Alexander Lytchak was born in 1978 in
Leningrad. As a school student, he participated in the Russian mathematical olympiads and in the German national mathematics competition, the
Bundeswettbewerb Mathematik. He studied mathematics at the
University of Bonn. He earned his PhD in 2001 under the supervision of
Werner Ballmann. In 2012, he was appointed professor of mathematics at the University of Cologne. He later joined the
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. == Awards and honours ==