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Philosophy at Peking University, Logic in Amsterdam, and then Mathematics in Lyon ... for Dr. Tingxiang Zou, borders are an invitation rather than an obstacle. Tingxiang Zou is taking on a big new challenge at the Hausdorff Center for Mathematics (HCM), a Cluster of Excellence at the University of Bonn, where she will start leading a newly formed Emmy Noether group at the Mathematical Institute this September, focusing on the Elekes-Szabó problem. The German Research Foundation (DFG) will be providing up to 1.6 million euros in funding for the research group over the next six years. The Emmy Noether Program opens up the possibility for Tingxiang Zou to qualify for a professorship.
“The Emmy Noether Program enables me to attract colleagues to join this beautiful project and to build my own research group,” said Tingxiang Zou, who is delighted to have received the grant. “It also provides a platform to strengthen the connections between model theory and combinatorics.”
The Elekes-Szabó problem is a combinatorial problem with connections to geometry, algebra, model theory, and other areas of mathematics. Tingxiang Zou’s newly formed Emmy Noether group at the Mathematical Institute of the University of Bonn will study higher-dimensional versions of this problem.
The sum-product problem describes the phenomenon that a set of numbers cannot simultaneously exhibit strong additive and multiplicative structure. If we consider the even numbers 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, for example, adding two of these numbers produces only a few possible values. Even in longer sequences, the number of possible sums increases slowly. In contrast, multiplying two of these numbers yields significantly more distinct results. Conversely, a geometric sequence, such as 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, shows strong multiplicative structure but hardly any additive structure.
“The Elekes-Szabó Problem is a more general framework for studying such phenomena,” Tingxiang Zou explains. “Instead of sums and products, one considers algebraic relations arising from polynomial equations over the real or complex numbers.” The key finding of Elekes and Szabó is that when an algebraic equation has an unexpectedly large number of solutions in large finite grids, apart from certain degenerate cases, there must be an underlying hidden algebraic group structure (such as addition or multiplication) that explains this behavior.
“If the number of solutions is very high, this suggests that the polynomial essentially behaves like addition or multiplication,” Dr. Zou elaborates. “In this research project we intend to investigate higher-dimensional variants of this problem.” Here too, the aim is to explain cases where algebraic equations have an unexpectedly large solution set in finite grids.
Scholars from around the world have been collaborating closely with the new Emmy Noether group, including Martin Bays of the University of Oxford, Jan Dobrowolski of Xiamen University Malaysia, and Yifan Jing of the Ohio State University. A host of new collaborations will also be initiated with leading researchers in the field, including Artem Chernikov of the University of Maryland and Ehud Hrushovski of the University of Oxford.
Bio
Tingxiang Zou studied philosophy at Peking University and then completed a master’s degree in logic in Amsterdam. As a doctoral student in mathematics, she conducted research at the Institut Camille Jordan at the University of Lyon from 2015 to 2019, and then worked at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Mathematics Cluster of Excellence in Münster before coming to Bonn in early 2024 as a postdoc at the Mathematical Institute and an associate member of the Hausdorff Center for Mathematics (HCM—one of the currently eight Clusters of Excellence at the University of Bonn). She will lead an Emmy Noether research group starting in September 2026, with initial funding of up to 850,000 euros granted by the German Research Foundation. The initial project term is three years, with a possible three-year extension tied to another 710,000 euros of grant funding, subject to interim evaluation and approval.
The Emmy Noether Program
The Emmy Noether Program, backed by the German Research Foundation (DFG), is designed to create opportunities for high-caliber early-career researchers to qualify as a full university professor within six years by leading their own a research group.
Media contact:
Stefan Hartmann
Hausdorff Center for Mathematics
University of Bonn
Tel. +49 228 73-3138
Email: stefan.hartmann@uni-bonn.de
Starting in September, Dr. Tingxiang Zou will be leading a newly formed Emmy Noether Group at the Un ...
Copyright: Photo: Shiqi Zhai
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