Video portrait Hector Fellow Anna Wienhard

What School Doesn’t Teach Us About Mathematics

For Anna Wienhard, mathe­mat­ics is far more than just a tool – it is an ancient cultural technique and the founda­tion of many modern technolo­gies. Since 2022, she has been the direc­tor of the Max Planck Insti­tute for Mathe­mat­ics in the Sciences in Leipzig and is one of Germany’s leading mathe­mati­cians. Contrary to the rigid image often conveyed in schools, she sees mathe­mat­ics as a dynamic field of research. Answer­ing the many still unresolved questions requires fresh think­ing and creativ­ity. Accord­ing to Wienhard, inter­dis­ci­pli­nary collab­o­ra­tion – with fields such as physics, biology, or computer science – can play a key role in this process.