4th BMS-BGSMath Junior Meeting 2024: Fostering Connections Between Young Researchers

• The 4th BMS-BGSMath Junior Meeting, held from June 26-28, 2024, at the Zuse Institute Berlin, featured plenary talks, short presentations, and elevator talks, fostering dynamic exchanges between young researchers from the Berlin Mathematical School and CRM’s Barcelona Graduate School of Mathematics.
• CRM researchers, including Joaquim Duran, Tassio Naia, Frank Trujillo, and Pablo Nicolas, presented on diverse topics, emphasizing the importance of such meetings for professional growth, interdisciplinary communication, and building connections within and across research communities.

The 4th edition of the BMS-BGSMath Junior Meeting took place from June 26-28, 2024, at the Zuse Institute Berlin. This biennial event alternates between Barcelona and Berlin and provides a platform for building connections and fostering collaboration between young researchers from the Berlin Mathematical School (BMS) and the CRM (under its training unit the BGSMath).

The meeting featured plenary talks by four distinguished speakers: María Ángeles García Ferrero from the Instituto de Ciencias Matemáticas (ICMAT), Frank Trujillo from the Centre de Recerca Matemàtica (CRM), Thibaut Mazuir from Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, and Giulia Codenotti from the Freie Universität Berlin. Additionally, researchers from both institutions delivered shorter presentations, complemented by a session of elevator talks. These informal sessions allowed researchers to succinctly introduce their topics, fostering a dynamic and engaging exchange of ideas.

Joaquim Duran, a CRM PhD researcher, presented on the Spectral gap of generalized MIT bag models in relativistic quantum mechanics. He highlighted the new results obtained with his PhD advisor, Dr. Albert Mas Blesa. Joaquim described his experience at the meeting as highly enjoyable, emphasizing that it “provided a scenario to strengthen the Barcelona community of young researchers and to build links with the Berlin community, both in a professional and human way”.

Tassio Naia, a CRM postdoctoral researcher, discussed his work on “Separating systems and rainbow covers for graphs,” focusing on efficiently identifying faulty links within networks. He found the meeting “captivating and thought-provoking to me, mathematically and otherwise. Perhaps my main takeaway is a clearer vision of how much work it takes to communicate, even from across fields in the same science”. Tassio stressed that collaboration goes beyond writing articles together, addressing broader academic challenges and fostering scientific connections.

Frank Trujillo, a Marie Curie Fellow, chose to speak about KAM theory, a significant development in classical mechanics and dynamical systems. He believes that meetings like this are “very important as they give chances to young researchers to share their research interests and to get familiar with topics that are far from their research field”.

Pablo Nicolas, another CRM PhD researcher, presented recent results in Poisson geometry, focusing on fundamental techniques to engage a broad audience. He had a positive experience, interacting with researchers in related fields and networking with new colleagues. “I was lucky that many people from Berlin were working in topics closely related to my research, so I was able to follow the talks and interact with them,” Pablo noted. He highlighted the importance of such meetings for young researchers to meet people from diverse backgrounds and prepare for future conferences.

The BMS-BGSMath Junior Meeting continues to be a key event for fostering scientific exchange, strengthening research collaborations, and enhancing the multicultural experience for students and faculty from both institutions.