Rarely is mathematics so close to everyday life: James Sethian of the University of California, Berkeley, is looking for mathematical answers to the question of how to get an object from A to B as quickly as possible. He has developed the fast marching method to solve this problem. The mathematician's research benefits not only other disciplines, such as materials and life sciences, but also students at the Berlin School of Mathematics. Sethian was an Einstein Visiting Fellow there from 2011 to 2014.
