Graduate Research Opportunities for Women at Dresden (GROW@Dresden 2026)

Mar 26, 2026, 8:00 AM → Mar 27, 2026, 9:00 PM Europe/Berlin

Technische Universität Dresden

Türkü Özlüm Çelik (MPI-CBG)

GROW@Dresden 2026 is aimed at all students of underrepresented gender identities in mathematics, especially women, who are interested in exploring graduate programmes and research opportunities both within and beyond academia.

This two-day conference will take place at Technische Universität Dresden and is jointly organized with the mathematics community at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG). Participants will gain insight into mathematical research, academic careers, and industry pathways, while connecting with a supportive network of faculty, researchers, and peers.

The event will include research talks, panel discussions (What is mathematics research like? How do I apply for a PhD in mathematics? What can you do with a mathematics PhD?), networking and mentoring sessions.

The conference is open to Bachelor and Master students from universities in Germany and neighbouring countries, including international students. It is possible to apply for funding for hotel and/or travel costs in the registration. Talks and panels will be in English, but many of the mentors/volunteers/organisers will be able to speak in German and possibly other languages.

All interested students must register beforehand (see registration tab), regardless of whether you are applying for funding. Confirmed participants will be notified by email.

For more information on the GROW conferences in Europe, please visit: https://grow-europe.github.io

Organizers: Anita Behme (TU Dresden), Türkü Özlüm Çelik (MPI-CBG & CSBD), Heather Harrington (MPI-CBG & CSBD), Andreas Thom (TU Dresden), Paula Truöl (U Glasgow), Oana Padurariu (MPIM)

 

Feedback on GROW2026.pdf

GROW_Timetable.pdf

Poster_Grow2026_final.pdf

TravelClaimForm.docx

Thu, March 26

8:30 AM → 9:15 AM Registration

9:15 AM → 10:00 AM Welcome

10:00 AM → 11:00 AM Research talk: The beauty of symmetry

In this talk we will have a look at spaces, tilings, patterns, and their symmetries. This leads us from classical result to current research trends.

Speaker: Anna Wienhard

11:00 AM → 11:30 AM Break

11:30 AM → 1:00 PM Panel: What is mathematics research like?

1:00 PM → 2:00 PM Lunch

2:00 PM → 3:30 PM Transfer to MPI CBG

3:30 PM → 5:00 PM Panel: What to do with a PhD in mathematics?

5:00 PM → 5:30 PM Break

5:30 PM → 6:30 PM Research talk: Modular forms and their generalizations in number theory and geometry

In this talk we introduce modular forms and harmonic weak Maass forms, real-analytic generalizations of holomorphic modular forms. We present applications of the theory in number theory and in the theory of elliptic curves.

Speaker: Claudia Alfes

6:30 PM → 7:30 PM Dinner

7:30 PM → 8:30 PM Lecture: Connecting Mathematicians

Speaker: Andreas Thom

Fri, March 27

9:30 AM → 10:30 AM Research talk: When Order Emerges — Mathematics meets Nature

Patterns are ubiquitous in life: in the banded structures of dryland vegetation, in the stripes of zebrafish, and in many other natural systems.

How does such striking order emerge from seemingly uniform beginnings?

Remarkably, complex structures often arise from simple interaction rules, and mathematics provides several frameworks for understanding this spontaneous self-organisation.

A classical approach is given by reaction–diffusion equations. In particular, the Turing mechanism illustrates how the interplay between local reactions and spatial dispersal can generate spatio-temporal patterns—a concept that has become a cornerstone of modern pattern formation theory.

Building on this perspective, I will turn to more contemporary research. Nature continues to pose mathematical questions that stretch existing theory: how do discrete interactions give rise to continuum descriptions, and how can singular limits be controlled in strongly nonlinear regimes? Addressing such questions goes beyond classical results and requires developing new analytical tools.

Speaker: Markus Schmidtchen

10:30 AM → 11:00 AM Break

11:00 AM → 11:30 AM PhD student talk: Multistability of small zero-one reaction networks

Zero-one biochemical reaction networks play key roles in cell signalling such as
signalling pathways regulated by protein phosphorylation. Multistability of reaction
networks is a crucial dynamics feature enabling decision-making in cells. It is well
known that multistability can be lifted from a “subnetwork" (a network with less
species and fewer reactions) to large networks. So, we aim to explore the multistability
problem of small zero-one networks. In this work, we prove the following main results:
1. any zero-one network with a one-dimensional stoichiometric subspace admits at
most one positive steady state (it must be stable), and all the one-dimensional zero-
one networks can be classified according to if they indeed admit a stable positive
steady state or not; 2. any two-dimensional zero-one network with up to three species
either admits only degenerate positive steady states, or admits at most one positive
steady state (it must be stable); 3. the smallest zero-one networks (here, by “smallest",
we mean these networks contain species as few as possible) that admit nondegenerate
multistationarity/multistability contain three species and five/six reactions, and they
are three-dimensional. In these proofs, we use the theorems based on the Brouwer
degree theory and the theory of real algebraic geometry. Moreover, applying the tools
of computational real algebraic geometry, we provide a systematical way for detecting
the networks that admit nondegenerate multistationarity/multistability.

Speaker: Yue Jiao (MPI CBG & CSBD)

11:30 AM → 12:00 PM PhD student talk: Topological Data Analysis: from theoretical mathematics to biological data

Topological Data Analysis (TDA) is an area of mathematics that combines ideas from topology, geometry, and computation to study the shape of complex data. In this talk, I will introduce some of the key concepts of TDA in an accessible way, including filtrations and persistent homology. These tools allow us to detect and track features such as connected components, loops, and voids across multiple scales in a dataset. One of the main ways we visualize this information is through barcodes, which provide a concise summary of the topological structure present in the data.

I will also present a glimpse of my own research on persistent cycle representatives, which provide geometric information beyond the topological summaries given by barcodes. In particular, I will outline how these methods can be used to study the shapes of biological structures such as organoids.
Overall, the talk aims to show how abstract mathematical ideas can lead to practical tools for analyzing real-world data, and how pursuing research in mathematics can open doors to interdisciplinary collaborations and applications.

Speaker: Leon Renkin (MPI CBG & CSBD)

12:00 PM → 2:00 PM Lunch

2:00 PM → 3:30 PM Panel: How to apply for a PhD in mathematics?

3:30 PM → 4:00 PM Break

4:00 PM → 5:00 PM Research talk: Solving equations in groups (but not teams)

For a group or semigroup or ring G, solving equations where the coefficients are elements in G and the solutions take values in G can be seen as akin to solving systems of linear equations in linear algebra, Diophantine equations in number theory, or more generally polynomial systems in algebraic geometry.

I will give a short, nontechnical, survey about solving equations in infinite nonabelian (semi)groups, with emphasis on the free and hyperbolic ones. In particular, I will explain that the solutions to equations can be beautifully described in terms of words and languages, and that this was made possible by results coming from both geometry and computer science.

No background in computer science is required, only some basic group theory.

Speaker: Laura Ciobanu