Lichtgedanken 05

Rubrik 38 Althöfer rolls the dice! Ingo Althöfer actually wanted to be an astronaut. But things turned out rather differently. Instead of spending his time in the infinite vastness of space, he roams the world of mathematics. And, contrary to the stereo- type, he is a very grounded academic. The fact that he now teaches in Jena is owed to a series of coincidences—or the work of a »higher power«. This portrait presents a researcher, whose curiosity knows no limits. When you enter IngoAlthöfer’s office, you immediately notice a globe. »I like to ask my visitors to show me where they are from«, says Althöfer. This this often helps to break the ice. It may also help to get over the initial shock. Because, when you see the chaos in the room, you would be hard pushed to guess that Althöfer actually teaches mathematical optimization. One shouldn’t jump to conclusions, however: it may not look tidy, but Althöfer always knows where to find whatever it is that he wants to show his guest. And—even better—he has a story to tell about each and every artefact. There is, for example, a ball with cork discs attached to it. Guests are invited to leave a farewell greeting on it as they leave—in the form of a prime number. A cake box stands next to the globe. It belongs to an Austrian colleague, says Althöfer. It is there so his colleague doesn’t forget it next time he pops by. The fact that Ingo Althöfer became a mathematician is owed to a series of happy coincidences. A hyperactive child, Ingo Althöfer followed the Apollo 8 mission by the Americans and was clear about what he wanted to be when he grew up: »I’m going to be an astronaut!« But his father soon brought him back down to earth: »You feel sick even driving in a car«, and so the youngster decided he would rather teach maths. His grandfather may have been his role model. He spent three days developing a perfect lottery system but didn’t win. »Our family has a great propensity for these kind of crazy antics«, says Ingo Althöfer. He had a penchant for numbers even as a child. As such, it was not that big a step to make the switch from being an astronaut to a maths teacher. Encouraged and pushed on by the headmaster of his school in his hometown Lage/Lippe, following his A-levels, Ingo Althöfer moved a few kilometres to Bielefeld to study mathematics. The ambiti- on to become a professor was stirred up by his father. After his cousin had become a professor (of political sciences), his father set him the same goal. In 1986, Althöfer wrote his doctorate on »Some mathematical foundations of computer chess«. Five years later he received his habilitation (= doctorate B) with a thesis on error propagation in game trees and recursion trees. Ingo Althöfer has been teaching at the Friedrich Schiller Uni- versity in Jena since autumn 1994. He openly admits that Jena was not his dream destination. »I had applied to Dortmund and Passau«, explains the 57-year-old. During an excursion with his local church—Ingo Althöfer is a member of the Uni- ted Methodist Church—the bus travelled along the A4 past Jena-Lobeda and the bus driver pointed out the city of Jena on the left. Back then there was no Lobeda tunnel, and so the view of the city was not particularly inviting. Years later, Ingo Althöfer held a lecture in Jena and then got offered a chair. He asked for time to think, and spent a week by the River Saale, learning to paraglide. During that week, there were a few coin- cidences that tipped the balance towards Jena: FC Carl Zeiss (soccer, bottom of second league in Germany) won a match against Borussia Dortmund (top of Bundesliga) and, whilst rummaging through a box of books, Althöfer came across the book »The Decline of Passau«: two signs that his preferred destinations might not be the appropriate ones. »Of course, lots of people just see these as coincidences, but I believe in a higher power!« Thanks to this higher power, Ingo Althöfer now commutes to Jena from Lage each week. He hasn’t moved to Jena because of his wife Beate, who is wheelchair-bound. He is only here from Tuesday evening to Friday: »On Tuesdays I look forward to seeing my students; on Fridays I look forward to my wife!« Prof. Althöfer doesn’t just teach his students about the basics of mathematical optimization, he also gives them tools for Portrait BY STEPHAN LAUDIEN