Tobias Berger

Biography

I received my Ph.D. at the University of Michigan in 2005, studying under Chris Skinner. After a year at the Max-Planck-Institute in Bonn I spent four years at Queens' College, Cambridge, as a Junior Research Fellow and College Lecturer. I joined the University of Sheffield as a lecturer in autumn 2010.

Research Interest

My research area is algebraic number theory, more precisely the connections between modular forms and Galois representations and applications of this, in particular, to conjectures about special values of L-functions. Establishing the precise links between modular forms (or more generally, automorphic representations) and Galois representations is part of the famous programme designed by Langlands that spans number theory, algebraic geometry and representation theory. My particular focus is the study of automorphic forms and Galois representations over imaginary quadratic fields, an interesting case in which previously developed tools from algebraic geometry are not applicable. This case is therefore an important testing ground for finding new techniques that could apply in the general context of the Langlands programme.