University of Tübingen: Carla Cederbaum receives the Tübingen Prize for Science Communication
The mathematician Professor Carla Cederbaum receives the Tübingen Prize for Science Communication of the Year 2022. The 41-year-old is honored for her continuous efforts to teach mathematics to children and adults. The Tübingen Prize for Science Communication is endowed with 10,000 euros. The award is part of the excellence strategy of the University of Tübingen and is intended to promote exchange between science and society.
“Carla Cederbaum has been an outstanding communicator of mathematics for many years,” the jury explained. “With her lectures, workshops and popular scientific publications, she is an exemplary and exemplary ambassador of a discipline whose possible applications are increasingly penetrating the modern world. Cederbaum always succeeds in conveying complex mathematical problems with particular clarity, vividness and relevance to everyday life.”
The award winner studied mathematics, physics and computer science in Freiburg and Cambridge (UK) and received her doctorate in 2011 from the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics and the Free University of Berlin. From 2011 to 2013 she was an Assistant Research Professor at Duke University in North Carolina . In 2013 she moved to the University of Tübingen, initially as a research assistant. In 2016 she became a junior professor. Just two years later she received a W3 professorship in mathematics.
In her research, Cederbaum mainly deals with mathematical relativity, geometric analysis and differential geometry. She is particularly interested in astrophysically motivated questions that have not previously been investigated using mathematical methods. The scientist is also interested in the philosophy, history and didactics of mathematics. She is currently involved in the DFG priority program “Infinite Geometry”.
Ever since she was a student, Cederbaum has been committed to communicating mathematical questions and solutions to a broader public. She organized exhibitions and lecture series as well as workshops for children on topics such as “magic with mathematics” or “numbers as detectives”. Her book How to Spot a Chocolate Thief – And Other Mathematical Magic Tricks has been translated into three languages. Together with the “Mathe im Leben” funding organization, she published the board game GANITA in 2021, which she developed together with student Anja Fetzer, among others. GANITA is suitable for students from the 5th grade upwards. While the players move around the playing field with their figures, they solve tasks from different categories.
The Tübingen Prize for Science Communication was launched in 2020 and is intended to motivate scientists at the University of Tübingen to enter into an intensive dialogue with society about the methods and results of their research. The prize will be awarded as part of the Tübingen Science & Innovation Days , an information event for the general public that will take place in Tübingen from June 30th to July 2nd. A total of ten researchers, projects and institutions were nominated for the 2022 award.