mathematics

Mathias Kolle

Mathias Kolle 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 Mathias Kolle rather than just read about it. In short: Mathias Kolle is a German physicist specializing in bio-inspired optics, optoelectronics and materials science and head of the Laboratory for Biologically Inspired Photonic Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He currently holds the Rockwell Career Development Professorship and is Associate Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department (MECHE) at MIT.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Mathias Kolle is a German physicist specializing in bio-inspired optics, optoelectronics and materials science and head of the Laboratory for Biologically Inspired Photonic Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He currently holds the Rockwell Career Development Professorship and is Associate Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department (MECHE) at MIT.

Education Kolle graduated from the Goethe-Gymnasium in Gera in 2000. He then completed his trinational physics studies with a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science at the Saarland University in Saarbrücken. He also studied at the Henri Poincaré University in Nancy and at the University of Luxembourg in Luxembourg. After completing his studies, Kolle moved to the University of Cambridge in Cambridge in 200 d did his doctorate in 2010 under Ullrich Steiner on the subject of "Photonic structures inspired by nature". As a Humboldt Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Kolle conducted research from 2010 to 2013 at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University before being appointed Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Massachusetts in 2013.

Teaching At MIT, in addition to seminars, Kolle holds the basic course on measurement and instrumentation.

Memberships and expert work Since 2016, Kolle is also a consultant for the International Scientific Committee for the Living Light Conference

Publications Kolle is (as of April 2024) the author or co-author of over 140 scientific articles in international journals. According to the Web of Science, his work has been cited over 5,000 times, resulting in an h-index (according to Google Scholar) of 40. His most cited publications include the articles "A highly conspicuous mineralized composite photonic architecture in the translucent shell of the blue-rayed limpet" (Nature Communications), "Multifunctionality of Chiton Biomineralized Armor with an Integrated Visual System" (Science), "Bio-inspired band-gap tunable elastic optical multilayer fibers", or "Structural Color in Animals", which he published in collaboration with researchers such as Joanna Aizenberg or Eric Mazur. His dissertation on “Photonic Structures Inspired by Nature” was published as a book by Springer Verlag.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mathias Kolle

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mathias Kolle 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 Mathias Kolle 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 Mathias Kolle 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 Mathias Kolle

In research: Mathias Kolle 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 Mathias Kolle 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: Mathias Kolle is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics German physicists, Living people, Massachusetts Institute of Technology people, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mathias Kolle 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.

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How to study Mathias Kolle in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Mathias Kolle 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 Mathias Kolle out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mathias Kolle in simple terms?

Why does Mathias Kolle 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 Mathias Kolle?

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 Mathias Kolle.