Caring for Talent
Thorsten Rohwedder fosters young mathematicians
His job description reads “teacher for special tasks”. You could also say: Thorsten Rohwedder’s job is talent care. He likes using an agricultural image to describe what he does. It’s just nice, he says, to “help plants to grow”.
Originally from Schleswig-Holstein, he is now ploughing in three different acres. He is a methodologist and lecturer, who teaches future maths teachers at Berlin’s Humboldt-Universität in Adlershof. He is the coordinator of the Berlin-based Mathematical Student Society ‘Leonard Euler’ (MSG) and, lastly, a juror for the local South Berlin round of “Jugend forscht”, a national science competition for young people. “I love teaching,” says Rohwedder, who also plays bass in a rock band in his free time.
Mathematics have always been his passion, even back in high school in Preetz in Holstein. Consequently, after a short one-semester stint in medicine at the University of Kiel, he switched to become a teacher and started studying mathematics and physics. Following his graduation, he completed his preparatory service for teaching and started writing his dissertation. When his dissertation supervisor was offered a chair at the Technical University Berlin, he followed and moved from the Förde to the Spree River.
After completing his dissertation and working as a researcher for a few years, he asked himself: what now? Should he stay on track and become a professor? Despite all the paperwork the job brings with it. He had a hunch, says the 40-year-old, that there wasn’t much more to gain in science: “I wanted to do something with people.”
His exit strategy was an ad looking for a mathematics methodologist with a PhD and teacher training. “I am happy here and love my job,” he says after five years in Adlershof.
He inherited his job as the coordinator of MSG from his predecessor. Like the little men in East Berlin’s traffic lights, the Mathematical Student Society is a relic from the GDR that survived Germany’s reunification. It was founded in 1970 to foster future mathematicians, who were mostly students from Berlin between 5th grade and senior year. Most of the volunteering teachers are students and PhD students in mathematics.
Once a year, Rohwedder sends out invitations to all the schools in Berlin for an open round of tests for admission. There are 250 available seats across 22 courses, so-called circles, which take place every week for 2 hours at one of Berlin’s universities. We ask him about the gender balance. “There are a few girls. But they are a minority.” However, Rohwedder sees signs of change.
He joined “Jugend Forscht” as a juror in 2013, where he judges about five or six projects from mathematics and computer science every year. “I would prefer more pure mathematics.” Thorsten Rohwedder is intrigued by rare talent.
By Winfried Dolderer for Adlershof Journal
didaktik.mathematik.hu-berlin.de/de/schule/msg-schuelergesellschaft