Interview with Peter Scholze

Peter Scholze is a professor in Bonn University, working in number theory and arithmetic geometry. In this interview, we chat about the pressure of the Fields medal, discuss the pain of writing math papers and argue about math.

Peter's homepage: http://www.math.uni-bonn.de/people/scholze/
Photo: Hausdorff Center for Mathematics / Barbara Frommann

Merkurjev's lecture on the proof of Bloch-Kato conjecture: https://youtu.be/bUaWCOtBUHs

0:00 proof or relatability 
0:58 influence of the background
2:50 learning math vs solving problems
7:38 Peter is not creative
11:55 math chat (sorry!)
14:23 collaborating with Dustin Clausen
16:29 math gives head ache
18:20 pressure of Fields medal
21:47 representing others is the worst
24:01 interviews with prodigies
26:53 don't waste time on the Riemann hypothesis
29:28 emails from amateur mathematicians
34:01 lockdown time is unproductive
36:52 writing math is pain
40:50 thanks to Germany for sponsoring math
45:09 updating Hilbert’s list of problems
49:07 Oberwolfach AG’s are cool
55:31 advice for young mathematicians