Peter Scholze

Peter Scholze (German pronunciation: [ˈpeːtɐ ˈʃɔltsə] ; born 11 December 1987) is a German mathematician known for his work in arithmetic geometry. He has been a professor in the University of Bonn since 2012 and co-director at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics since 2018. He has been called one of the leading mathematicians in the world. In 2018, he won the Fields Medal, an award regarded as the highest professional honor in mathematics.

Early life and education

Scholze was born in Dresden and grew up in Berlin. His father is a physicist, his mother a computer scientist, and his sister studied chemistry. He attended the Heinrich-Hertz-Gymnasium in Berlin-Friedrichshain, a gymnasium devoted to mathematics and science. As a student, Scholze participated in the International Mathematical Olympiad, winning three gold medals and one silver medal.

He studied at the University of Bonn and completed his bachelor's degree in three semesters and his master's degree in two further semesters. He obtained his Ph.D. in 2012 under the supervision of Michael Rapoport.

Scholze was a student of Rapoport, who was a student of Deligne, who was a student of Grothendieck, who was a student of Schwartz; in this chain, Scholze, Deligne, Grothendieck, and Schwartz are all Fields medallists.

Career

From July 2011 until 2016, Scholze was a Research Fellow of the Clay Mathematics Institute in New Hampshire. In 2012, shortly after completing his PhD, he was made full professor in the University of Bonn, becoming at the age of 24 the youngest full professor in Germany.

In fall 2014, Scholze was appointed as Chancellor's Professor in the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught a course on p-adic geometry.