26 June 2026

Photo: UHH/Sophie Wunder

On 23 June 2026, the Mathematisches Seminar der Universität Hamburg hosted its first Chern-Vorlesung. The lecture was given by Qiuyu Ren, who completed his PhD at UC Berkeley in 2026 and is an incoming Clay Research Fellow at Stanford. In his talk, entitled "Khovanov skein lasagna modules and exotic 4-manifolds", Ren presented his detection, joint with Michael Willis, of exotic smooth structures on four-manifolds using topological quantum field theories closely related to the research programme of the CRC 1624 in Hamburg.

The event was moderated by Paul Wedrich, Spokesperson of the Mathematisches Seminar. Wolfgang Hillert, Vice Dean for Research, delivered a greeting on behalf of the MIN-Faculty, and Christoph Schweigert offered historical remarks on Chern's years in Hamburg.

The Chern-Vorlesung des Mathematischen Seminars der Universität Hamburg honours outstanding doctoral research. It is named after Shiing-Shen Chern, who was a doctoral student at the University of Hamburg from 1934 to 1936 advised by Wilhelm Blaschke. Chern held positions at, among other institutions, the University of Chicago and UC Berkeley, where he co-founded the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI), now SLMath. Chern received numerous awards, including the Wolf Prize and the U.S. National Medal of Science, and is regarded as one of the most important geometers of the 20th century.

The inaugural Chern-Vorlesung marks the 90th anniversary of Shiing-Shen Chern's doctorate from the University of Hamburg. In a greeting from the Chern family read out at the event, Chern's daughter May Chu recalled her father's Hamburg years: "Those two years were full of work and of fun" — "Both mathematically and in life, it must have been an exciting awesome time." In establishing the Chern-Vorlesung, the Mathematisches Seminar reflects on Hamburg's historic role in nurturing eminent mathematicians at an early stage of their careers — and hopes to carry this tradition forward.