Gudrun Kalmbach


Gudrun Kalmbach is a German mathematician and educator known for her contributions in the field of quantum logic and for the educational programmes she developed.

Career

After teacher training in mathematics and chemistry, Kalmbach obtained a PhD at the University of Göttingen under the supervision of Hans Grauert on the topic of low-dimensional CW complexes in non-compact manifolds.
From 1967 to 1969, Kalmbach taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. After this she held positions as assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Pennsylvania State University. In 1975, she qualified as professor at the University of Ulm, becoming the first female professor in geometry. She worked there until her retirement in 2002.
Kalmbach's research deals with manifolds, lattice theory and quantum structures. She was involved in developing the field of quantum structures in the 1990s. Her current research project is MINT-Wigris.
In addition to her research career, Kalmbach invented in 1985 the talent program in STEM subjects., Part of this is the yearly mathematics competition at the University of Ulm. From this, pupils were selected to attend a mathematics summer school with teaching in computer science, chemistry, physics and where they were introduced to university mathematics.
She was a founder of European Women in Mathematics, and a member and chair of the Emmy Noether Verein which supports female mathematicians.
Kalmbach now lives in Bad Wörishofen.

Selected publications