Marc Levine is a professor at Duisburg-Essen University, working in algebraic geometry and motivic homotopy theory, and my PhD advisor! In this interview, Marc contemplates how to look for research problems, learn new research areas and move from USA to Germany with your family.

Marc's webpage: https://www.esaga.uni-due.de/marc.levine/
Photo: Marc's private photo collection

0:00​ teaser
0:48​ becoming a mathematician
2:51​ family’s reaction
4:48​ moving from USA to Germany
6:55​ bilingualism and jokes
10:40​ skills for doing research
14:15​ encouraging to stay in academia
17:06​ PhD advising 
18:55​ what is work
20:20​ mysterious time-management
23:00​ not being judgmental
25:08​ geometric intuition
27:55​ thinking too fast
29:03​ challenge of moving forward
32:24​ finding math problems
35:26​ independence after graduation
38:21​ serious research mistakes
43:09​ how to learn motivic homotopy theory
45:45​ learning math backwards
47:28​ changes in the math community
51:31​ mathematical inspiration
53:21​ funny conference encounter
55:12​ my gratitude and R. Kipling
59:13​ advice to young mathematicians