all those interested are encouraged to visit
the site regularly for updates. Our homepage
is a one-stop shop to stream previous lectures,
check out photos, read current blog posts or any
developments pertaining to the HLF.
Each of these elements are woven together in
one common principle cloth, the very one that
the HLF was founded on: Unfettered communication
paves the path for scientific progress. A
successful Forum is the undeniable goal of the
HLFF, though it is an ambulatory objective, in
that it begins anew with the conclusion of each
HLF.
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95

Communications
HLF Blog
In addition to the journalists, the HLF Blog Team
is fundamental to up-to-date reporting on the
event as it unfolds live. There was a team of seven
bloggers and one guest blogger this year that
provided a wealth of diverse posts, maintaining
a host of interesting reads throughout the week.
To reach a broader readership, there are both
English and German language posts, with a few
being posted in both languages. In 2016, the
Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation (HLFF)
took on the duty of selecting and managing the
bloggers. The HLFF is very grateful to the diversified
blog team that tirelessly sought out stories
and conducted interviews to produce a fascinating
picture of the HLF experience.
Naturally, the activity on the HLF Blog peaks
leading up to, during and immediately following
the HLF. However, our team is actively seeking
out potential stories and working to expand the
versatility of the blog. With the help of the network
of bloggers created from past events, the
HLFF aims to provide interesting material for our
readers throughout the year.
Gail Carmichael is Manager of External Education
Programs at Shopify. You can follow Gail on
Twitter (@gailcarmichael) and her personal blog
The Female Perspective of Computer Science.
Daniel Gross is a writer and radio producer
whose stories examine the way that science
and history shape our lives. Website: dgross.org,
Twitter: @readwriteradio
Artem Kaznatcheev is a mathematical oncologist
at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa. You can
follow his meandering explorations on TheEGG.
Tobias Maier is a lecturer at the National Institute
for Science Communication (NaWik), as well
as a science communication professional. His
blog WeiterGen can be found on SciLogs.
Ben Orlin blogs at Math with Bad Drawings. He
teaches secondary school mathematics in Birmingham,
England.
Markus Pössel is the managing scientist at the
Haus der Astronomie (House of Astronomy) in
Heidelberg, and began his SciLogs blog Relativ
Einfach in 2007.
Peter Woit is currently Senior Lecturer in the
Mathematics Department at Columbia University.
Since 2004, he has been blogging about
mathematics and physics-related topics at Not
Even Wrong (math.columbia.edu/~woit/blog).
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Communications
Journalists at HLF
Each year an open invitation is extended to journalists
to cover the Heidelberg Laureate Forum
(HLF) and all are encouraged to apply for one of
the travel grants provided by the Heidelberg Laureate
Forum Foundation (HLFF). Journalists from
various branches of media and expertise were
able to provide diverse and encompassing coverage
of the 4th HLF. At this year’s Forum, there
were journalists from 16 different countries conducting
interviews and reporting on the experience
of participants at the HLF. Having journalists
cover the HLF and broadcast the experience
drastically extends the Forum’s reach, especially
into communities that profit the most from such
an event. We are grateful to all of the talented
journalists that reported on the 4th HLF and we
were excited to see the array of audiences they
were able to reach.
Travel Grant Journalists at the 4th HLF:
Martín Cagliani (Argentina) – freelance journalist
Hao-Yen Chen (Taiwan) – United Daily News
David Levine (USA) – freelance journalist
Vera Novais (Portugal) – Observador, science
journalist
Katherine Noyes (USA) – International Data
Group
Ochieng’ Ogodo (Kenya) – SciDev.net, coordinator/editor
Nhat Pham (Vietnam) – TuoiTre Newspaper
Siobhan Roberts (Canada) – science journalist
and biographer
Manjil Saikia (India) – freelance journalist, University
of Vienna
Elna Schütz (South Africa) – Wits Radio Academy,
radio journalist
Gina Smith (USA) – aNewDomain Media Inc.,
editor-in-chief
Barry Cipra (USA) – freelance journalist
Hussaini Mohammed Garba (Nigeria) – Daily
Trust Newspaper
Tom Geller (USA) – Tom Geller Productions, freelance
journalist
Dirk Huylebrouck (Belgium) – KU Leuven
Arnout Jaspers (Netherlands) – freelance journalist
Torkild Jemterud (Norway) – NRK, Norwegian
Broadcast Corporation
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Outreach
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99

Outreach
Outreach Activities
The Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation
(HLFF) uses the Forum to cultivate the knowledge
of young researchers through dialogue
and exchange with the world’s most venerated
scientists. In addition, through a comprehensive
program of accompanying events, the HLFF
strives to elevate the public’s interest and perception
of mathematics and computer science.
www.tt.hlff.de
Präsentiert durch:
Jewish Mathematicians
in German-Speaking
Academic Culture
13.
2016
12.
MAI
JUNI
Mathematikon Heidelberg
Im Neuenheimer Feld 205 | 69120 Heidelberg
Montag bis Freitag von 8 bis 20 Uhr
Samstag von 9 bis 16 Uhr
Sonn- und Feiertag von 13 bis 19 Uhr
EINTRITT FREI
Ausstellung
Präsentiert von:
Experimentier-Stationen | Workshops
10. Juli bis 7. August 2016
Karlstorbahnhof Heidelberg
Eröffnung: 9. Juli 2016, 20:30 Uhr
www.ai.hlff.de
Entwickelt von:
Eintritt
frei
Didaktik Didaktik Didaktik
der der
nformatik nformatik der
nformatik
präsentiert
MATHE
INFORmatik
Filmfestival
10. bis 16. Juli 2016
Karlstorkino Heidelberg
The Man Who Knew Infinity | Counting
from Infinity | Ex Machina | Fermat‘s
Last Theorem | Steve Jobs | The
Discrete Charm of Geometry | Konrad
Zuse – Filmporträt des Computerpioniers
und seiner Maschinen
www.kino.hlff.de
präsentiert
MATHE
INFORmatik
Filmfestival
für Schulen
18. bis 26. Juli 2016
Karlstorkino Heidelberg
präsentiert
AUSSTELLUNG
Konrad Zuse’s
Early Computing Machines
(1935-1945)
The Discrete Charm of Geometry | MESH | Counting from
Infinity | Flatland | Ex Machina | Fermats letzter Satz
(Fermat‘s Last Theorem) | Steve Jobs
Kostenlose
Beginn: 10.00 Uhr
Eintrittskarten
nur nach
verbindlicher
! Anmeldung
www.schulkino.hlff.de
17. bis 22. September 2016
täglich 8:30 bis 19:00 Uhr, Alte Universität Heidelberg
www.zuse.hlff.de
Eintritt
frei
100

Outreach
Heidelberger Frühling
The Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation
(HLFF) is pleased to have a new cooperation partner
in Heidelberger Frühling (Heidelberg Spring).
Since 1997, the international music festival
Heidelberger Frühling has taken place in Heidelberg
every spring and enjoyed over 100 events
and 44,000 visitors in 2016.
In cooperation with the HLFF, there was a panel
discussion under the motto of “Music and
Mathematics.” During this discussion, part of
the Chamber Music Academy’s Fokus Bach, the
bio-informatic scientist Alexandros Stamatakis
of the Heidelberg Institute forTheoretical Studies
(HITS), and Heidelberg musicologist Dorothea
Redepenning debated the question of to
what extent, or at least if, music is influenced
by mathematics. The session was moderated
by Christoph Vratz, a music journalist from Cologne.
The origins of the consonant intervals octave,
quint and quart was traced back to simple
numeric relations, and Johann Sebastian Bach
was known for implementing his music with
numeric symbols. The parameters generate
issues such as tonal colors, which can (largely)
be withdrawn from a scientific viewpoint and
thus measurability.
What was particularly interesting was the question
into the extent to which music can be influenced
by computers and mathematical models.
Is there an ideal musical score based on mathematical
calculations?
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Outreach
Transcending Tradition
Transcending Tradition – Jewish Mathematicians
in German-Speaking Academic Culture
The exhibition Transcending Tradition – Jewish
Mathematicians in German-Speaking Academic
Culture commenced the outreach activities
of the Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation
(HLFF) and was hosted from May 12, 2016, at
the Mathematikon in Heidelberg for four weeks.
The English language exhibition provides insights
into the life and mathematics of Jewish scholars.
Showcasing their contributions to mathematics
and their culture in the German-speaking world
before 1933 is a large majority of the exhibition.
It clearly displays how the expulsion of the Jews
from Germany, driven by the Nazi government,
carried such a tremendous prize, especially for
those persecuted and displaced and their families,
but also for those left behind.
“Everyday, questions are raised anew about the
discrimination of minorities and the collaboration
of denominational
and cultural differences.
These historical circumstances
also make one
think beyond mathematics
and its history,”
said Moritz Epple, the
scientific director of the
project. He is a professor
of science history
at the University of
Frankfurt and devised
the exhibition together
with seven historians of
mathematics.
Since its first public appearance in November
2011 in Tel Aviv, Transcending Tradition has
made its way around the world and has visited
Haifa, Jerusalem, Chicago, New York, Sydney
and Bonn. In Heidelberg, this successful exhibition
was presented in the Mathematikon of
Heidelberg University. The building houses the
institutes and departments of mathematics and
computer science, and the construction of the
Mathematikon was commissioned and financed
by the Klaus Tschira Stiftung (KTS). After spending
three years under construction, upon its
completion in December 2015, it was donated
by the Foundation to Heidelberg University.
On July 17, 2016, the exhibition has opened at
the Jewish Museum Berlin on the occasion of
the 7th European Congress of Mathematics.
More information to the exhibition on:
gj-math.de
TRANSCENDING
TRADITION
Jewish Mathematicians in
German-Speaking Academic Culture
An international exhibition produced
by the History of Science Working Group
Goethe University Frankfurt / Main
102

103
Outreach

Outreach
The HLFF was particularly excited about one
group of visitors: 11 former residents of Heidelberg
of the Jewish faith were invited by the city
of Heidelberg to meet in May in their old hometown.
A visit to the Mathematikon was part
of their extensive program. Birgit Bergmann,
co-author of Transcending Tradition, guided
the group through the exhibition and gave insight
into the lives and works of such mathematicians
as Richard von Mises, Max Dehn, Emmy
Noether, Richard Courant, Otto Blumenthal,
Felix Hausdorff, and John von Neumann.
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Outreach
Film Festival – Mathematics and Computer Science
Sir Vaughan F.R. Jones Guest of Honor at the
Opening
With the week-long Film Festival from July
10–16, the Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation
(HLFF) invited all interested parties to
the Karlstor Cinema to dive into the worlds of
mathematics and computer science. For each
film, there was an expert on hand that properly
introduced each film and moderated a discussion
session following the showing. Films on the
docket included exciting motion pictures and
documentaries, insights into the lives and works
of famous scientists, exciting stories of mathematical
puzzles being solved and some centralized
on Artificial Intelligence. One highlight from
the Film Festival was the screening of Fermat’s
Last Theorem by Simon Singh. The film revolves
around the scientific work of Sir Andrew Wiles,
recipient of the Abel Prize in 2016 and the
Silver Plaque of the IMU in 1998, who participated
in the 4th Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF).
Another favorite was documentary film maker
Ekaterina Eremenko‘s presentation of her new
film The Discrete Charm of Geometry.
Among the honored guests of the opening event
greeted by Andreas Reuter, Scientific Chair of
the HLFF, was Sir Vaughan F.R. Jones, recipient
of the Fields Medal and Professor of Mathematics
at Vanderbilt University. On this occasion,
the opening film was the documentary from
George Csicsery Porridge, Pulleys and Pi, which
focused on the exceptional mathematicians
Vaughan Jones and Hendrik Lenstra.
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Outreach
Adventures in Computer Science
Eintritt
frei
10. Juli
bis
7. August
2016
Ausstellung
Experimentier-Stationen | Workshops
Präsentiert von:
Entwickelt von:
Didaktik Didaktik Didaktik
der der
nformatik nformatik der
nformatik
www.ai.hlff.de
Adventures in Computer Science Exhibition in
Heidelberg Karlstorbahnhof
Yet another exhibition presented by the Heidelberg
Laureate Forum Foundation (HLFF) was
dedicated to computer science. The exhibition
was opened together with the Film Festival.
“Computer science is no more about computers
than astronomy is about telescopes,” said the
computer scientist and ACM Turing Award recipient
Edsger Dijkstra. The quote was stamped
as the motto of the exhibition Abenteuer Informatik
(Adventures in Computer Science) that
was shown in the Karlstorbahnhof in Heidelberg.
Therefore, the visitors did not encounter computer
programs or applications, instead simple
experiments with many “Aha” moments that
provided a lot of fun. Exciting puzzles made it
clear how computer scientists approach problem
solving. Binary magic, weight sorting, traveling
salesmans solutions, monkey puzzles and
treasure hunts were all constructed in a way
that visitors could playfully dive into the groundworks
of computer science.
At several experiment stations visitors could
touch computer science in the truest sense of
the word. “You will quickly realize that though
the computer is indeed an important tool for
computer scientists, computer science revolves
around people, not computers,” said Jens Gallenbacher,
Professor of Computer Science at the
Technical University (TU) in Darmstadt, who designed
the exceptional exhibition together with
the didactic department of the TU.
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Outreach

Outreach
Schools at the Exhibition
While each exhibition is open to the public
and any interested visitors are welcome, a target
audience is indeed the younger generation,
specifically students. “Adventures in Computer
Science” was designed to capture the interest
of a wide range of ages with the hands-on exhibits
enabling visitors to take hold of the learning-by-doing
concept. At the same time, there
was the Film Festival – Mathematics and Computer
Science especially for school classes, with
experts explaining the mathematical and computational
contents of the films.
Schools from all over Heidelberg and the surrounding
region were informed and encouraged
to bring a variety of classes to experience what
lay behind the computer screen. College students
with computer science backgrounds were
on-site to lead each class through a guided tour
of each station giving the younger pupils a more
grounded understanding of the science behind
computers. Several schools took advantage
of the opportunity to enable their students to
learn outside the classroom and came to experience
the “Adventures in Computer Science.“
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Outreach
Zuse Exhibition
Konrad Zuse – Early Computing Machinery
For the first time during the Forum week, the
Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation (HLFF)
presented an exhibition in the Old University
of Heidelberg as part of the accompanying program,
which was also open to the public. Konrad
Zuse’s Early Computing Machines (1935–1945)
told the story of how Konrad Zuse’s initial ideas
blossomed into the development of his machines
and demonstrated the details of Zuse’s
early computers.
The German structural engineer, inventor and
entrepreneur Konrad Zuse is attributed with inventing
the computer. With the completion of
his Z3 in 1941, he developed the first functional,
fully automated, software-operated and programmable
computer, and therefore the world’s
first operational computer.
75 years after the premier public introduction
of the Z3 in Berlin, the HLFF presented Konrad
Zuse’s Early Computing Machines (1935–1945)
from September 17–22, in the Senatssaal of the
Old University in Heidelberg. Among the several
exhibits, there was a reconstruction of the Z3
from the Konrad-Zuse-Museum in Hünfeld.
The exhibition portrayed the path Konrad Zuse
took from his first ideas to the development of
his machines, while demonstrating the details
of Zuse’s first computers. Zuse‘s concept of hierarchical
computing architectures, or today’s microprogramming,
was the common thread that
wove the exhibition together.
It was this concept that enabled the young Zuse
to build the Z1, his mechanical calculator, which
he accomplished essentially alone. The Z1 conceptually
signaled the coming of the era of computers:
it was completely binary, worked with
floating point numbers and had separate memories
and a processor. These features did not appear
in commercial calculators until the 1950s.
“This story has never been told in this way, and
I’m certain that visitors will be very impressed,”
said Raúl Rojas, Professor of Computer Science
at the Freie Universität in Berlin. Together with
the help from his team, he developed the exhibition
especially for the HLFF. “It is difficult to
grasp how a 26 year-old in Berlin in 1936 had
such cutting edge ideas on his mind and that he
tirelessly devoted himself to building his computers,
in spite of the world being on the edge
of war.”
In addition to being organized by the HLFF, the
exhibition dedicated to the German computer
pioneer was connected to the Foundation on an
even closer level. Andreas Reuter, the Scientific
Chair of the HLFF, knew Konrad Zuse personally
and distinctly remembered how meeting Zuse
significantly influenced his career path. “My father
worked in Zuse’s companies and so even
109

Outreach
as a student I came into contact with all types
of machines. I was even able to help out a little
bit with the development of the Z43. It was
then clear to me that my profession would be
focused around data processioning,” recalled
Andreas Reuter.
At the heart of the interactive, English language
exhibition, there were simulations of Zuse’s machines
in addition to the Zuse Archive. Visitors
could experiment with the mechanical circuitry
of Konrad Zuse‘s machines at various exhibits
and also take a virtual tour of the Z1 which is
located in Berlin. The exhibition pieces, including
some originals from the Zuse estate, were
on loan from the Konrad-Zuse-Museum Hünfeld,
the Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum Paderborn
and the Stiftung Deutsches Technikmuseum
Berlin. There were also excerpts from the documentary
about the computer pioneer, directed
by Mathias Knauer, that were screened throughout
the exhibition.
In the six days its doors were open, over 1,500
visitors experienced the exhibition, including attendees
of the 4th Heidelberg Laureate Forum.
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Outreach
HLF Around the World
To sustainably install the level of awareness of
the Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF), the Heidelberg
Laureate Forum Foundation (HLFF) uses
diverse opportunities: One of them is the participation
as an exhibitor at international conferences.
In 2016, the HLFF was present at the Joint Mathematics
Meeting (JMM) in Seattle, WA, AAAS
2016 Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., the
7th European Congress of Mathematics (ECM)
Berlin and the 5e Forum Emploi Maths (FEM),
Paris.
Joint Mathematics Meeting
AAAS 2016 Annual Meeting
7th European Congress of Mathematics
5e Forum Emploi Maths
111

Résumé
112

113

Résumé
It will go on
Beate Spiegel
Chairperson of the Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation
(HLFF) and Managing Director of the Klaus
Tschira Stiftung (KTS)
“We have reached the end of this year’s Heidelberg
Laureate Forum (HLF); one week has
passed very quickly, but I hope that each minute
was worth your time, that there were many impressions,
ideas, insights and new contacts you
can take home.
It has become a tradition – if such a word makes
sense considering the short history of HLF – to
use the farewell address as a platform for talking
about the future of our Forum.
As some of you may know, the decision of the
Klaus Tschira Stiftung (KTS) to provide the financial
support needed for HLF was originally limited
to a “trial period” of five years. Since the
Forum has been extremely well received by the
participating laureates, the young researchers
and the guests from all over the world, I had
the pleasure of announcing in my last year’s
farewell address that the KTS had lifted that
constraint and will continue to provide funding.
After that we talked to the award-granting
organizations, the Association for Computing
Machinery (ACM), the International Mathematical
Union (IMU), and the Norwegian Academy
of Science and Letters (DNVA), and they all were
in favor of converting the HLF from an experiment
to a permanent institution. Therefore, I
would like to emphasize that the Heidelberg
Laureate Forum in 2017 will not be the last one.
The HLF will be continued as long as the open,
unfettered scientific exchange between laureates
and young researchers is a useful means
for advancing science – which we are convinced
will be the case for a long time.
For reasons that primarily have to do with local
logistic constraints we decided to run the HLF
in the last complete week of September in each
year. To make the specification complete: We
consider Sunday the first day of the week and
Saturday the last. Our website gives you a list
of the HLF dates from next year to 2022 – but
again: There will be Forums beyond 2022.
The fact that the decision of continuing this activity
could be made so early and so easily is
primarily due to the laureates and the young
researchers who created and maintain the spirit
that makes the HLF so unique. I thank you for
your commitment, your time, your enthusiasm
and for the many ways in which you support us.
It is both a pleasure and a privilege working for
such a great community. This is your event, or –
put slightly differently – you are HLF.
Thanks are, of course, also due to the many
other supporters and partners who help in preparing
and running the Forum. And, last but not
least, there is our dedicated and highly professional
team with their many helpers who assist
you in whatever may be needed, but also work
in the background on the many things that need
to be attended to.”
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Résumé
Thank You
The Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation wishes to express its sincere thanks and great appreciation
for the invaluable engagement and support.
4th Heidelberg Laureate Forum
AMSI – Australian Mathematical Sciences
Institute
Association for Computing Machinery
AustMS – Australian Mathematical Society
Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung
City of Heidelberg
Experts of the Hot Topic Session
International Mathematical Union
Heidelberg Institute forTheoretical Studies
Heidelberg University
Heinz Trox-Stiftung
Hopp Foundation
Keynote-Speakers
Local research institutes and companies
Laureates
Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings
Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut
Oberwolfach
Metropolregion Rhein-Neckar
NEC
ORAU & NSF – Oak Ridge Associated
Universities & National Science Foundations
SAP
Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz Center for
Informatics
Scientific Committee
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
Young Researchers
Outreach Activities
Transcending Tradition
Prof. Dr. Moritz Epple and Team
Fidelis Quartett of the Young Philharmonic
Orchestra Weimar-Jerusalem
Prof. Dr. Michael Gertz
University of Heidelberg
Film Festival
Experts of the Filmfestival from HITS, EML and
University of Heidelberg
Adventures in Computer Science
Prof. Dr. Jens Gallenbacher, TU Darmstadt
Zuse Exhibition
Prof. Dr. Raúl Rojas, FU Berlin and Team
Heinrich Nixdorf MuseumsForum Paderborn
Konrad-Zuse-Museum Hünfeld
Leibniz Universität Hannover
Stiftung Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin
Deutsches Museum München Archiv
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Résumé
HLF Team 2016
Beate Spiegel
Chairperson HLFF & Managing Director KTS
Andreas Reuter
Scientific Chairperson HLFF
Renate Ries
Senior Communications Adviser HLFF & Head of
Communications KTS
Ruth Wetzlar
Head of Conference Management HLFF
Sarah Güth
Nicole Schmitt
Conference Organization HLFF
Julia Eberhardt
Young Researchers & International Academic
Relations HLFF
Karen Zawatzky
Young Researchers Relations HLFF
Wylder Green
Christiane Schirok
Communications HLFF
Christiane Schirok
Stephan Hölz
Outreach Activities HLFF
Stephan Hölz
Multimedia Design & Technical Coordination HLFF
A very sincere thank you to the colleagues and supporting hands of the Klaus Tschira Stiftung, the Klaus
Tschira Abrechnungsdienste and the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies.
4t h H eid elb erg La u re ate For u m
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Imprint
Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation
Schloss-Wolfsbrunnenweg 33
69118 Heidelberg
Germany
Phone: +49 6221 533-380
Fax: +49 6221 533-599-380
Email: info@heidelberg-laureate-forum.org
Website: heidelberg-laureate-forum.org
Photos
Peter Badge
Christian Flemming
Bernhard Kreutzer
Annette Mück
Young Researchers
studio visuell photography
agsandrew/Fotolia
eyetronic/Fotolia
Text
Wylder Green
Christiane Schirok
Layout
Stephan Hölz
© Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation. All rights reserved. All brand names and product names mentioned in this document are trade names, service marks, trademarks,
or registered trademarks of their respective owners. All images are protected by copyright. Although not all are specifically recognized as such, appropriate protective regulations
are valid.
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