Teaching – Markus P. Müller

Teaching: Principles

Since 2002, I have been teaching university courses for mathematicians, physicists, engineers, and philosophers. I genuinely love teaching, and I have consistently been obtaining excellent students’ evaluations. My main principle for teaching is mutual respect: we can only be good teachers if we show our students that each one of them is welcome, regardless of their background; that science is an open-ended endeavor performed by fallible human beings with limited knowledge who err all the time (including us, the teachers); but that the result of this never-ending human self-correction process is the immensely powerful and beautiful gem we call “science”.
In 2021, I have officially received my “venia docendi” (Habilitation) at the University of Vienna in Theoretical Physics.

Teaching at the University of Vienna

Winter 2023/24, Probabilistic theories and reconstructions of quantum theory, VU 3 hours/week, 5 ECTS points. Jointly with Thomas Galley.
Winter 2021/22, Grundlagen der modernen Quantenphysik, SE 2 hours/week, 5 ECTS points. Jointly with Borivoje Dakic, Caslav Brukner, and Markus Aspelmeyer.
Winter 2020/21, Grundlagen der modernen Quantenphysik, SE 2 hours/week, 5 ECTS points. Jointly with Borivoje Dakic, Caslav Brukner, and Markus Aspelmeyer.
Summer 2020, Resource theories and thermodynamics, VU 3 hours/week, 5 ECTS points. Jointly with Andrew Garner and Felix Binder.
Winter 2019/20, Grundlagen der modernen Quantenphysik, SE 2 hours/week, 5 ECTS points. Jointly with Borivoje Dakic, Caslav Brukner, and Markus Aspelmeyer, Reinhold Bertlmann, Anton Zeilinger, Beatrix Hiesmayr, and Miguel Navascues.
Summer 2019, Questions and progress in quantum information and causality, SE 2 hours/week, 5 ECTS points.
Winter 2018/19, Quantum correlations and generalized probabilistic theories: an introduction, VO 2 hours/week, 2.5 ECTS points.

All Further Courses

September 2024, Why Quantum Theory?, lectures at the IQOQI Summer School, Vienna. Slides and notes (day.part): 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3.
July 2019, Quantum Foundations and Probabilistic Theories, invited lectures at the “Les Houches School of Physics”, France, on “Quantum information machines”. Lecture Notes
October 2017, Quantum Nonlocality and General Probabilistic Theories, invited course at the Heidelberg Physics Graduate Days, Heidelberg Graduate School of Fundamental Physics (HGSFP), Heidelberg University, Germany.
Spring 2017, Basic Logic, for undergraduate students in the sciences and humanities, University of Western Ontario, London ON, Canada.
Spring 2016, Statistical Physics, for graduate students of physics, University of Western Ontario, London ON, Canada.
Winter 2014/15, Single-shot quantum thermodynamics, Advanced Lecture on Special Topics, 4 ECTS points, Heidelberg University, Germany.
October 2014, Quantum Nonlocality and Contextuality, invited course at the Heidelberg Physics Graduate Days, Heidelberg Graduate School of Fundamental Physics (HGSFP), Heidelberg University, Germany.
September 2014, Quantum theory from five simple operational axioms, keynote lectures at the CIMPA School on “Operator Theory and The Principles of Quantum Mechanics”, University Moulay Ismail, Meknes, Morocco.
August 2014, Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, invited course at the Study Week of the Elite Network Bayern, Tramin, South Tirol.
Summer 2014, Quantum correlations and generalized probabilistic theories: an introduction, Advanced Lecture on Special Topics, 4 ECTWS points, for physics graduate students, Heidelberg University, Germany.
Winter 2013/14, Selected Topics in Mathematical Physics: Quantum Information Theory, seminar for physics graduate students, Heidelberg University, Germany.
August 2012, Concentration functions and inequalities II, and Concentration in quantum settings, invited lecture at the Measure Concentration Minischool, Institute for Information Theory and Automation, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague.
July/August 2012, Random quantum states, measure concentration, and the additivity conjecture, one-week course at the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) Waterloo, University of Waterloo, Canada.
July 2012, Measure concentration and the foundations of statistical mechanics, Summer School “Applications of Quantum Mechanics II”, Cuernavaca, Mexico.
May/June 2010, The additivity conjecture and counterexamples, Quantum Information Theory Minischool, Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Leipzig.

Tutorials

These are tutorials for the students that I have given as a Research and Teaching Assistant at the Technical University of Berlin. The courses themselves have been taught by the respective professors.

Summer 2010, Mathematical Physics III: Statistical Mechanics, Institute of Mathematics, TU Berlin, Germany. For graduate students of physics and mathematics.
Winter 2009/10, Mathematical Physics I: Classical Mechanics. With Prof. Yuri Suris; for graduate students of physics and mathematics. Analysis I for Engineers. With Dr. Wigand Böse and Dr. Gabriele Penn-Karras; for first-year engineering students.
Summer 2009, Mathematics for Physicists IV.
Winter 2008/09, Mathematics for Physicists III. With Dr. Mike Scherfner; for undergraduate students of physics.
Summer 2007, Higher Mathematics for Physicists II.
Winter 2006/07, Higher Mathematics for Physicists I.
Summer 2006, Higher Mathematics for Physicists IV.
Winter 2005/06, Higher Mathematics for Physicists III.
Summer 2005, Higher Mathematics for Physicists II. With the late Prof. Rainer Wüst, who will forever remain my main role model of human integrity. For undergraduate students of physics. In addition to the tutorials, I have also given a voluntary self-designed weekly lecture, discussing additional examples.
Winter 2004/05, Linear Algebra for Engineers. Wtih Dr. Marco Lübbecke, Prof. Volker Mehrmann, Prof. Hartmut Schwandt; service course for hundreds of first-year engineering students.
2002-2004, Linear Algebra for Engineers and Analysis for Engineers, student teaching assistant (“tutor”).