Ann has made it her mission to make maths fun and easy to understand. In her slam, she will show exactly what hyperbolic geometry is and where this geometry can be found in everyday life.
Ann Kiefer, 37, comes from Luxembourg and studied in Brussels. She completed her PhD in mathematics in Brussels and Murcia, Spain. This was followed by postdocs in Freiburg, Switzerland, in Bielefeld and in Brussels. She has been working at the university in Luxembourg since 2020 and is now doing research in educational sciences.
Ann has 2 sons who were born in 3 countries. She speaks 6 languages: Luxembourgish, French, German, English, Dutch and Spanish.
Ann's great passion is science communication. Since her PhD, she has been creating workshops and giving maths talks to a general audience. In recent years, she also regularly participates in science festivals where she presents mathematical brain games developed at the University of Luxembourg. In 2022, she even spent 10 days at a maths expo in the Luxembourg Pavilion at the World Expo in Dubai. So far, Ann has also taken part in 3 science slams and has also performed stand-up comedy in Brussels. She has a great sense of humour: together with colleagues from Brussels, she designed a maths costume for Manneken Pis (Pi Day 😊), which was presented to the character in 2021. Manneken Pis is a famous fountain figure and a landmark of Brussels.
Her research is concerned with pure mathematics. To be more precise with hyperbolic geometry and ring theory (algebra). Ann has 11 international publications in pure mathematics.
At the University of Luxembourg, she is involved in educational science and the PITT teaching modules she is helping to develop are designed to encourage students to try out new things and think differently about teaching. Ann's main interest here is, of course, maths teaching. Ann: "Maths has so many exciting and fascinating facets that many pupils unfortunately never get to experience because traditional lessons don't show them." Changing this is Ann's major goal, and she is also involved in maths teacher training at the University of Luxembourg.
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