{"id":57057,"date":"2017-10-09T12:51:48","date_gmt":"2017-10-09T10:51:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/han-har-vaeret-klar-til-universitetet-siden-han-var-11\/"},"modified":"2017-10-16T10:25:31","modified_gmt":"2017-10-16T08:25:31","slug":"he-has-been-ready-for-university-since-he-was-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/he-has-been-ready-for-university-since-he-was-11\/","title":{"rendered":"He has been ready for university, since he was 11"},"content":{"rendered":"

If anyone understands the value of a beautiful\u00a0integral<\/secret>, it is Max Fischer-Rasmussen (16).<\/p>\n

He has been aware of his particular interest in mathematics since the fifth grade of primary school, and today he is by far the youngest student at UCPH with the next youngest at 18. He started at the Department of Mathematical Sciences on 1st September.<\/p>\n

My ambition is to do research in mathematics. [..] Whether I end up as associate professor or something else, this is not so important, so long as I have space to do research<\/p>\n

Max Fischer-Rasmussen<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Starting in fourth grade he spent his free time doing courses in quantum mechanics 1 and 2 at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen. So he has had the time to figure out a response to fellow students that ask him why he is in their group, when he is so young.<\/p>\n

“I just say how it is, and try to avoid long explanations. I study here because I like mathematics. It has become easier to explain now that I have done it so many times,” says Max Fischer-Rasmussen<\/secret>.<\/p>\n

Perhaps he is a mathematical genius, but he does not like the stereotype, because he is so much more than that. He does not hide that he is something unusual.<\/p>\n

“When I followed the courses in quantum mechanics, the others in class wondered how I could understand so much of it beforehand being so young. Quantum mechanics 1, for example, was superfluous as I knew it all already, but quantum mechanics 2 was really interesting,” says Max Fischer-Rasmussen.<\/p>\n

The struggle for identity<\/h2>\n

He has been ready to go to university since he was 11 or 12 years old.<\/p>\n

“When I was 10, I thought about differential calculus, and one day I suddenly realized that I had found the formula to resolve arbitrary derivative equations. I thought this was brilliant, but I had just found a well-known result,” he says, saying that this experience helped shift his initial interest in physics toward mathematics.<\/p>\n

“It showed me that I’m so interested in going ‘behind the formulas’ with the proofs, and that I’m more into mathematics. Much of physics follows simple mathematical rules, and I think it’s beautiful that you can deduce everything else from them, and that’s mathematics,” says Max Fischer-Rasmussen.
\n
\nSince then, he has just been waiting to be able to move on with his life. This has been a problem, as he has a deep need to be with others who share his interest. If he could not do what he is doing at the Department of Mathematics, he reckons he would have social problems.<\/p>\n

“I saw it when I was in primary school. I got a full-blown obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). At one point I washed my hands for nine hours. I cannot really know where this came from, but I suspect I was just so motivated at the time, and I felt so bored, and felt I had nowhere where I was comfortable. This may have triggered my OCD,” says Max Fischer-Rasmussen.<\/p>\n

He never learned the multiplication tables in school \u2013 he was not motivated because he was not happy. He still does not know them by heart, but manages without.<\/p>\n

“I have learned that my well-being is linked to doing something where I am both motivated, learning a lot and being able to develop my professional skills. Then I feel my social skills move also,” he says.<\/p>\n

That’s why he likes university, because here he can be almost sure that others share his interests, and he can reflect himself in, and develop through, other people.<\/p>\n

The good and the bad of intelligence<\/h2>\n

Max Fischer-Rasmussen gets many questions from other students about his young age, and they are particularly surprised that he already grasps so much of the mathematics.<\/p>\n

He does not, for example, follow the introductory subjects, MatIntro and DisRus, on the first semester. This is in agreement with his instructors, as he knows all the material beforehand. He just has to go to the exam in December. Instead, he follows the subjects Analysis 2, Complex Analysis and Algebraic Topology, normally subjects for second, third and fourth year students.
\n
\nHe does not like to be stereotyped as a genius, as though he were an “object of others’ fantasies of intelligence.”<\/p>\n

“I do not want to be seen as someone who is good at everything, and much better than everyone else, because I do not think this is a healthy way to see yourself or others. I think you should be able to work together with other people, as one thing I know for sure. Intelligence means different things to different people,” says Max Fischer-Rasmussen.<\/p>\n

It is a trait that has its downside. “You soon get bored with stuff because they become trivial, and the value of intelligence is often overstated, because there are other things that are also important for your performance. Like how interested you are in a task, and how much time you put in to it. In some ways, intelligence is not something you can use in isolation, and it can often be a bigger problem than a benefit,” says Max Fischer-Rasmussen.<\/p>\n

During primary school he learned that, for him, there is a kind of mental treadmill. He should try to avoid it.<\/p>\n

“Because I have a relatively good memory, I can understand it all and remember it, and then it just gets boring and I suddenly feel that I’m not interested in it, because if it’s so boring it’s not interesting,” says Max Fischer-Rasmussen.<\/p>\n

Fast-track graduate<\/h2>\n

The Danish high school gymnasium<\/em> took him just over three months.<\/p>\n

\u00bbMost of the time was just waiting for the exam to be held. I did not go to class at all. I had made up my mind, that going to gymnasium would suit me really badly, as I would be pushed back in my development because I did not have anyone to reflect myself in. I was somewhere else,” says Max Fischer-Rasmussen, who himself found the loophole in the law, that enabled him to get his diploma with a 11.9 grade average on the Danish scale.<\/p>\n

He passed on the traditional Danish intro \u2018rus\u2019 tour for the maths department.<\/p>\n

“I thought I’m very young compared to the others, and it’s probably a lot of alcohol, and I’m not interested and I prefer to stay at home, and this decision I have not regretted,” says Max Fischer- Rasmussen.<\/p>\n

Article continues under the picture<\/em>
\n<\/p>\n

A beauty within<\/h2>\n

The joy of his mathematics he describes in terms of a kind of intrinsic beauty.<\/p>\n

“It’s the beauty that I and many others find in mathematics \u2013 not being able to use it for anything real,” says Max Fischer-Rasmussen.<\/p>\n

He has just described, for example, what the subject of Algebraic Topology Algebraic Topology<\/secret> contains. It is very abstract and nerdy. Researching university mathematics does not have much to do with the mathematics that other people use to build bridges or skyscrapers, says Max Fischer-Rasmussen.<\/p>\n

Because I have a relatively good memory, I can understand it all and remember it, and then it just gets boring<\/p>\n

Max Fischer-Rasmussen<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Mathematics is not an art form, he reckons, but he would not be able to study math at university without thinking about the meaning of the subject.<\/p>\n

“Some mathematicians will tell you that pure or theoretical mathematics can be used for something in reality, but they lie,” he says.<\/p>\n

“Mathematics has a kind of intrinsic value for many. A coffee cup has a value because you can drink coffee from it, but some things have a value contained in itself,” he says.<\/p>\n

Even on a scale of ‘intrinsic values’ mathematics is the least useful:<\/p>\n

“You can say that a diamond piece of jewelry has an intrinsic value because it can be used for something. You can look at it, it’s beautiful, and you can therefore sell it. A diamond has therefore a true intrinsic value. In mathematics, it’s even more abstract, because here it’s just yourself that perceives something as interesting,” says Max Fischer-Rasmussen, adding that mathematical proofs are not even kept secret, because mathematicians rush to share them with others.<\/p>\n

Mathematics is something you only do for the sake of mathematics, he believes, and you have to see \u2013 or feel \u2013 the beauty of it.<\/p>\n

\n

MAX FISCHER RASMUSSEN<\/p>\n

\"Max<\/picture>16<\/strong> years of age. Studying mathematics<\/strong> first semester at the University of Copenhagen. Interests apart from mathematics \u2013philosophy<\/strong>, chess, language subjects, etymology, Latin, Ancient Greek, history, political science and programming.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Wants to do research in math<\/h2>\n

Since his first years in primary school, Max Fischer-Rasmussen has primarily educated himself through self-study.<\/p>\n

Now it has led him to the university and the theoretical mathematics that he is sure will be his future.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy ambition is to do research in mathematics. I’m just interested in getting to a stage where I can do research myself, have time for it and be able to say, ‘well, now I can explore and find some new mathematics’. Whether I end up as associate professor or something else, this is not so important, just so long as I have the space to do research,\u201d says Max Fischer-Rasmussen.
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a kid, he never learned the multiplication tables. But he caught on to quantum mechanics in fourth grade, and it took him three months to finish his Danish secondary school. Now Max Fischer-Rasmussen is the youngest student at the University of Copenhagen (UCPH) \u2013 and for the first time surrounded by people who also see the beauty of mathematics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":56539,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[857,858,127],"class_list":["post-57057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-institut-for-matematiske-fag-en","tag-mathematical-sciences","tag-semester-start","expression-feature_article"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nHe has been ready for university, since he was 11<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/he-has-been-ready-for-university-since-he-was-11\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"He has been ready for university, since he was 11\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As a kid, he never learned the multiplication tables. 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Der er ingen 17-\u00e5rige studerende. De 18-\u00e5rige er der lidt under 200 af.","name":"photographer-daniel-hjorthmax-fischer-for-uniavisen-fall-2017","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":56281,"date":"2017-10-04 08:55:51","modified":"2017-10-09 19:29:45","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":2000,"height":1336,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/fotomaxfischerrasmussengriberirygsaekken-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/fotomaxfischerrasmussengriberirygsaekken-480x321.jpg","medium-width":480,"medium-height":321,"medium_large":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/fotomaxfischerrasmussengriberirygsaekken-768x513.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":513,"large":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/fotomaxfischerrasmussengriberirygsaekken-1280x855.jpg","large-width":1280,"large-height":855,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/fotomaxfischerrasmussengriberirygsaekken.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1026,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/fotomaxfischerrasmussengriberirygsaekken.jpg","2048x2048-width":2000,"2048x2048-height":1336,"featured-soft":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/fotomaxfischerrasmussengriberirygsaekken-290x194.jpg","featured-soft-width":290,"featured-soft-height":194,"featured-hard":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/fotomaxfischerrasmussengriberirygsaekken-290x180.jpg","featured-hard-width":290,"featured-hard-height":180,"narrow":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/fotomaxfischerrasmussengriberirygsaekken-700x468.jpg","narrow-width":700,"narrow-height":468,"extended":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/fotomaxfischerrasmussengriberirygsaekken-990x661.jpg","extended-width":990,"extended-height":661}},"style":"screen","text_placement":"metadata-below","image_link_url":"","image_link_title":"","caption_prefix":"","enable_alternative_caption":true,"alternative_caption":"Max Fischer-Rasmussen is 16 years old and is the youngest student at the University of Copenhagen. There are no 17-year-old students. There are just under two hundred 18-year-olds."},{"acf_fc_layout":"Standfirst","subject":"Education","text":"As a kid, he never learned the multiplication tables. But he caught on to quantum mechanics in fourth grade, and it took him three months to finish his Danish secondary school. Now Max Fischer-Rasmussen is the youngest student at the University of Copenhagen (UCPH) \u2013 and for the first time surrounded by people who also see the beauty of mathematics.","use_post_excerpt":false},{"acf_fc_layout":"Byline","is_author":true,"contributors":false},{"acf_fc_layout":"Content","content":"<p>If anyone understands the value of a beautiful\u00a0<secret text=\"An integral assigns numbers to functions in a way that can describe displacement, area, volume, and other concepts that arise by combining infinitesimal data. Source: Wikipedia\">integral<\/secret>, it is Max Fischer-Rasmussen (16).<\/p>\n<p>He has been aware of his particular interest in mathematics since the fifth grade of primary school, and today he is by far the youngest student at UCPH with the next youngest at 18. He started at the Department of Mathematical Sciences on 1st September.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>My ambition is to do research in mathematics. [..] Whether I end up as associate professor or something else, this is not so important, so long as I have space to do research<\/p>\n<p class=\"quotee\">Max Fischer-Rasmussen<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Starting in fourth grade he spent his free time doing courses in quantum mechanics 1 and 2 at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen. So he has had the time to figure out a response to fellow students that ask him why he is in their group, when he is so young.<\/p>\n<p>“I just say how it is, and try to avoid long explanations. I study here because I like mathematics. It has become easier to explain now that I have done it so many times,” says <secret text=\"Max Fischer-Rasmussen coincidentally shares his name with the main character in Wes Andersons movie Rushmore, which follows a 15 year old student (and eccentric wunderkind) named Max Fischer. Rasmussen is named after his great-great-great-grandfather, a merchant, who took the name Fischer because the widely used Rasmussen didn't stand out\">Max Fischer-Rasmussen<\/secret>.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps he is a mathematical genius, but he does not like the stereotype, because he is so much more than that. He does not hide that he is something unusual.<\/p>\n<p>“When I followed the courses in quantum mechanics, the others in class wondered how I could understand so much of it beforehand being so young. Quantum mechanics 1, for example, was superfluous as I knew it all already, but quantum mechanics 2 was really interesting,” says Max Fischer-Rasmussen.<\/p>\n<h2>The struggle for identity<\/h2>\n<p>He has been ready to go to university since he was 11 or 12 years old.<\/p>\n<p>“When I was 10, I thought about differential calculus, and one day I suddenly realized that I had found the formula to resolve arbitrary derivative equations. I thought this was brilliant, but I had just found a well-known result,” he says, saying that this experience helped shift his initial interest in physics toward mathematics.<\/p>\n<p>“It showed me that I’m so interested in going ‘behind the formulas’ with the proofs, and that I’m more into mathematics. Much of physics follows simple mathematical rules, and I think it’s beautiful that you can deduce everything else from them, and that’s mathematics,” says Max Fischer-Rasmussen.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Image","image":{"ID":56539,"id":56539,"title":"Max Fischer-Rasmussen tager sig til panden","filename":"danielhjorthuniavisenmaxfischerhighres016small.jpg","filesize":63245,"url":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/danielhjorthuniavisenmaxfischerhighres016small.jpg","link":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/han-har-vaeret-klar-til-universitetet-siden-han-var-11\/photographer-daniel-hjorthmax-fischer-for-uniavisen-fall-2017-3\/","alt":"Max Fischer-Rasmussen tager sig til panden","author":"8","description":"Max Fischer-Rasmussen tager sig til panden","caption":"","name":"photographer-daniel-hjorthmax-fischer-for-uniavisen-fall-2017-3","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":56281,"date":"2017-10-06 08:29:22","modified":"2017-10-06 08:30:28","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1000,"height":568,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/danielhjorthuniavisenmaxfischerhighres016small-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/danielhjorthuniavisenmaxfischerhighres016small-480x273.jpg","medium-width":480,"medium-height":273,"medium_large":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/danielhjorthuniavisenmaxfischerhighres016small-768x436.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":436,"large":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/danielhjorthuniavisenmaxfischerhighres016small.jpg","large-width":1000,"large-height":568,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/danielhjorthuniavisenmaxfischerhighres016small.jpg","1536x1536-width":1000,"1536x1536-height":568,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/danielhjorthuniavisenmaxfischerhighres016small.jpg","2048x2048-width":1000,"2048x2048-height":568,"featured-soft":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/danielhjorthuniavisenmaxfischerhighres016small-290x165.jpg","featured-soft-width":290,"featured-soft-height":165,"featured-hard":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/danielhjorthuniavisenmaxfischerhighres016small-290x180.jpg","featured-hard-width":290,"featured-hard-height":180,"narrow":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/danielhjorthuniavisenmaxfischerhighres016small-700x398.jpg","narrow-width":700,"narrow-height":398,"extended":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/danielhjorthuniavisenmaxfischerhighres016small-990x562.jpg","extended-width":990,"extended-height":562}},"style":"full","text_placement":"metadata-below","image_link_url":"","image_link_title":"","caption_prefix":"","enable_alternative_caption":false,"alternative_caption":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"Content","content":"<p>Since then, he has just been waiting to be able to move on with his life. This has been a problem, as he has a deep need to be with others who share his interest. If he could not do what he is doing at the Department of Mathematics, he reckons he would have social problems.<\/p>\n<p>“I saw it when I was in primary school. I got a full-blown obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). At one point I washed my hands for nine hours. I cannot really know where this came from, but I suspect I was just so motivated at the time, and I felt so bored, and felt I had nowhere where I was comfortable. This may have triggered my OCD,” says Max Fischer-Rasmussen.<\/p>\n<p>He never learned the multiplication tables in school \u2013 he was not motivated because he was not happy. He still does not know them by heart, but manages without.<\/p>\n<p>“I have learned that my well-being is linked to doing something where I am both motivated, learning a lot and being able to develop my professional skills. Then I feel my social skills move also,” he says.<\/p>\n<p>That’s why he likes university, because here he can be almost sure that others share his interests, and he can reflect himself in, and develop through, other people.<\/p>\n<h2>The good and the bad of intelligence<\/h2>\n<p>Max Fischer-Rasmussen gets many questions from other students about his young age, and they are particularly surprised that he already grasps so much of the mathematics.<\/p>\n<p>He does not, for example, follow the introductory subjects, MatIntro and DisRus, on the first semester. This is in agreement with his instructors, as he knows all the material beforehand. He just has to go to the exam in December. Instead, he follows the subjects Analysis 2, Complex Analysis and Algebraic Topology, normally subjects for second, third and fourth year students.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Quote","quote":"Some mathematicians will tell you that pure or theoretical mathematics has an application in the real world, but they are lying\r\n","quotee":"Max Fisher-Rasmussen","style":"extended"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Content","content":"<p>He does not like to be stereotyped as a genius, as though he were an “object of others’ fantasies of intelligence.”<\/p>\n<p>“I do not want to be seen as someone who is good at everything, and much better than everyone else, because I do not think this is a healthy way to see yourself or others. I think you should be able to work together with other people, as one thing I know for sure. Intelligence means different things to different people,” says Max Fischer-Rasmussen.<\/p>\n<p>It is a trait that has its downside. “You soon get bored with stuff because they become trivial, and the value of intelligence is often overstated, because there are other things that are also important for your performance. Like how interested you are in a task, and how much time you put in to it. In some ways, intelligence is not something you can use in isolation, and it can often be a bigger problem than a benefit,” says Max Fischer-Rasmussen.<\/p>\n<p>During primary school he learned that, for him, there is a kind of mental treadmill. He should try to avoid it.<\/p>\n<p>“Because I have a relatively good memory, I can understand it all and remember it, and then it just gets boring and I suddenly feel that I’m not interested in it, because if it’s so boring it’s not interesting,” says Max Fischer-Rasmussen.<\/p>\n<h2>Fast-track graduate<\/h2>\n<p>The Danish high school <em>gymnasium<\/em> took him just over three months.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbMost of the time was just waiting for the exam to be held. I did not go to class at all. I had made up my mind, that going to gymnasium would suit me really badly, as I would be pushed back in my development because I did not have anyone to reflect myself in. I was somewhere else,” says Max Fischer-Rasmussen, who himself found the loophole in the law, that enabled him to get his diploma with a 11.9 grade average on the Danish scale.<\/p>\n<p>He passed on the traditional Danish intro \u2018rus\u2019 tour for the maths department.<\/p>\n<p>“I thought I’m very young compared to the others, and it’s probably a lot of alcohol, and I’m not interested and I prefer to stay at home, and this decision I have not regretted,” says Max Fischer- Rasmussen.<\/p>\n<p><em>Article continues under the picture<\/em><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Image","image":{"ID":56383,"id":56383,"title":"Max Fischer-Rasmussen sidder og grubler","filename":"fotomaxfischerrasmussensidderoggrubler.jpg","filesize":416725,"url":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/fotomaxfischerrasmussensidderoggrubler.jpg","link":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/han-har-vaeret-klar-til-universitetet-siden-han-var-11\/photographer-daniel-hjorthmax-fischer-for-uniavisen-fall-2017-2\/","alt":"Max Fischer-Rasmussen grubler","author":"8","description":"Max Fischer-Rasmussen grubler","caption":"","name":"photographer-daniel-hjorthmax-fischer-for-uniavisen-fall-2017-2","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":56281,"date":"2017-10-05 08:15:31","modified":"2018-01-09 13:50:58","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":2000,"height":2281,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/fotomaxfischerrasmussensidderoggrubler-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/fotomaxfischerrasmussensidderoggrubler-480x547.jpg","medium-width":480,"medium-height":547,"medium_large":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/fotomaxfischerrasmussensidderoggrubler-768x876.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":876,"large":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/fotomaxfischerrasmussensidderoggrubler-1280x1460.jpg","large-width":1280,"large-height":1460,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/fotomaxfischerrasmussensidderoggrubler.jpg","1536x1536-width":1347,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/fotomaxfischerrasmussensidderoggrubler.jpg","2048x2048-width":1796,"2048x2048-height":2048,"featured-soft":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/fotomaxfischerrasmussensidderoggrubler-290x331.jpg","featured-soft-width":290,"featured-soft-height":331,"featured-hard":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/fotomaxfischerrasmussensidderoggrubler-290x180.jpg","featured-hard-width":290,"featured-hard-height":180,"narrow":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/fotomaxfischerrasmussensidderoggrubler-700x798.jpg","narrow-width":700,"narrow-height":798,"extended":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/fotomaxfischerrasmussensidderoggrubler-990x1129.jpg","extended-width":990,"extended-height":1129}},"style":"screen","text_placement":"metadata-below","image_link_url":"","image_link_title":"","caption_prefix":"","enable_alternative_caption":false,"alternative_caption":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"Content","content":"<h2>A beauty within<\/h2>\n<p>The joy of his mathematics he describes in terms of a kind of intrinsic beauty.<\/p>\n<p>“It’s the beauty that I and many others find in mathematics \u2013 not being able to use it for anything real,” says Max Fischer-Rasmussen.<\/p>\n<p>He has just described, for example, what the subject of Algebraic Topology <secret text=\"Branch of mathematics that uses tools from abstract algebra to study topological spaces. Source: Wikipedia\">Algebraic Topology<\/secret> contains. It is very abstract and nerdy. Researching university mathematics does not have much to do with the mathematics that other people use to build bridges or skyscrapers, says Max Fischer-Rasmussen.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Because I have a relatively good memory, I can understand it all and remember it, and then it just gets boring<\/p>\n<p class=\"quotee\">Max Fischer-Rasmussen<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Mathematics is not an art form, he reckons, but he would not be able to study math at university without thinking about the meaning of the subject.<\/p>\n<p>“Some mathematicians will tell you that pure or theoretical mathematics can be used for something in reality, but they lie,” he says.<\/p>\n<p>“Mathematics has a kind of intrinsic value for many. A coffee cup has a value because you can drink coffee from it, but some things have a value contained in itself,” he says.<\/p>\n<p>Even on a scale of ‘intrinsic values’ mathematics is the least useful:<\/p>\n<p>“You can say that a diamond piece of jewelry has an intrinsic value because it can be used for something. You can look at it, it’s beautiful, and you can therefore sell it. A diamond has therefore a true intrinsic value. In mathematics, it’s even more abstract, because here it’s just yourself that perceives something as interesting,” says Max Fischer-Rasmussen, adding that mathematical proofs are not even kept secret, because mathematicians rush to share them with others.<\/p>\n<p>Mathematics is something you only do for the sake of mathematics, he believes, and you have to see \u2013 or feel \u2013 the beauty of it.<\/p>\n<div class=\"factbox\">\n<p class=\"factbox-header feature-color\">MAX FISCHER RASMUSSEN<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"467\" class=\"alignnone size-narrow wp-image-56548\" src=\"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/and6617dxoweb-700x467.jpg\" alt=\"Max Fischer-Rasmussen\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/and6617dxoweb-700x467.jpg 700w, https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/and6617dxoweb-480x320.jpg 480w, https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/and6617dxoweb-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/and6617dxoweb-290x193.jpg 290w, https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/and6617dxoweb-990x660.jpg 990w, https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/and6617dxoweb.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><strong>16<\/strong> years of age. Studying<strong> mathematics<\/strong> first semester at the University of Copenhagen. Interests apart from mathematics \u2013<strong>philosophy<\/strong>, chess, language subjects, etymology, Latin, Ancient Greek, history, political science and programming.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Wants to do research in math<\/h2>\n<p>Since his first years in primary school, Max Fischer-Rasmussen has primarily educated himself through self-study.<\/p>\n<p>Now it has led him to the university and the theoretical mathematics that he is sure will be his future.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy ambition is to do research in mathematics. I’m just interested in getting to a stage where I can do research myself, have time for it and be able to say, ‘well, now I can explore and find some new mathematics’. Whether I end up as associate professor or something else, this is not so important, just so long as I have the space to do research,\u201d says Max Fischer-Rasmussen.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"ArticleEnd"},{"acf_fc_layout":"OtherStories","headline":"","hand_picked_posts":true,"references":[{"reference":{"ID":50159,"post_author":"4","post_date":"2017-05-18 10:22:15","post_date_gmt":"2017-05-18 08:22:15","post_content":"<span class=\"dropcap\">O<\/span>ne morning in 2012, Ahlam Chemlali is sitting at the waterfront in Benghazi, Libya eating her lunch.\r\n\r\nShe has gone to Libya to collect data. Ahlam is writing her thesis as part of the new master\u2019s programme for health professionals at the University of Copenhagen and is documenting how widespread torture is in the North African country after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. [secrettext face=\"She has been sent out by DIGNITY \u2013 The Danish Institute Against Torture.\" text=\"A human rights organisation that researches - and treats the victims of - torture and organised violence.\"] Her colleagues at home in Denmark have given her strict advice to stay at the Tibesti Hotel behind bulletproof windows. Even though the civil war has ended, militias are fighting each other and the fragile new regime. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued a travel warning to Libya.\r\n\r\n\"I had to write home to Denmark every day and say I was fine, keep my meeting schedule and stay at the hotel. But I was restless, and my intuition told me to go out so I called my local logistics man and asked if he could find a place where I could eat,\" she says.\r\n\r\nTibesti Hotel is located down towards a large lagoon that leads on to Benghazi's industrial port and from there, on to the Mediterranean Sea. Ahlam is sitting on the other side of the lagoon and is eating a kebab as she spots a column of smoke. Soon, she can see flames and hear shots. Her secure hotel has been attacked.\r\n<h2>An unrealistic ambition<\/h2>\r\nFive years later, Ahlam Chemlali invites us to DIGNITY's premises in an anonymous office building on Bryggervangen street in the less fashionable part of \u00d8sterbro out near the Helsing\u00f8r motorway. She has been on more than 45 missions since the first one in Libya, and she has become a strong voice in the debate over human rights and torture at home. But she has not invited us over to share her war stories.\r\n\r\nWhen Ahlam lectures about her work and her missions to students, they often ask her what they should study to get to work with what she does. And she reckons that the answer to this question contains an important lesson. It was not career planning, neither was it a noble ambition to fight for human rights that, after high school, had Ahlam Chemlali selecting her higher education programme.\r\n\r\n \n<!-- end of module 1 -->\n\"At high school I was heavily influenced by [secrettext face=\"the TV series CSI.\" text=\"(American tv-series, where heavily armed forensic scientists investigate crimes, ed.)\"]. They had weapons, syringes and needles, and their work was a mixture between lab work and Sherlock Holmes, and I thought, \u2018I'm going to be a CSI agent\u201d. she says.\r\n\r\nAhlam Chemlali applied for the bioanalyst programme at the Metropol university college in Copenhagen. While her fellow students looked for jobs in the pharmaceutical industry, Ahlam would specialize in forensic science. Here, she gradually found out that there was a long way from her conception of detective work and investigation teams to the real world's long days of DNA analyses.\r\n\r\n\"It is a very peculiar environment, the world of forensics. It's exciting that they let the dead \u2018tell their story\u2019, and I was fascinated by the human body and anatomy \u2013 but the days are very similar and there is not much interaction with other people,\" she says.\r\n\r\nAfter a half-year internship at a London mortuary \u2013 where Ahlam found out that it was not quite her \u201cto wear rubber boots and use clinical chainsaws, getting sprayed,\" she changed direction.\r\n<h2>Africa<\/h2>\r\nAhlam wanted to get away from the clinical environment and \u2013 atypical for her study programme \u2013 took an elective subject in Global Health. As a part of her bachelor project, she organised a trip to Ghana herself, where she helped local NGOs host workshops and do HIV tests for the populace in small villages.\r\n\r\n\"If you were to point to a turning point in my career, it was probably coming to Ghana,\" she says. \"The core theme of the trip was health \u2013 but I learned that health is not just health. It is also human rights, fragile states, unequal access to services, gender discrimination, politics.\"\r\n\r\nThe trip to Ghana gave Ahlam that meeting with living, breathing people that she had missed at the laboratory and the mortuary, and at the same time it opened her eyes to how complex it was to help individual women and children out in the villages. For example, how difficult it could be preventing HIV in rural communities where the chief deliberately ignored information and help because it came from her \u2013 a woman.\r\n\r\n \n<!-- end of module 2 -->\nAhlam was angered by the injustice \u2013 \"socially indignant,\" she says \u2013 but she knew neither what to do with her indignation nor what to do when she finished her education. On the other hand, she was sure she had to know more:\r\n\r\n\"Ghana pushed me for something with a global perspective, and I felt that it required the insight from other subjects to move on.\"\r\n\r\nBack in Copenhagen, she heard of a new health programme which the University of Copenhagen was starting up, and this proved to fit her searching, interdisciplinary, approach.\r\n<h2>\"Are you in the wrong place?\"<\/h2>\r\nLooking back, Ahlam does not think it was at all bad that she was admitted to the very first class in the healthcare master's programme.\r\n\r\n\"Things were not set into a firm foundation yet, and you could move your master\u2019s degree in the direction you wanted.\"\r\n\r\nShe was a bit like the odd one out on the team. The average age was 38 (she was 22), and her fellow students were head nurses, researchers and heads of department who had jobs and careers and knew what to use their education for. Ahlam didn\u2019t. But she exploited the loose structure to the full:\r\n<blockquote>My idea was that if I were to work with health in Africa, I needed to know the context. So I made my own curriculum.<\/blockquote>\r\n\"I shopped around and supplemented human rights courses in Law with social medicine in Anthropology. I had subjects in African studies about fragile African states where the other students could not understand what I was doing there. 'Are you in the wrong place?' they asked, and I replied 'No, I just need the subjects for the next couple of months'. I think there's a common thread in everything I do, but people cannot necessarily see that. But my thought was that if I want to work with health in Africa, I had to know the context. So I made my own curriculum.\"\r\n\r\nAhlam's curriculum also included an intensive course in international diplomacy. Her bachelor had given her first-hand experience with the health work in small, isolated Ghanaian villages, but she had limited insight into another end of the spectrum \u2013 the political and diplomatic work that regulates global health efforts. She therefore applied for an internship at the Danish UN Mission in Geneva, which is responsible for Denmark's relationship with UN-based organizations in the city.\r\n\r\n\"Now I had come from the village in Africa to the inner circles of the world's humanitarian capital. And it touched a nerve that you could work internationally with human rights and major humanitarian crises without losing your healthcare background. But I missed the tangible, practical aspects.\"\r\n\r\nThe bridge between the two poles, the global and the local, the geopolitical and the encounter with people who needed help, she found back at home in Denmark.\r\n<h2>Hotspot<\/h2>\r\nDuring her studies, Ahlam had come across the Danish Rehabilitation and Research Center for Torture Victims (now renamed DIGNITY), a self-governing and politically independent organization that originated in Amnesty International in the 1970s.\r\n\r\n\"It was founded by doctors, the core is healthcare, and it works to rehabilitate the victims of violence and torture and help get them back to real life. It believes that there is a need for a holistic, interdisciplinary approach to cope with the task. So I wrote to them and asked if we could do a cooperation on a project.\n<!-- end of module 3 -->\nThe answer was that there was room for her to do her thesis with them. They had two suggestions: She could help complete a project where they already had collected the data: Or she could go to one of the world's hotspots \u2013 in the wake of a civil war and NATO bombings, and where there was the suspicion of the widespread use of torture \u2013 and collect the data yourself. Ahlam chose Libya.\r\n<h2>\"Right now it is insane what is happening\u201d<\/h2>\r\nIt was instinct that had her defying safety recommendations that day in Benghazi, and when she looks back, she can see what fed that instinct. That she probably had noticed some of the Toyota trucks \u2013 the favorite vehicle of the militias \u2013 about to swarm around the hotel. And that she had been aware that an event for international diplomats the day before had made the hotel an attractive target for terrorists.\r\n<div class=\"factbox\">\r\n<p class=\"factbox-header feature-color\">6 turning points in Ahlam Chemlali\u2019s career<\/p>\r\n<strong>The TV series:<\/strong> The crime series CSI \u2013 where heavily armed and rather athletic forensic detectives clear up crimes \u2013 inspired Ahlam Chemlali to sign up as a bioanalyst at Metropol in 2006.\r\n\r\n<strong>The mortuary:<\/strong> An internship at a London mortuary in 2008 taught her that she would rather work with the living \u2013 and prevent death.\r\n\r\n<strong>Ghana:<\/strong> An elective in Global Health sends Ahlam to Ghana in 2009, where she, in her own words, \"got a global perspective\" and also had her eyes opened to the complex political, economic and human contexts that affect people's health in a country.\r\n\r\n<strong>The experiment:<\/strong> Ahlam starts her first year of the newly started healthcare master's programme as a Master of Health Science UCPH in 2010.\r\n\r\n<strong>UN mission:<\/strong> An internship at the Danish UN mission in Geneva in 2011 puts Ahlam on track for work on human rights in an international context.\r\n\r\n<strong>DIGNITY:<\/strong> Ahlam gets a student job and is able to write her thesis at DIGNITY \u2013 the Danish Institute Against Torture in 2012. She has since been on over 45 missions to document the use of torture in Sierra Leone, Bangladesh, Jordan, Egypt, Libya, Uganda, Kenya, the Philippines, South Africa and Liberia.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\nFor the next couple of days she lived with the locals until she managed to get a seat on a plane out of the country (which in itself was an effort because the militia controlled the airport and were busy packing the planes with family members).\r\n\r\n\"In Denmark they were amazed at how calm I was. Personally, I took it as a kind of test or trial. I found out that I could handle that kind of work \u2013 and it was important for me to be there and talk about it afterwards.\"\r\n\r\nAhlam started taking part in Danish television programmes such as Deadline on DR2, where she talked about the situation in Libya. She worked on-and-off in the country until 2014, when the Civil War flared up again, Islamic State entered the country, and DIGNITY had to interrupt their work. It hurts that she cannot do anything and that the media seems to have forgotten the conflict.\r\n\r\n\"Right now it's insane what's going on. In DIGNITY we have had to put our projects on standby, because it's so dangerous, but I am being kept informed by friends and informants. The situation has resulted in a refugee crisis that the media talk about, but they do not cover the root causes, such as the unstable situation in Libya. \"\r\n<h2>The stuff that stays with you<\/h2>\r\nAhlam submitted her PhD in 2012 and has since then worked for DIGNITY as a Programme Manager. She has been on more than 45 missions to document torture and organised violence in countries including Sierra Leone, Liberia, Jordan, Uganda and Bangladesh.\r\n\r\nAlong the way, she has seen things that have deeply affected her. In Liberia, she helped out during the Ebola epidemic, which ravaged a country already crippled by a brutal civil war.\r\n\r\n[secrettext face=\"I worked with local partners on-re-burials. \" text=\"\u00bbRe-burials are both a way to get the deceased's body and spirit back, but also a key element in reconciliation and forgiveness. Both with yourself and with the deceased. Burying the dead, properly, and saying goodbye, is important. It is a way of unifying, reconciling disputing parties and creating peace and co-existence in otherwise split-up post-conflict societies\u00ab\"]Because of the war, the bereaved families had not been able to bury the victims, and when they came back to the villages from the refugee camps, bones stuck up from the ground\u00b9. You collect the remains and put them in a memorial, a Memorial Hut ... It's hard to explain. I have tried to write about it several times, but I have not yet had success. It is the closest you can get to life, death and sorrow. I have met amazing people in Liberia, and their resilience has inspired me.\"\r\n\r\nWhen she looks back, she sees the huge difference between her work now and the previous studies and internships at the mortuary in London:\r\n\r\n\"Meeting people is what motivates me. Getting out of the white coat and the clinical conditions and meeting people wherever they are. I cannot just sit around, reading books ...\"\r\n\r\n- Why?\r\n\r\n\"Because it is not just numbers, statistics, figures in a report \u2013 because a human being crops up behind the numbers. You come down and see that it's a person, like me, with the same hopes and the same dreams. It humanises the work. And it makes things much more meaningful to get out and see reality instead of just sitting here in Bryggervangen street.\"\r\n\r\n<em>The article continues underneath the image<\/em>\r\n\r\n \n<!-- end of module 4 -->\n<h2>On the right, but twisted, track<\/h2>\r\nAhlam Chemlali still watches CSI, but she does not miss the lab work.\r\n\r\n\"I feel I'm in the right place. Now I work interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary. In our teams we have doctors, sociologists, anthropologists, social workers, researchers ... When you work with complex issues like violence and rehabilitation of torture victims, it requires a pluralistic, academic approach. Global challenges like the refugee crisis require cooperation between migration experts, political scientists, anthropologists ... it's not just economic and political issues.\"\r\n\r\nAnd now we get to the points that Ahlam wants to emphasise when students ask her how they can get to work with what she does.\r\n\r\nThere is not one path of study or experience to get yourself to work within a field like hers, it requires an interdisciplinary approach, and there are many paths. She herself has not had a plan for her education and career. She has gone with her curiosity and her gut feeling. She has changed direction, changed programme, hesitated, fumbled and gambled.\r\n\r\nAlong the way, she has learned what it is that motivates her and what it is that she wants to work with. And it worries her that students now \u2013 as she sees it \u2013 do not get the same opportunities as she did:\r\n\r\n\"I think it's sad to see how the Danish Study Progress Reform is transforming the university into a sausage factory. Very few people at this centre knew what to do when they were 18 or 19 years old. It is important that students can immerse themselves in what interests and drives them \u2013 and not just in the labour market. You do not necessarily also get to try out the real world from completing your study in the standard time. My education took almost seven years, including studies abroad and internships, and I only think it has benefited me, both professionally and personally.\"\n<!-- end of module 5 -->\n","post_title":"On the right, twisted, track","post_excerpt":"How does a mathematics student and aspiring forensic scientist end up working with victims of torture? Ahlam Chemlali, a master\u2019s student from the University of Copenhagen, has fumbled, changed course and trusted her gut feeling. And along the way, this saved her life.","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"on-the-right-twisted-track","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2017-05-24 16:22:22","post_modified_gmt":"2017-05-24 14:22:22","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/den-alt-andet-end-lige-vej\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}}],"category":false,"theme":false,"number_of_posts":4,"style":"default"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Newsletter","lang_select":"Dansk","identifier":"Newsletter","headline":"Receive a weekly newsletter in your inbox","button_text":"Tilmeld nu","class":""}]},"taxonomyData":{"category":[{"term_id":42,"name":"Education","slug":"education","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":42,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":661,"filter":"raw"}],"post_tag":[{"term_id":857,"name":"Institut for Matematiske Fag","slug":"institut-for-matematiske-fag-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":857,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":858,"name":"mathematical sciences","slug":"mathematical-sciences","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":858,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":127,"name":"Semester start","slug":"semester-start","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":127,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":25,"filter":"raw"}],"post_format":[],"expression":[{"term_id":18,"name":"Feature Article","slug":"feature_article","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":18,"taxonomy":"expression","description":"","parent":0,"count":1200,"filter":"raw"}],"translation_priority":[]},"featured_media_url":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/danielhjorthuniavisenmaxfischerhighres016small.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57057"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57097,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57057\/revisions\/57097"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}