Timothy Browning Elected to Academia Europaea

The Academia Europaea nominates Professor Timothy Browning from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) as a new member. By that, it recognizes his scholarly achievements and his group’s remarkable mathematical research in analytic number theory. He joins over 4,900 experts from all academic disciplines, including 72 Nobel Laureates and eleven colleagues at ISTA.

The fascinating thing about number theory is that seemingly simple questions have remained unsolved for hundreds – even thousands – of years. For example, whether the equation x³ + y³ + z³ = k can be solved for any given integer k by putting in integers for x, y, and z, is a mind-bogglingly difficult and still unsolved question. Tim Browning, since 2018 professor at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), and his research group are tackling such problems, and they have been quite successful in doing so. They look at particular equations like the one above, so-called Diophantine equations, and discover both their solutions and new ways of understanding them. By this, they try to unveil inherent structures of these problems, which can advance other fields of mathematics, and in the long-run overall science and technology.

“Our research has deep connections to other mathematical fields, from complex analysis to geometry, but it is also of interest to computer scientists and theoretical physicists,” explains Browning, who already received numerous distinctions, including the Whitehead Prize and twice the Ferran Sunyer i Balaguer Prize. “I’m very grateful and honored that our hard work is recognized by the Academia Europaea in that way. Yet, I really want to extend this appreciation to my colleagues at ISTA, as such a nomination is never the result of the work of a single individual.” Among the now twelve members of Academia Europaea at ISTA, five are mathematicians, showcasing the extraordinary mathematical research that is done at the Institute.

You want to know more about foundational research in mathematics at ISTA? Then check out our latest piece in the magazine of the European Mathematical Society, where Tim Browning’s research has been highlighted as well.

Tim Browning and colleagues closing in on Hilbert’s 10^th problem: https://ista.ac.at/en/news/when-is-necessary-sufficient/

Tim Browning laying out the intriguing mystery of Diophantine equations on Numberphile: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6nUVa8EtlU