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Award for a Konstanz mathematician: Dr Maria Infusino's research is funded with a Postdoctoral Fellowship about 114,000 euros within the “Eliteprogramme for Postdocs”, a programme sponsored by the foundation “Baden-Württemberg-Stiftung”. Maria Infusino investigates the so-called “moment problem in both finite- and infinite-dimensional settings”. Her work has also several connections to statistical physics and quantum chemistry.

When mathematicians speak of a "moment", they usually do not mean a very short period of time. "Moments" in mathematics are quantities associated to a probability measure containing the most relevant information about it, such as the mean, the variance, the skewness. Given a probability measure, one can compute the corresponding sequence of moments through explicit formulas. The moment problem exactly addresses the inverse question, that is establishing whether or not a given sequence of numbers is the sequence of moments associated to a probability measure. This is a classical question in mathematics and has been studied since the beginning of the 19th century.

Although there is a huge literature about the case when the considered measure is supported on a finite dimensional space,  there is still a large number of unsolved instances of the moment problem – and even less is known for the infinite dimensional case. Maria Infusino's research aims to a structural investigation of the moment problem based on the two-way interaction existing between the techniques developed for finite-dimensional and infinite-dimensional settings. Her idea is to exploit the potential recently discovered in the interplay between these two problem classes in order to gain new insights in both cases.

Despite of the theoretical nature of her research, there are actually very practical applications connected to the moment problem which Maria Infusino defines as the driving force of her project. At the crossroad between the finite- and the infinite-dimensional moment problem, it indeed meets several applications, coming from an extraordinary variety of disciplines, such as statistical mechanics, quantum chemistry, image recognition, and more.

"The award of the Postdoctoral Fellowship within the Eliteprogramme for Postdocs of the Baden-Württemberg Stiftung means a lot to me. In fact, it will give me the concrete possibility to build my own research team and to further proceed both in my research and in my academic career. The funding provides a secure basis to develop my own project in the coming three years," says Maria Infusino gratefully.

Through the Eliteprogramme, the Baden-Württemberg Stiftung supports outstanding postdoctoral researchers on their way towards a professorship in Germany by enabling them to carry out autonomous research projects. In addition to financial support, the Eliteprogramme also encourages networking among its fellows. "The first network meeting within the Eliteprogramme was very interesting and extremely inspiring. The Baden-WürttembergStiftung's concept of creating a network among postdocs across different disciplines is very well-thought out and absolutely in line with the interdisciplinarity of my research," says Maria Infusino.

Facts:

• Baden-WürttembergStiftung funds Konstanz mathematician Dr Maria Infusino within the “Eliteprogramme for Postdocs” (programme for excellent postdocs in Baden-Württemberg)
• Funding sum:. ,114.000 euros
• Funded project: "Crossroads between finite and infinite dimensional truncated moment problems"
• The project focuses on the so-called moment problem in mathematics which consists of establishing whether or not a given sequence of numbers is the sequence of moments associated to a probability measure.
• Dr Maria Infusino proposes to exploit the interplay between finite-dimensional and infinite-dimensional moment problems in order to gain new insights in both cases.
• Her project is connected to several applications in statistical physics, quantum chemistry, image recognition, etc.