Albrecht Beutelspacher is the first winner of the newly created Communicator Prize. The prize, which is endowed with DM 100,000, has been awarded to the Gießen mathematician, in recognition of his outstanding achievements in communicating his discipline to the public. The prize is to be presented on the 15th September 2000 in the framework of a WDR science show that will be broadcast on the ARD channel from 9.45 p.m. till 10.45 p.m. on the 4th October. The prize will be handed to Beutelspacher by Dr. Arend Oetker, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft.
The Stifterverband provided the sum of DM 100,000 as a science prize, and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) invited tenders for it as the Communicator Prize in September of last year. A total of roughly 200 applications from all subject areas were received and assessed according to the criteria of relevance, target group, originality and sustainability. Following a pre-selection round, the jury, comprising journalists and communications and public relations specialists, discussed around 60 short-listed applications. Four candidates made it to the final round, and ultimately, the mathematician Albrecht Beutelspacher was chosen unanimously.
The prize is symbolically represented by a hologram designed by the Cologne artist Michael Bleyenberg, which is not only aimed at emphasising the notion of transparency in science but also demonstrates that it is worthwhile to show certain things in their "true light". For it is only in the right light that the hologram will develop its luminosity to the full.
A detailed portrait of the prize-winner, an interview with him and a report on the conditions of the prize are available to you for reproduction without any commitment to name the source.
Albrecht Beutelspacher is a Professor of Geometry and Discrete Mathematics at Gießen University's Mathematical Institute. His special research interests are in the fields of cryptography, combination theory and projective geometry. Beutelspacher was born in 1950. After studying mathematics and the subsidiary subjects of physics and philosophy at Tübingen University, he first of all worked at Mainz University, where he also did his doctorate and qualified as a university lecturer. From 1986 to 1988, Albrecht Beutelspacher was active at the research department of the Siemens AG company in Munich, and he has been teaching at Gießen University since 1988. He has had a large number of research stays in the USA, Canada, and Belgium, and, again and again, in Italy.
For years, Albrecht Beutelspacher has been attempting to capture the attention of a wide audience for the abstract science of mathematics. Here, models and brainteasers play an important role. The focus is always on how mathematics relates to everyday life, and it is this connection that Beutelspacher uses to create a new approach for the public at large to the world of numbers, formulas and shapes. His exhibition “Mathematik zum Anfassen" (mathematics you can touch) has already attracted tens of thousands of visitors and is currently being turned into the world's first active museum dedicated to mathematics. Several of his books on mathematics have already become secret best-sellers. His latest and so far most successful book - Pasta all'infinito - Meine italienische Reise in die Mathematik (my Italian journey into the world of mathematics) - at once reflects his love of Italy and of his subject.