Homepage of Benedikt Kolbe

Researcher in mathematics and computer science
Institute of computer science
Lamarr – Institute for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
Hausdorff Center for Mathematics at the University of Bonn, Germany.

The story thus far

I am a former pure mathematician who has seen the light and has turned to applied maths/computer science at the wonderful Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences of the University of Bonn in Germany, where I work in the research groups Algorithms and Complexity, Computational Analytics, and the Information Systems and Artificial Intelligence. I develop mathematical frameworks that become the foundation of algorithmic approaches to practical implementations, and everything in-between.

My background in mathematics is primarily in (computational) topology, (two-dimensional) hyperbolic geometry, tiling theory, and knot theory in the three-torus. My interests in computer science mainly lie in computational geometry and topology, in particular, geometric algorithms and persistence theory.

Previously, I was part of the GAMBLE group at INRIA, institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies du numérique in Nancy, France, where I worked with Monique Teillaud and Vincent Despré. My focus there was on the computational geometry of hyperbolic surfaces and, in particular, Delaunay triangulations and graph embeddings. It is here that I started shifting my focus from purer maths to that of algorithmic research and practical algorithms in applications domains.

I received my PhD in mathematics in 2020 from the department of mathematics at the Technical University of Berlin, under the supervision of Myfanwy Evans and John Sullivan in the geometry and mathematical physics group.

The best part is that I can talk about mathematics and computer science even when I’m at home, for example during a lockdown.

Honors, Awards, Scholarships
  • Teaching award 2023 of the faculty of mathematics and natural sciences of the University of Bonn, included 4000€ cash award
  • DAAD scholarship for an extended research stay at the Australian National University, 2017
  • Member of the Berlin Mathematical School and Math+, 2016-2020
  • JASSO scholarship from the Japanese government and scholarship from the Humboldt University of Berlin for a one-year exchange program at Waseda University, Tokyo, 2012
  • Scholarship from the German government for a long term student exchange in Oregon, USA