Christian Saemann
Christian Saemann
Professor in Mathematical Physics | Heriot-Watt University
I am a professor in the Department of Mathematics of the School of Mathematical & Computer Sciences at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. My scientific research interests lie mostly in the areas of Mathematical Physics and String Theory.
Extremely Short Bio
I grew up in Fulda, Germany and Thessaloniki, Greece. I obtained a degree in church music (“C-Examen”), before I went to the University of Würzburg, where I studied for three years and received undergraduate degrees in both Mathematics and Physics. I continued my studies at the University of Texas at Austin, where I worked on a thesis on supermathematics resulting in my MA. After completing my PhD on twistor string theory at the Institute for Theoretical Physics of the University of Hannover, I held two postdoctoral positions at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies and at the School of Mathematics at Trinity College, Dublin. In 2009, I came to the Department of Mathematics of Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, where I’m currently a professor.
My Research Interests
My Inaugural Professorial Lecture can be found online. In it I explain my research interests and journey.
Further Interests
Besides math and physics, I’m also very interested in computer science, in particular in the areas of neuroscience, artificial life and artificial intelligence. As a hobby, I also like to write helpful computer programs and some results are found in the software section.
I’m an amateur musician, love to play the organ and the piano (as well as bagpipes and sometimes the tin whistle), sing in choirs (and sometimes conduct them) and wrote some small pieces for organ and piano. The latter can be found under Music.
Home Towns
Somehow, I managed to change my hometowns quite often. I was born in Fulda which I left in 1988 for Thessaloniki in Greece and returned back to Fulda in 1992. For studying I moved to Würzburg in 1997, where I stayed for three years. To receive my first degree, I went to Austin/Texas after which I spent a year in Paris for completing a project and preparing for my PhD, which I then did in Hannover. After living for three and a half years in Dublin, I’m now discovering Edinburgh.
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