Lei Zhao, a postdoctoral researcher and leader of an Emmy Noether Junior Research Group at the Institute of Mathematics, has been awarded funding as part of the Heisenberg Programme.

The Heisenberg programme is open to researchers who have already fulfilled the prerequisites for a tenured professorship. It enables them to continue working on their own high-quality research projects and therefore continue to develop their reputation within a five-year period, thus preparing for an academic leadership role. With this funding, which is a great honour, Zhao can continue to carry out research on topics he has been successfully researching for years. “In Augsburg, I have conducted research on the application of new developments in symplectic topology to problems in celestial mechanics. Celestial mechanics is an established area of research in mathematics, whereas symplectic topology has only recently been developed. I am looking forward to discovering unexpected connections between these two areas of research.”