ICM 2026 – MPI MiS at the World's Leading Mathematics Congress

Plenary Lecture by Felix Otto 

Being invited to give a plenary lecture at the International Congress of Mathematicians is one of the highest honors in mathematics. At ICM 2026, our Director Felix Otto will take the plenary stage, viewing the invitation as both a recognition of his scientific achievements and an opportunity to represent his research community, MPI MiS, and the Max Planck Society.

Geometric Concepts in Partial Differential Equations

Being intrigued by the use of intuition and concepts from differential and in particular Riemannian geometry in the infinite-dimensional set-ting of field equations, I’d like to sketch a couple of examples: 

• The physics-informed interpretation of multi-phase flows in porous media – as gradient flows on the space of densities endowed with a metric from optimal transportation.
• The renormalization of quasi-linear parabolic equations driven by noisy and thus rough right-hand sides – interpreted as the robust construction of canonical charts and transition maps for the solution manifold, with the help of derivatives with respect to the noise.
• The connection between drift-diffusion equations with critical ensembles of divergence-free drifts in n-dimensional space – and the geometric Brownian motion on the Lie group Sl(n).

Section Lecture by Nicolas Perkowski

Nicolas Perkowski is Max-Planck-Fellow and group leader at MPI MiS and Professor of Dynamical Systems / Stochastics at Freie Universität Berlin.

Energy Lagrangian Flows for Singular SPDEs and Applications

Energy Lagrangian flows are a formulation of the Lagrangian flows of Di Perna-Lions and their stochastic counterparts by Le Bris-Lions and Figalli in the setting of singular stochastic dynamics, partly in regimes where classical and pathwise theories break down. A key notion is "probabilistic subcriticality": even for scaling critical or supercritical equations, regularity of the law combined with coercivity of the generator may yield existence and uniqueness. I will outline the construction and well-posedness results, the relation to pathwise constructions, and applications to hydrodynamics and numerical analysis.

International Film Premiere “Felix Klein - Insights from the Outside”

Directed by Ekaterina Eremenko

Felix Klein was a leading mathematician who connected mathematics with education and society, aiming to make it more accessible. He has a lasting influence on mathematics through the Erlangen Program, viewing geometry through the lense of symmetry.

The documentary Felix Klein – Insights from the Outside explores Felix Klein’s life and his impact on modern mathematics, as well as influences he has in physics and machine learning.

Film screening and following Q&A with Anna Wienhard, Akshay Venkatesh, Steve Trettel, Richard Canary, Ekaterina Eremenko

Mathematics Exhibition 

At three joint exhibition booths, German research institutions showcase why a career in mathematics in Germany can be truly wunderbar. Visitors can explore cutting-edge mathematical research at universities and non-university institutes, learn about large collaborative research initiatives, scientific societies, a mathematical research data initiative, and discover a wide range of funding and career opportunities in Germany.