Honourable mention for Rosa Schwarz at Christiaan Huygens Prize 2024
During the award ceremony of the Christiaan Huygens Prize on 16 October, mathematician Rosa Schwarz received an honourable mention. Schwarz, former PhD candidate of the Mathematical Institute, received the mention for her dissertation ‘Logarithmic approach to the double ramification cycle’.
The honourable mention consisted of a certificate and a bronze statue. They were given to Schwarz by Eppo Bruins, minister of Education, Culture and Science. The jury ruled the mathematical content of her dissertation very strong: ‘The impact of this dissertation, which treats questions about the
double ramification cycle using techniques from logarithmic geometry, contains aspects of mathematics that are important in mathematical physics.’
‘It was an extremely special and also educational evening inspired by Christiaan Huygens’, said Schwarz, who feels very honoured with this distinction. ‘All three dissertations were spoken
off with such high praise and so much attention was paid to us and our work; this was heart-warming.’
Curves and cycles
The PhD research of Schwarz involves logarithmic geometry. This is an area of mathematics within algebraic geometry that helps to understand geometric objects or shapes (in this case curves), by adding some extra information to them. This extra information describes these curves around the possibly difficult points of the curves, which are called singularities. Think, for example, of the point where a curve intersects itself.
During her research, Schwarz mainly dealt with the double ramification cycle. This is an algebraic structure that describes some specific curves within the entire moduli space or parameter space. It is an important and well-researched cycle in algebraic geometry. In the first part of her dissertation Schwarz describes how to define this double ramification cycle in a more general setting, that encompasses previous definitions and allows for more complex generalisations. In the second part, she illustrates the used concepts from logarithmic geometry and the relation to classic algebraic geometry, with numerous examples and figures, which was also praised by the jury. The final chapter uses the new way of describing this cycle in order to better understand it and prove certain important properties of the cycle.
'Rosa wrote a fantastic dissertation. Her honourable mention for this prize is very well-deserved.' - David Holmes
‘Rosa wrote a fantastic dissertation’, said a proud supervisor. David Holmes is professor of Pure Mathematics and finds it impressive that Schwarz proves difficult and influential theorems in a very abstract setting. ‘And at the same time making things accessible with a wealth of beautiful illustrations. It was a pleasure and a privilege to work with her, and her subsequent honourable mention for this prize is very well-deserved.’
About Rosa Schwarz
Rosa Schwarz obtained her doctorate on 7 December 2023. Her supervision team consisted of David Holmes, Ronald van Luijk and Bas Edixhoven (1962-2022). She previously graduated grammar school with three tens (the highest score, of course also for mathematics). She graduated summa cum laude for both her bachelor Mathematics as well as for her master Algebraic geometry. Schwarz currently works as tutor and thesis coach. ‘As a tutor and thesis coach, I hope to be able to help those students who need a little bit of extra help, because of an impairment or whatever reason, to find their way in the academic world.’
Other honours
Jan-Willem van Ittersum (Utrecht University) won the Christiaan Huygens Prize 2024. He received the prize for his dissertation ‘Partitions and quasimodular forms; variations on the Bloch-Okounov theorem’.
Lucas Slot (CWI and Tilburg University) also received an honourable mention for his dissertation ‘Asymptotic Analysis of Semidefinite Bounds for Polynomial Optimazation and Independent Sets in Geometric Hypergraphs’.
About the Christiaan Huygens Prize
Christiaan Huygens ((1629-1695) was an influential scientist of the 17th century. A mathematician, physicist, astronomer, inventor and writer, he was one of the internationally leading figures of the time. On the occasion of his 300th death anniversary, a foundation was set up in 1955 to keep alive the connection between the Huygens family and Voorburg, where they lived.
The Christiaan Huygens science prize is awarded annually to a researcher who has made an innovative contribution to science. The prize aims to promote contacts between Dutch universities and industry and positively influence student intake in the sciences. It focuses on the fields of science in which Christiaan Huygens excelled: mathematics, physics and space sciences. Read more about the Christiaan Huygens Prize 2024.