Mathematics meets AI: Anna Wienhard becomes Principal Investigator at ScaDS.AI

ScaDS.AI Dresden/Leipzig welcomes our director Anna Wienhard as a new member (principal investigator) from March 2025 onward at Leipzig University. At our institute, she supports basic mathematical research and applications of geometric and topological methods in the natural sciences, especially in data analysis and machine learning.

Interdisciplinary AI Research: Wienhard's vision for ScaDS.AI Dresden/Leipzig and MPI MiS

As principal investigator, she will significantly support the research area AI Algorithms and Methods with her expertise in mathematical foundations, representation learning, geometric deep learning and geometric methods of data analysis. She is particularly interested in strengthening the link between mathematics and AI - especially the mathematical foundations of current AI models, the application of mathematical structures to the construction of new algorithms/models, and the development of mathematically applicable AI models. In particular, she sees "great potential for both sides in the collaboration with ScaDS.AI Dresden/Leipzig" in the MPI MiS's Mathematics Lab with a focus on mathematics and AI, which is currently being set up. The goal of the lab is to create a platform in Leipzig that brings together researchers interested in the work of the lab.

Prof. Dr. Anna Wienhard also attaches particular importance to interdisciplinary collaboration with other research areas and institutions: "As director of the MPI MiS, I would like to further expand the interdisciplinary contacts here in the region. AI and machine learning are becoming increasingly important in many sciences and are based on mathematics. ScaDS.AI Dresden/Leipzig therefore offers a very attractive interdisciplinary environment with many interesting principal investigators and research groups". She is already collaborating with Dr. Nico Scherf, Principal Investigator of the Neuroscience Research Unit at ScaDS.AI Dresden/Leipzig.

"I am looking forward to working with the many interesting scientists, both established and young, within ScaDS.AI Dresden/Leipzig."

Academic career between topology, geometry and dynamics

After studying mathematics and theology in Bonn, where she obtained her PhD in 2004, she continued her career in Switzerland (ETH Zurich, University of Basel) and in the USA (Institute for Advanced Study Princeton, University of Chicago, Princeton University, Caltech, MSRI/SLMath Berkeley). Her research focuses on discrete and continuous symmetry groups and geometric structures on manifolds at the interface of topology, geometry and dynamics. 

From 2012 to 2022, Prof. Dr. Anna Wienhard was a professor at the University of Heidelberg and from 2015 also a group leader at the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies. During this time, she led numerous activities and initiatives (Graduate School, Mathematics and Physics Partnership, Upstream Network, Heidelberg Experimental Geometry Lab). She was co-founder and spokesperson of the Cluster of Excellence STRUCTURES and founding director of the Research Station Geometry and Dynamics.

Prof. Dr. Anna Wienhard has received numerous prizes and awards, including an ERC Consolidator Grant, an ERC Advanced Grant and the Hector Science Award 2022. She is a fellow of the American Mathematical Society and an elected member of the Heidelberg and Berlin-Brandenburg Academies of Sciences and Humanities, the Leopoldina, the European Academy of Sciences, and The World Academy of Sciences.

ScaDS.AI Dresden/Leipzig

ScaDS.AI (Center for Scalable Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence) Dresden/Leipzig is a center for Data Science, Artificial Intelligence and Big Data with locations in Dresden and Leipzig. It is one of the five new AI centers in Germany funded under the federal government’s AI strategy by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Free State of Saxony. It is established as a permanent research facility at both locations with strong connections to the local universities: the TU Dresden University of Technology and the Leipzig University. (https://scads.ai/about-us/)