Sofja Kowalewskaja was the first woman worldwide to get a doctoral degree in mathematics. Karl Weierstrass recognized her outstanding talent and supported her scientific development. In 1889, she received a professorship at the University of Stockholm and thus became the first female professor of mathematics in Europe.

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WIAS Female Master Students Program

General Information

The WIAS Female Master Students Program wants to encourage female students of the Berlin universities who are enthusiastic about mathematics. We offer:

a contract as student assistant (40 hours per month),
the integration into a concrete research project,
After six months, you will have the opportunity to work with and be supported by employees of the WIAS to write your master's thesis.

The participation in challenging research projects in an international environment and the typical WIAS applications offer an excellent starting point for a professional career in industry and economy as well as in research.

The appointments start twice a year at the beginning of the semester.

The application deadlines are always February 28 (or 29) and August 31 respectively.

Application documents

In your application, you have the possibility to indicate two preferences for research groups in which you would like to work with us. In detail we ask you to submit the following documents:

A letter of motivation with motivation of the research group selection (first and second preference),
Tabular curriculum vitae,
Bachelor's certificate for a mathematical studies,
Current statement of marks for mathematical master studies at one of the Berlin universities.

For the submission of your application documents please use the corresponding link on the current job advertisement page.

Contact

If you have any questions about a research group, please contact the respective leader directly. Questions about the application procedure should be addressed to Heike Sill (sill@wias-berlin.de).

About the WIAS

The WIAS is a leading European research institute in the heart of Berlin. The research at the institute combines analysis and stochastics and is carried out in close cooperation with partners from science and industry.

The work of the WIAS is divided into research groups, which are briefly presented below.

Research Group Partial Differential Equations

(Head: Alexander Mielke, HU)

The group works in the field of mathematical modelling of physical phenomena. Here processes in semiconductors and optoelectronic devices as well as dissipative processes in elastic materials are of particular importance. The work of the Research Group focuses on the closely interlinked topics

Analysis of general evolutionary and variational problems,
Mathematics for optoelectronic semiconductor components and
Applications of differential equations in biology, chemistry and continuum mechanics

The modelling is done by means of thermodynamic principles, which are made usable for the analytical investigation. The resulting systems of partial differential equations have special features, on the one hand special physical structures such as conservation and gradient structures and on the other hand mathematical difficulties such as discontinuous coefficient functions, jumping boundary conditions or non-classical couplings. The analytical findings obtained improve the understanding of the underlying physical relationships and for the development of efficient numerical solvers.

Research Group Laser Dynamics

(Head: Uwe Bandelow, WIAS and HU)

The work of the group is concerned with the modelling, theoretical and numerical analysis of nonlinear dynamic processes that occur in optical technologies. The investigations are focused on the following topics

dynamics of semiconductor lasers,
pulses in optical nonlinear media and
theory of dynamical systems.

The theory of dynamical systems is an encompassing mathematicaltopic. From a mathematical perspective questions concerning structural properties of the models, the dependence of non-linear effects on the design and control parameters (bifurcation analysis) as well as problem-specific modelling and model reduction are of particular importance.

Research Group Numerical Mathematics and Scientific Computing

(Head: Volker John, FU)

The group develops, analyses and implements modern numerical methods for the solution of partial differential equations and systems of such equations. The used methods are mainly determined by their applicability in application projects. The main focus of the research activities is on

development and analysis of numerical methods for partial differential equations and
numerical investigation of applications modelled by partial differential equations.

In the field of numerical methods, stabilised finite element and finite volume methods, physical consistent discretizations as well as methods for the generation of grids with given properties were studied.

The obtained results are used for the development of numerical software, which is the basis for the application-oriented research work done by the group. This research concentrates on the areas semiconductor devices and technology simulation, simulation of processes from biomedicine, electrochemical processes as well as of coupled flow processes.

Research Group Nonlinear Optimization und Inverse Problems

(Head: Dietmar Hömberg, TU)

The group investigates problems of optimization and optimal control as well as inverse problems from current technical and economic applications. The work ranges from basic research to the analysis and numerics of these problems, to the development of efficient algorithms and software up to the solution of concrete practical problems. They concern almost all main application areas of the WIAS and concentrate on the following topics

Stochastic and non-smooth optimization,
Inverse problems for stochastic surfaces and data and
Optimal control of multi-field and multi-scale problems.

The application problems to be investigated focus on inverse problems in flow cytometry, stochastic microstructures, production and trade of electricity and gas as well as optimal control and topology optimization in production processes such as generative manufacturing.

Research Group Interacting Random Systems

(Head: Wolfgang König, TU)

The group deals with the analysis of interacting random systems with a large number of degrees of freedom. Examples come from telecommunications, physics and chemistry. The group focuses on

stochastic geometry for communication networks
dynamic and statistical particle systems with reactions and
statistical mechanics of long-range interactions.

The aim is to identify fundamental macroscopic phenomena and to prove their presence or absence. Special attention is paid to spatial aspects. The methods used come from probability theory, mathematical physics and from analysis.

Research Group Stochastic Algorithms and Nonparametric Statistics

(Head: Vladimir Spokoiny, HU)

The group deals with questions of applied, algorithmically oriented probability theory and mathematical statistics, which include constructive and theoretical aspects of statistical and numerical problems and are complemented by complexity studies. The main topics of the Research Group are

statistical data analysis and
stochastic modeling, optimization and algorithms.

The focus is on applications in the economic, engineering and life sciences, in particular modelling complex correlations with methods of non-parametric statistics, risk assessment for energy markets with the help of stochastic differential equations and methods of stochastic and convex optimization as well as the efficiency of stochastic algorithms.

research Group Thermodynamic Modeling and Analysis of Phase Transitions

(Head: Barbara Wagner, WIAS and TU)

The group works in the fields of multi-scale modelling, applied analysis and numerical simulation of complex materials. The core competences of the group are the consistent thermodynamic modeling of phase transitions, the development of systematic asymptotic methods, among others for singularly disturbed problems and the analysis of hysteresis properties. Important applications are lithium-ion batteries, electrocatalysis, electromagnetic-mechanical components, cell biology and biomedicine.

For these application areas the research group develops material models in electrochemistry, especially ageing models for Li-Ion batteries, models for liquid and (visco-)elastic polymers, for suspensions, as well as for biological and magnetorestrictive materials.

Further focal points are the mathematical theory of damage models, models of the dynamics of fundamental processes for the micro- and nanostructuring of interfaces, the development of numerical algorithms for the corresponding initial boundary value problems of systems of coupled partial differential equations of the derived multiphase models.

Research Group Nonsmooth Variational Problems and Operator 5Equations

(Head: Michael Hintermüller, HU)

Central topics of the group include the modelling, analysis and numerical treatment of minimization tasks with non-smooth energies and/or state systems, of generalized Nash equilibrium problems and of variational and/or quasivariational inequalities. Applications can be found in the biomedical context, in image processing or in the field of transport problems on networks that are linked to market processes. Stochastic influences are e.g. caused by approaches for modelling risk-averse agents on markets. In all the mentioned areas, data-driven modelling and optimization is playing an increasingly important role. The application-related topics include

physics-based modeling in mathematical image processing;
Treatment of generalized Nash equilibria for partial differential equations and under uncertainties;
Modelling, optimisation and numerical treatment of objects with transport
Restricted "mean field" games under uncertainty.

From a mathematical point of view, methods from multivariate analysis have to be elaborated and combined with methods of stochastic optimization.

Weierstrass Group Modeling, Analysis, and Scaling Limits for Bulk-Interface Processes

(Head: Marita Thomas, WIAS)

The group's goal is to develop mathematical methods for systems with volume-boundary layer processes for

thermodynamically consistent modeling of volume-boundary layer interaction with dissipative, Hamiltonian, as well as coupled dynamics,
Existence theory and determination of qualitative properties of solutions,
Derivation and justification of boundary layer processes and coupling laws.

The analytical results are used in the development of numerical algorithms for the simulation of applications with volume boundary layer Interaction.

Currently, the following application areas are dealt with in the group: Dissipative processes in elastic solid bodies with volume-boundary layer interaction, such as foaming, crack propagation, plastification, as well as optoelectronic processes in semiconductor components and viscous flows with free boundaries and contact lines.