Anna Wienhard

Prof. Anna Wienhard holds the position of Professor at the Mathematical Institute of Heidelberg University since 2012, where she leads the Differential Geometry research group. She is also Scientific Director of the Research Station Geometry and Dynamics (since 2020) and Co-Spokesperson of the Excellence Cluster STRUCTURES (since 2019). She serves as a Group Leader at the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS) since 2015 and chairs the Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation. Her roles include editorships for journals like Annales Henri Lebesgue, Annales scientifiques de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure, and Geometric and Functional Analysis.

Anna Wienhard earned dual degrees in theology and mathematics from the University of Bonn (2003/2004). After a theological research phase supported by the CRC 'Judaism – Christianity', she completed her PhD in mathematics at the University of Bonn in 2004. She held positions as a Dickson Instructor at the University of Chicago (2005–2007), postdoctoral research at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton (2005–2006, 2009–2012), and was an Assistant Professor at Princeton University (2007–2012). She also served as Director of Graduate Studies at Princeton (2007–2010).

Her research focuses on discrete subgroups of Lie groups, deformation spaces, representation varieties, Anosov representations, higher Teichmüller theory, and positivity in Lie groups. She explores these areas with interdisciplinary applications in physics and data science. Notable projects include the ERC Consolidator Grant (2014) and leadership in the DFG Excellence Cluster 2181 and Graduiertenkolleg 2229.

Her work has been recognized through awards such as the Sloan Research Fellowship (2012–2014) and Fellow of the American Mathematical Society. She has organized workshops on topics like Ergodic Decompositions, Flat Conformal Lorentzian Structures, and Ratner's Theorem. Her grants span DFG-funded initiatives and international collaborations, including the GEAR Network and MSRI programs. She is actively involved in editorial roles, academic committees, and interdisciplinary research activities.

Prof. Wienhard advises doctoral candidates and oversees research groups. She collaborates with institutions such as the IAS, Technical Universities in Munich and Ingolstadt, and the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences. Her research group at Heidelberg University specializes in differential geometry, and she contributes to the Excellence Cluster’s unifying approach to emergent phenomena across mathematics and physics.