Major Gift by Mike and Nina Douglas to Support Scientific Talent from Southeastern Europe

The Institute is thrilled to announce a generous gift of $200k to the Friends of IHES Endowment Fund by its long-time supporters Mike and Nina Douglas. This gift, which will be matched by the Simons Foundation International, represents a major step in fostering mathematical and scientific collaboration across borders, as championed by IHES.

The annual proceeds from this donation will fund visits to IHES by mathematicians and physicists from Southeastern Europe (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia). A special invitation is also extended to theoretical computer scientists working on the mathematical foundations, and the use of artificial intelligence in mathematics—a rapidly growing field of global importance and one of Mike Douglas’s own research interests. Mike notably organized a conference titled Mathematics for and by Large Language Models at IHES in May 2023.

The ties of the Douglas family to Southeastern Europe run deep. Nina is of Bulgarian origin and had a Greek grandmother with whom she shared a very close relationship. Additionally, Mike’s father, mathematician Ronald G. Douglas, had strong ties to the Romanian mathematical community, working with Constantin G. Apostol, Ciprian Foiaș, and Dan-Virgil Voiculescu on operator theory and operator algebras.

The Douglas family’s relationship with IHES is equally profound. Mike Douglas, a pioneer in string theory and mathematical physics, was a Professor of Physics at Rutgers University and Stony Brook University, was a founding member of the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics, and is currently a Senior Research Scientist at Harvard University. He was the holder of the Louis Michel Chair at IHES from 2000 to 2011. During this time, he and Nina became integral members of the IHES community. Together, they have fond memories of raising their children at the Ormaille residence of the Institute. Mike also served as President and Chairman of Friends of IHES from 2013 to 2021, playing a pivotal role in strengthening ties between the Institute and its community of supporters in the United States.

Nina, a mathematical linguist with a PhD in philosophy and comparative literature, is also an artist whose creations often draw from the realms of mathematics and physics. Her bronze sculpture of Alexander Grothendieck, gifted to IHES by Marilyn and Jim Simons in 2014, is now permanently displayed in the Alix and Marwan Lahoud Building at the Institute.

The vision of the Mike and Nina Douglas visitor program closely aligns with the broader mission of IHES to cultivate global scientific exchange. Yuri Tschinkel, Executive Vice President of Mathematics and Physical Sciences at the Simons Foundation and a member of the IHES Board of Directors, emphasized the significance of this initiative, stating:

“I visited the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in 2022 and was deeply impressed by the level of mathematics being done there. I am delighted to hear that more aspiring mathematicians from Southeastern Europe will be able to connect with leaders in their fields at IHES.”

This major gift marks not only a continuation of the Douglas family’s enduring commitment to IHES but also a powerful investment in the future of mathematical and scientific talent from Southeastern Europe. It is a testament to the transformative power of philanthropy and the global reach of IHES as a hub for pioneering research and international cooperation.

Applications for the Southeastern Europe visitor program will open in the Fall of 2025 for visits to IHES starting in 2026.