Together with Dino Festi (Università degli Studi di Napoli 'Federico II') and Riccardo Pengo (Università degli Studi di Messina), I am organizing a joint seminar among the University of Naples 'Federico II', the University of Messina, and the University of Bari 'Aldo Moro'. This initiative goes under the name NaMeBa, after the initials of the three cities.
The aim of the seminar is to explore Feynman integrals - the fundamental tool underlying the computation of amplitudes in Quantum Field Theory and its supersymmetric incarnations - from a geometric, and in particular algebro-geometric, perspective.
More information about the seminar is available on the dedicated website.
Together with my friends and collaborators Ingmar Saberi and Johannes Walcher, I am co-PI of the research grant 'Homological algebra of supersymmetry' (2023-2026), funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) for approximately 218.000€.
This grant followed an exploratory project (2022-2023) supported by the STRUCTURES Cluster of Excellence at the University of Heidelberg, with funding of about 108.000€.
I am particularly proud that the majority of these funds have been used to support PhD students and their mobility.
Fabian Hahner - PhD in Physics from the University of Heidelberg (2024) - now postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Steffen Schmidt - PhD in Mathematics from the University of Heidelberg (2025) - now postdoctoral researcher at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense.
Raphael Senghaas - PhD student at the University of Heidelberg.
The grant is currently under renewal with the DFG for a second three-year period. Since neither Ingmar Saberi nor I are any longer based at German institutions, by law we can no longer serve as co-PIs of the project - althought we will, in any case, both continue to collaborate on and contribute to it. In the meantime, we wish Johannes and Ondra the very best of luck with the success of the renewal of the grant!
During my stay in Heidelberg, I co-organized the unified seminar jointly run by groups at the Karl Ruprechts University of Heidelberg, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, the Technical University of Munich, and the University of Vienna.
The seminar serves as an ideal forum to hear about the latest developments at the intersection of high-energy physics, string theory, geometry, and topology. It is structured so that the speakers alternate between established researchers and younger scholars, giving the latter an opportunity to present their work to a broad and high-level audience.
A curiosity: the seminar’s name, RHIND, was coined by Johannes Walcher — a stroke of genius (not necessarily mathematical!). It refers to the initials of the rivers running through the organizing cities — Rhine (Mainz), Isar (Munich), Neckar (Heidelberg), and Danube (Vienna). At the same time, it alludes to the famous Rhind Mathematical Papyrus (ca. 1550 BC), one of the oldest known mathematical texts, which deals with problems in arithmetic, algebra, and geometry.
Together with Chuck Doran and Johannes Walcher, I co-organized the workshop 'Hodge Theory, Mirror Symmetry, and Physics of Calabi–Yau Moduli', held at the University of Heidelberg from June 12 to 16, 2023.
The workshop was the result of a joint effort between the Mathematical Physics group at the University of Heidelberg and the Algebraic Geometry group at the University of Alberta. It was made possible through funding from the Mathematics Center Heidelberg (MATCH) and STRUCTURES Cluster of Excellence at the University of Heidelberg, as well as a $20.000 grant from the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences (PIMS).
The workshop focused on the B-model (Hodge theory), the geometry and arithmetic of Calabi–Yau moduli spaces, their degenerations, related aspects of the A-model (enumerative geometry), and questions arising from fundamental physics and string theory.
Once again, together with my friends and collaborators Ingmar Saberi and Johannes Walcher, I co-organized the workshop 'Pure spinors, superalgebras, and holomorphic twists', held at the University of Heidelberg from October 4 to 8, 2021.
Funded by the Mathematics Center Heidelberg (MATCH) and STRUCTURES Cluster of Excellence, the workshop sought to create a shared platform for researchers with diverse backgrounds in mathematics and theoretical physics. The broad theme of twists of supersymmetric theories served as a unifying framework connecting a wide range of mathematical directions, including, for instance, the representation theory of superalgebras, vertex operator algebras, factorization algebras, and related structures.
The recorded talks are available on YouTube via the link provided below.