I am a postdoctoral researcher in mathematics. The main focus of my research is Ehrhart theory and lattice polytopes. If you want to learn more about this beautiful topic and their applications, two wonderful sources are Computing the Continuous Discretely and Combinatorial Reciprocity Theorems.
Hobbies
Aside from mathematics, my hobbies include reading, traveling, and doing and watching sports. While I mostly run these days, in the past my main focus was table tennis. Here are some fun facts about this truly great sport:
Table tennis was invented in England in the 1900s. Originally being called Ping Pong, it had to be renamed as the term "Ping Pong" was trademarked.
During a single set, a professional player burns roughly twice as much energy as an athlete running 100 m in 10.2 s.
There is no rule stating that the ball has to be played above the net, you can also play around it, which is possible.
Fair play is paramount in table tennis, with players frequently correcting wrong calls by the refs, see, e.g., here.
Jan-Ove Waldner is widely considered to be the best player of all time, being often referred to as the Mozart of Table Tennis. Here is why.
Travels and Life Abroad
One aspect that I particularly enjoy about academia is that it allows us to travel and to experience new cultures. I have had the great fortune to live in four different countries.
Life in Finland
After finishing my PhD in Berlin in 2018, I moved to Espoo, Finland and I have loved it here ever since. Here are some things about my current home that I particularly enjoy about Finland, mostly taken from visitfinland.com.
Over 70 % of Finland is taken over by beautiful forest – more than any other European country and an area larger than UK or Italy! This also means that there is plenty of remote cabins, called mökki, which of course all come with their own sauna!
Speaking of saunas. Finns love their saunas. There are more than 3 million saunas in Finland, which is quite remarkable as there are only 5.5 million Finns. Sauna is deeply engrained in the Finnish culture, there is even a math conference called Stochastic Sauna!
The Finnish language has fifteen noun cases: four grammatical cases, six locative cases, two essive cases (three in some Eastern dialects) and three marginal cases. Any Finnish noun can have over 200 different forms. Yep, learning Finnish can be fun, but it definitely can be frustrating as well!
Life in Berlin
Before moving to Finland, I spent three years in Berlin, being a proud member of Team Haase. Here are some random facts about Berlin:
Berlin is 8 times the size of Paris and it is one of the greenest cities in Germany. More than 40% of its area are covered by parks, rivers, and forests. If you visit Berlin in the summer, you should definitely consider going for a swim in one of those lakes!
One in three prisoners in Berlin are fare dodgers. So better buy your tickets!
The Berlin Mathematical School is a great place to get your Master's degree or even PhD. I particularly liked that it is very diverse, with less than a third of the students being German and almost half of the students coming from outside of Europe. If getting your degree in one of the most vibrant European cities sounds fun, then you should apply!
Life in Kentucky
One week after finishing my last exam as an undergrad, I moved to the US to join the University of Kentucky. I ended up staying there for two years, which ended up being the best time of my life. When I moved there, I didn't know much about Kentucky. But luckily, this has changed:
Lexington is known as the Horse Capital of the World. Lexington is also home to the famous Keeneland race course, which is always worth a visit. It's fun to check out how much money people are betting on every single race. It's pretty crazy!
Kentucky is the birthplace of Bourbon, crafting 95 percent of the world’s supply. For every Kentuckian, there are about two bourbon barrels.
College sports are big in the US. John Calipari, coach of the UK basketball team, recently signed a long term deal worth $86 million. Needless to say, Go Cats!
Post-its were invented in Kentucky.
Life in Bavaria
I was born and raised in Bavaria, the oldest and largest state in Germany. As I still have strong ties to my home state, the next points might be biased.
My home village, with a population of around 1800 people, was first mentioned in an official document in 1237, 255 years before Columbus 'discovered' the US.
Bavaria is home to the oldest brewery in the world, with the Bayerische Staatsbrauerei Weihenstephan being almost 1000 years old!
Bavaria is home to one of the best card games in the world, Schafkopf! Schafkopf is almost exclusively played in Bavaria, and some politicians have even suggested to make Schafkopf a subject in school.
Some Bavarians are really enthusiastic about Schafkopf. Here is what wikipedia has to say: "Until 2006, the Guinness Book of Records recognized card game records only if they were based on a French deck of 52 cards. Only after the intervention of Bavarian broadcasters, Bayerischer Rundfunk, was this rule relaxed and Schafkopf was recognized in this category; since then the record for continuous playing is held exclusively by Schafkopf groups (for medical reasons the Guinness rules allow two substitutes). The officially recognized record playing time is currently 260 hours, placed in November 2013 by one Munich group."
The Bavarian dialect is quite famous/infamous in Germany. Moreover, local dialects vary greatly within the state and can be hard to understand even for Bavarians. My favorite dialect words from my home village include 'amort', 'Guzzle', 'Böhm', 'Bech', and 'frühs'.