mathematics

Ilka Agricola

Ilka Agricola is a mathematics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Ilka Agricola rather than just read about it. In short: Ilka Agricola (born 8 August 1973 in The Hague) is a German mathematician specialising in differential geometry and its applications in mathematical physics. She is the dean of mathematics and computer science at Marburg University, where she has also been responsible for making the university's collection of mathematical models public.

Key takeaways

Ilka Agricola belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Ilka Agricola to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Ilka Agricola from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Ilka Agricola (born 8 August 1973 in The Hague) is a German mathematician specialising in differential geometry and its applications in mathematical physics. She is the dean of mathematics and computer science at Marburg University, where she has also been responsible for making the university's collection of mathematical models public.

Life and work Agricola studied physics at the Technical University of Munich and LMU Munich from 1991 to 1996. After a guest stay at Rutgers University in New Jersey (United States) that lasted until the end of 1997 she went to the Humboldt University of Berlin, where in 2000 she earned a mathematics doctorate under Thomas Friedrich. From 2003 to 2008, she led one of the Volkswagen Foundation funded research groups at the Humboldt University of Berlin in the field of special geometries in mathematical physics. From 2004 to 2008, she was a project manager in the priority program for string theory at the German Research Foundation and the Collaborative Research Center 1080. Agricola took the Habilitation in 2004 at the University of Greifswald in mathematics. In 2008, she was appointed full professor at Marburg University. From November 2014 until October 2018, she has been Dean of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science. She was president of the German Mathematical Society from 2021 to 2022.

Agricola is Editor-in-Chief of two academic journals in mathematics published by Springer Science+Business Media, Annals of Global Analysis and Geometry (since 2015) and Mathematische Semesterberichte (since 2021). She is an editor of the journal Communications in Mathematics published by De Gruyter. As of September 2025, Agricola is chair of the Committee on Publishing of the International Mathematical Union.

Awards and honors In 2003, Ilka Agricola received the Medal of Honor of Charles University in Prague. In 2016, she was awarded the Ars legendi faculty prize of the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft and German Rectors' Conference for excellence in teaching mathematics. She was named a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society, in the 2022 class of fellows, "for contributions to differential geometry, in particular manifolds with special holonomy and on non-integrable geometric structures and for service to the mathematical community".

Selected publications

Books Agricola, Ilka; Friedrich, Thomas (2002), Global analysis: Differential forms in analysis, geometry and physics, Graduate Studies in Mathematics, vol. 52, Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society, doi:10.1090/gsm/052, ISBN 0-8218-2951-3. Translated from the 2001 German original by Andreas Nestke. Agricola, Ilka; Friedrich, Thomas (2008), Elementary geometry, Student Mathematical Library, vol. 43, Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society, doi:10.1090/stml/043, ISBN 978-0-8218-4347-5. Translated from the 2005 German original by Philip G. Spain.

Papers Agricola, Ilka (2003), "Connections on naturally reductive spaces, their Dirac operator and homogeneous models in string theory", Communications in Mathematical Physics, 232 (3): 535–563, arXiv:math/0202094, Bibcode:2003CMaPh.232..535A, doi:10.1007/s00220-002-0743-y, MR 1952476, S2CID 10049585. Agricola, Ilka; Goodman, Roe (2003), "The algebra of K-invariant vector fields on a symmetric space G/K", Michigan Mathematical Journal, 51 (3): 607–630, arXiv:math/0207161, doi:10.1307/mmj/1070919563, MR 2021011, S2CID 8439498. Agricola, Ilka; Friedrich, Thomas (2004), "On the holonomy of connections with skew-symmetric torsion", Mathematische Annalen, 328 (4): 711–748, arXiv:math/0305069, doi:10.1007/s00208-003-0507-9, MR 2047649, S2CID 15084827. Agricola, Ilka (2008), "Old and new on the exceptional group G2" (PDF), Notices of the American Mathematical Society, 55 (8): 922–929, MR 2441524.

References

External links

Ilka Agricola homepage at the University of Marburg Author profile of Ilka Agricola in the database zbMATH Papers by Ilka Agricola listed on ResearchGate

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Ilka Agricola

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Ilka Agricola claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Ilka Agricola before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Ilka Agricola ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Ilka Agricola

In research: Ilka Agricola appears in mathematics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Ilka Agricola in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Ilka Agricola is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1973 births, 21st-century Dutch mathematicians, 21st-century German mathematicians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Ilka Agricola outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Ilka Agricola” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Ilka Agricola in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Ilka Agricola means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Ilka Agricola out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ilka Agricola in simple terms?

Why does Ilka Agricola matter?

Because it connects several mathematics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Ilka Agricola?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Ilka Agricola.