Administrative Director Dr. Michael J. Winckler
Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing
Heidelberg University
Mathematikon • Im Neuenheimer Feld 205
Room 5/232, 5th Floor
69120 Heidelberg
Germany
Phone: +49 6221 54 - 14 430
Email: michael.winckler@iwr.uni-heidelberg.de
Dr. Michael J. Winckler has been the Administrative Director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing (IWR) since 2016 and of the Heidelberg Graduate School for Mathematical and Computational Methods in the Sciences (HGS MathComp) since 2007. A mathematician and computer scientist by training, his research interests lie in numerical methods for modelling, simulation and optimisation (MSO), in visualisation, and in digital humanities methods.
Roles and Responsibilities
University functions
- Academic advisor, Master’s Programme in Scientific Computing, Heidelberg University, and member of its Study Commission, Selection Committee and Examination Board (since 2016)
- Deputy representative of HGS MathComp on the Council for Graduate Studies, Heidelberg University (founding member, since 2016)
- Founding member, Commission for Fair Conduct, Heidelberg University — initially a Senate commission, later a Rector’s commission (2018–2026)
Outreach and equity coordination
- Coordinator, Women in STEM programme UPSTREAM, Heidelberg University (since 2010)
- Co-coordinator (Mathematics), university–school cooperation MINTmachen! (since 2006)
Professional memberships
- German Mathematical Society (DMV)
- OrigamiUSA
Internationalization
Dr. Winckler has developed international networks in Asia and Africa, together with institutional partnerships for the IWR. Alongside these cooperations, a shared model of teaching, training and transfer has emerged — one that now guides new partnerships just as well.
Teaching is designed together with international partners, in the form of summer schools, compact courses and other joint formats. The aim is to extend Heidelberg’s teaching to partner institutions and, in exchange, to receive teaching from them.
Training works in both directions: the IWR sends its own staff to partners and hosts staff from partner institutions, so that each side learns from the other — in administration, in the development of young researchers, and in school outreach. Together this builds capacity on all sides.
Transfer carries the work into wider society, through public lectures for general audiences, teaching at local schools, and links to industry partners.
These activities have grown into a lasting network of partners, including:
- in South and Southeast Asia, a cooperation with a regional network of higher-education institutions;
- in Africa, a network cooperation with AIMS (the heiAIMS network); and
- strong bilateral cooperations with universities and individual institutes worldwide — for example, the Institute of Mathematics at the University of Warsaw.
Across all of these, the longer-term aim is that cooperation in teaching and training should also grow into shared research — in keeping with the IWR’s mission as a central institution for interdisciplinary research.
Links
Courses and Public Lectures
Courses and lectures have been a continuous thread through Dr. Winckler’s work, in three settings he has sustained over many years.
At the university, he has given courses in mathematics and computer science across a range of topics — from numerical methods and computer graphics and visualisation to object-oriented programming and modelling with ordinary differential equations.
Outside school, he gives courses in extracurricular programmes for interested school students, a commitment going back close to two decades:
- Mentor at the Heidelberg Life-Science Lab (since 2004), where he runs an annual “weekend of mathematics” for around twenty participants;
- Courses introducing primary-school pupils to ideas such as prime numbers and graph algorithms, in cooperation with the Mathe.Forscher programme of Stiftung Rechnen;
- Trainer in the Junior Academy of aim Academy (Heilbronn) since 2012, with holiday courses for Gymnasium students aged 14 to 16.
Public lectures bring mathematics to a general audience — at schools, at award ceremonies for mathematics competitions, during visits to international partners such as AIMS, and for parents encouraging their children in mathematics. Recurring topics include:
- The mathematics of voting and elections
- Patterns and tessellations
- Folding numbers – mathematics meets origami
- Healthy, infected, recovering – models of epidemics