Interview with Peter Scholze

Math-Life Balance

Peter Scholze is a professor in Bonn University, working in number theory and arithmetic geometry. In this interview, we chat about the pressure of the Fields medal, discuss the pain of writing math papers and argue about math.

Peter's homepage: http://www.math.uni-bonn.de/people/scholze/

Photo: Hausdorff Center for Mathematics / Barbara Frommann

Merkurjev's lecture on the proof of Bloch-Kato conjecture: https://youtu.be/bUaWCOtBUHs

0:00 proof or relatability

0:58 influence of the background

2:50 learning math vs solving problems

7:38 Peter is not creative

11:55 math chat (sorry!)

14:23 collaborating with Dustin Clausen

16:29 math gives head ache

18:20 pressure of Fields medal

21:47 representing others is the worst

24:01 interviews with prodigies

26:53 don't waste time on the Riemann hypothesis

29:28 emails from amateur mathematicians

34:01 lockdown time is unproductive

36:52 writing math is pain

40:50 thanks to Germany for sponsoring math

45:09 updating Hilbert’s list of problems

49:07 Oberwolfach AG’s are cool

55:31 advice for young mathematicians