The “Grand Prix en Mathématiques de l’Institut Grand-ducal” also called “Prix de la Bourse de Luxembourg” was awarded to Anton Thalmaier, Professor in Stochastics Analysis within the Department of Mathematics at the University of Luxembourg. He received this prestigious award during an academic session held on 13 November 2021 at the Chamber of Commerce.
The jury, composed of mathematicians and professors of mathematics from the Universities of Nancy, Lyon and Toulouse recognised the outstanding academic career of Anton Thalmaier in the field of mathematics.
After a PhD in mathematics at the University of Regensburg in Germany, a habilitation at the University of Bonn and several positions in different universities worldwide, Prof. Anton Thalmaier joined the University of Luxembourg in 2006. He enjoys a high international reputation as a specialist in probabilistic methods at the interface of analysis and geometry. He has published 65 papers, participated as invited speaker in more than 120 conferences, collaborated with 18 renowned professors and spent 12 research stays in China, UK, USA, France and Japan. In addition, he has served as Course Director of the Master in Mathematics and supervised 9 PhD students.
The ceremony was introduced by Pierre Seck, Carlo Thelen and Maurice Bauer, respectively, President of the Section des Sciences de l’Institut Grand-ducal, Director General of the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce and General Secretary of the Management Board of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.
Martin Schlichenmaier, Professor at the University of Luxembourg and member of the Section des Sciences presented the laureate. “Anton Thalmaier joined the University in its first years. Since then, he played and still plays a crucial and leading role in establishing fundamental research and as a pillar for teaching in probability. He is an internationally highly respected scholar with a very strong and influential research output. During my time as Head of the Department of Mathematics, it was always a pleasure for me to work with him. His presence in Luxembourg made it very attractive for other scientists in the field to join. Today we have an excellent group working in probability and related topics.”
Prof. Anton Thalmaier gave a talk about “The unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics” where he investigated the fact that mathematics, being after all a product of human thought, is miraculously appropriate to the understanding of reality, allowing an accurate description of new phenomena beyond all reasonable expectations.