MIKE FEST – 9-13 May 2022

In honor of the 60th birthday of Michael R. Douglas, a longtime supporter of IHES, a conference was held in his honor on May 9-13, 2022 at the Institute.

Michael R. Douglas, who recently stepped down as president of Friends of IHES, is a theoretical physicist known notably for his work on string theory and mathematical physics. His relationship with the IHES dates back to 2000 when he became the Louis Michel Chair of Theoretical Physics.

During five days, several international speakers will cover the topics on which Mike Douglas has worked and made profound contributions, namely: string theory, matrix models, mathematical physics, and machine learning.

To register, get more information on the MikeFest program, and stay up to date on the latest action, go to the dedicated webpage.

Replay the conference in videos:

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Organizers : 

• Costas Bachas, LPENS
• Semyon Klevtsov, Univ. Strasbourg
• Nikita Nekrasov, SCGP & Stony Brook
• Emmanuel Ullmo, IHES

Invited speakers:

• Vijay Balasubramanian, Univ. of Pennsylvania
• Alexander Belavin, Independent Univ. Moscow (TBC)
• Ilka Brunner, Univ. München
• Alain Connes, IHES & Collège de France
• Frederik Denef, Columbia Univ.
• Bartomeu Fiol, Univ. de Barcelona
• Jaume Gomis, Perimeter Institute (TBC)
• Sasha Gorsky, IITP RAS, MIPT
• Chris Hull, Imperial College
• Shamit Kachru, Stanford Univ.
• Volodya Kazakov, LPENS
• Maxim Kontsevich, IHES
• Patrick Massot, LMO – Univ. Paris-Saclay
• Luca Mazzucato*, Univ. of Oregon
• David McAllester, TTIC *
• Liam McAllister, Cornell Univ.
• Greg Moore*, Rutgers Univ.
• Rémi Monasson, LPENS
• Eliezer Rabinovici, Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem

• John Schwarz, Caltech

• Nathan Seiberg*, IAS
• Steve Shenker*, Stanford Univ.
• Eva Silverstein*, Stanford Univ.
• Christian Szegedy, Google Research
• Washington Taylor*, MIT
• Alessandro Tomasiello, Univ. Degli Studi Di Milano Bicocca
• Josef Urban, CIIRC
• Steve Zelditch*, Northwestern Univ.

* remote talks

Veronica Fantini and Alex Takeda, both post-doctoral scientists at IHES, organize a conference “Workshop on Quantum Geometry”, from 25 to 29 April 2022, with the support of the LabEx Mathematics Hadamard.

Registration is open until 21 April, more information is on the dedicated webpage.

Advances in quantum geometry

The five-day conference will highlight recent advances in enumerative geometry, emphasizing its connection with mathematical physics and quantization.

Pierrick Bousseau, from ETH Zurich, and Hülya Argüz, from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria in Vienna, will present their recent work, also joint with Pandharipande-Zvonkine, in a mini-series of lectures. Other early-career speakers working on similar topics will also give talks on the topic.

Find out more about the guest speakers:

• Nezhla Aghaei, University of Bern
• Hülya Argüz, IST Austria
• Anna Barbieri, University of Milano Statale
• Pierrick Bousseau, ETH Zurich
• Pierre Descombes, Sorbonne Université UPMC
• Maxime Fairon, University of Glasgow
• Elba Garcia-Failde, IMJ-PRG
• Alessandro Giacchetto, IPhT
• Oscar Kivinen, EPFL
• Joshua Lam, IHES
• Mingkun Liu, IMJ-PRG
• Riccardo Ontani, SISSA
• Gabriele Rembado, Hausdorff Centre for Mathematics, Bonn
• Alexander Soibelman, IHES

To apply, get more information about the schedule, and be informed of the latest actions, visit the conference web page.

The launch of carmin.tv, a new platform for promoting and sharing scientific research took place in the presence of Sylvie Benzoni, director of IHP and scientific and technical manager of CARMIN, Christophe Ritzenthaler, director of CIMPA, Pascal Hubert, director of CIRM, and Emmanuel Ullmo, director of IHES

on Friday, December 10, 2021, from 4:00 pm
at the Institut Henri Poincaré
11, rue Pierre et Marie Curie – Paris 5e
Health pass required.

Program
4:00pm Presentation of the carmin.tv web platform by the directors of CIMPA, CIRM, IHES and IHP
4:30pm Round table
6pm Cocktail

The LabEx (Laboratory of Excellence) CARMIN (Centres d’Accueil et de Rencontres Mathématiques INternationales) federates four French institutes, at the service of research in mathematics and their interactions:
•    Centre International de Mathématiques Pures et Appliquées (CIMPA)
•    Centre International de Rencontres Mathématiques (CIRM)
•    Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHES)
•    Institut Henri Poincaré (IHP)
Designed by the four members of LabEx CARMIN (CIMPA, CIRM, IHES and IHP) to preserve and enhance their media collections, carmin.tv is a media platform dedicated to mathematics and its interactions. The idea is to make these contents accessible to all on one platform designed for the scientific community.

Damour Fest
Adventures in Gravitation

 

To celebrate the 70th birthday of Thibault Damour, permanent professor at IHES since 1989, a “Damour Fest”, gathering friends with whom he enjoys interacting around Gravitational Physics and beyond, was held at IHES from Tuesday 12 October afternoon to Friday 15 October 2021 noon. It was organised by Nathalie Deruelle (APC, Université de Paris), Alessandro Nagar (INFN Torino) and Slava Rychkov (IHES).

The following speakers talked (a few remotely) on topics of their choice reflecting their current interest:

– Leor Barack, University of Southampton
– Sebastiano Bernuzzi, University of Jena
– Lydia Bieri, Michigan University
– Luc Blanchet, IAP, Paris
– Alessandra Buonanno, AEI, MPI, Potsdam
– Sophie De Buyl, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
– Stanley Deser, Brandeis University
– Marc Henneaux, Collège de France & ULB Bruxelles
– Bala Iyer, ICTS, TIFR, Bangalore 
– Piotr Jaranowski, University of Białystok
– Sergiu Klainerman, Princeton University
– Michael Kramer, MPI, Bonn
– Juan Maldacena, IAS, Princeton
– Viatcheslav Mukhanov, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich
– Hermann Nicolai, AEI, MPI, Potsdam
– Adam Pound, University of Southampton
– Giuseppe Policastro, ENS Paris
– Alexander Polyakov, Princeton University
– Manuel Rodrigues, ONERA, Université Paris-Saclay
– Remo Ruffini, ICRA, Rome
– David Shoemaker, MIT
– Sergey Solodukhin, University of Tours
– Alexei Starobinski, Landau Institute, Moscow
– Gabriele Veneziano, CERN & Collège de France
– Alex Vilenkin, Tufts University
– Edward Witten, IAS, Princeton

To apply, get more information about the schedule, and be informed of the latest actions, visit the conference web page.

The conference was held in a blended form, with talks given on-site at IHES and others remotely through Zoom. All the talks could be followed either online or on-site (subject to availability).

Covid-19 regulations: for those who will attend in person, masks will be mandatory and we will ask them to provide a health pass upon their arrival.

Find all the videos of the Damour Fest:

Women are still much underrepresented in mathematics and theoretical physics, particularly at IHES, where only 10% of its visitors are female. IHES, in line with Université Paris-Saclay, firmly intends to reduce that gap and attract more women researchers.

To identify the best way to do so, the Institute wishes to take advantage of the experience, hindsight and know-how of several organizations that have been created over the years to raise awareness and promote equal opportunities for women in mathematics. For decades now, female mathematicians across the world have been joining forces to encourage more women to choose STEM and to ensure that they get fair and equal treatment when they do so.

IHES thus organized a panel discussion featuring a former visiting professor at IHES as well as representatives from the Association for Women in Mathematics, that is celebrating its 50^th anniversary this year, and the European Women in Mathematics, all of whom are strong diversity and inclusion advocates.

The event took place in a hybrid format on Monday, October 4, at 6pm Paris time, both at the Marilyn and James Simons Conference Center, IHES, and online.

Panelists were: Eva Bayer-Fluckiger, Professor Emeritus at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Kathryn Leonard, president of the Association of Women in Mathematics, and Andrea Walther, co-convenor of the European Women in Mathematics.

By sharing their experiences and their expertise, they helped identify relevant initiatives to accompany and promote women researchers in mathematics, and ensure that they are better represented at institutions like IHES. The funds raised later on at the next Friends of IHES gala, dedicated to “Women in Fundamental Research”, will then help implement some of those initiatives at the Institute.

Click here to watch the replay

 

Eva Bayer-Fluckiger is a mathematician whose interests include algebraic number theory, Galois cohomology of algebraic groups, quadratic forms, Hermitian forms and involution algebras, knot theory, and the application of algebra and number theory to algebraic codes. During her career she was a visiting professor at IHES several times. She is currently Professor Emeritus at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.

 

Kathryn Leonard is a mathematician and computer scientist whose research interests include geometric models for computer graphics, computer vision, and data analysis, with an emphasis on explainability. She is a professor of computer science at the Occidental College, Los Angeles, and director of the Center for Undergraduate Research in Mathematics. She has been the President of the Association for Women in Mathematics since February 2021.

 

Andrea Walther is an applied mathematician working on nonlinear optimization, non-smooth optimization, and scientific computing. She is known in particular for her work on automatic differentiation. She is professor of mathematical optimization in the institute for mathematics of Humboldt University of Berlin. She has been convenor of the European Women in Mathematics since July 2020.

The conference was held at IHES depending on the evolution of health situations and related restrictions.

The conference “Large-scale Limits of Interacting Particle Systems”, took place in the Marilyn and James Simons Conference Center from October 4 to 8 2021, and simultaneously on Zoom.

It was organized by Mitia Duerinckx (CNRS), Sergio Simonella (CNRS) and Raphael Winter (École Normale Supérieure de Lyon), with the support of the CNRS-Momentum program.

These five days brought together researchers interested in rigorous methods for the study of scaling limits of interacting particle systems.

The conference focused on three mini-courses, given by:

• Mathieu Lewin (CNRS): “Mean-field Limits and Bose-Einstein Condensation for Quantum Gases“;
• Laure Saint-Raymond (IHES): “Statistical Description of a Hard Sphere Gas Dynamics“;
• Manfred Salmhofer (Institute for Theoretical Physics, Univ. of Heidelberg): “Diagrammatic Expansions and Renormalization in Quantum Dynamics”

The program also included one-hour talks given by:

• Serena Cenatiempo (GSSI),
• Charles Collot (Cergy Paris Université),
• Sabine Jansen (LMU),
• Jens Marklof (University of Bristol),
• Alessia Nota (Università degli Studi dell’Aquila),
• Peter Pickl (University of Munich),
• Marcello Porta (SISSA),
• Mario Pulvirenti (Università di Roma « La Sapienza »),
• Nicolas Rougerie (UMPA),
• Florian Theil (University of Warwick),
• Bálint Tóth (University of Bristol).

To get more information on the conference program, and be informed of the latest measures taken, go to the dedicated web page.

Find all the videos of the conference:

Depending on the evolution of the health situation and related restrictions, two options are currently planned at this time for the conference “Geometry in Non-positive Curvature and Kähler Groups”:
• a fully online conference;
• a hybrid conference: both at the Institute and online. 
Register to get the latest information.

An international conference at IHES

IHES is slowly getting back to its conference rhythm and will host the conference “Geometry in Non-positive Curvature and Kähler Groups”. Organized by Rémi Coulon (University of Rennes 1), François Dahmani (University of Grenoble-Alpes) and Alexandre Martin (Heriot-Watt University), it will be held from 30 August to 1 September 2021.

During three days, several speakers will discuss group geometry, a field at the interface between algebra, geometry, and topology. They will review recent developments in the group geometry with hyperbolic features, Kähler geometry, and their interactions.

This event will also be the occasion to celebrate Thomas Delzant’s (University of Strasbourg) 60^th birthday , a researcher recognized for his contributions to these fields which have had a great influence on the development of geometric group theory.

To apply, get more information about the schedule, and be informed of the latest actions, click here.

 

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Confirmed speakers:

– Goulnara Arzhantseva (University of Vienna),
– Martin Bridson (University of Oxford),
– Serge Cantat (University of Rennes 1),
– Cornelia Drutu (University of Sciences and Technologies of Lille),
– Mikhail Gromov (IHES),
– Vincent Guirardel (University of Rennes 1),
– Panagiotis Papasoglu (University of Oxford),
– Pierre Py (University of Strasbourg),
– Zlil Sela (Einstein Institute of Mathematics).

 

 

Thomas Delzant, a geometric group theory specialist!

After working on symplectic geometry including the study of Hamilton actions, Thomas Delzant has dedicated his work to group geometry. After Misha Gromov‘s seminal treatise on hyperbolic groups in 1987, Thomas Delzant played a key role in the development and popularisation of this emerging field back then. In particular, his lecture notes in collaboration with Michel Coornaert and Athanase Papadopoulos fostered the emergence of a generation of group geometers in France and abroad.

Thomas Delzant’s research in group geometry is varied, but some central topics can be identified, in particular the study of geometries with negative or zero curvature. His work on the structure of hyperbolic groups, as well as his collaboration with Misha Gromov on groups with small simplification, have led to a better understanding of free Burnside groups. His recent work focuses on the structure of Kählerian groups, a still mysterious class of groups at the intersection of complex geometry and symplectic geometry: the central problem is to determine strong constraints on groups of Kählerian varieties. Thomas Delzant uses many tools from group geometry (hyperbolic geometry, cubic CAT(0), etc.) to study these groups. His collaborations with Misha Gromov and Pierre Py have led to a better understanding of cubulable Kähler groups and the image of these groups in surface groups.

 

 

Friday 11 June 2021, H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco came to the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques, along with Patrice Cellario, the Principality of Monaco’s Minister of Interior.

After having been formally greeted by Marwan Lahoud, President of IHES, Emmanuel Ullmo, Director of IHES, Alexander Grimaud, Sub-prefect of the district of Palaiseau and Jean-François Vigier, Mayor of Bures-sur-Yvette, they met three junior researchers currently at the Institute:

– Veronica Fantini, an Italian mathematician specializing in geometry and mathematical physics, is currently a visitor at IHES, where she will start a post-doc in September;

– Vasilisa Nikiforova, a Russian post-doc in theoretical physics;

– Alex Takeda, a Brazilian post-doc working on topics related to algebraic geometry and mathematical physics.

In the main scientific building of the Institute, H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco was then able to discuss with Fanny Kassel, mathematician, a CNRS researcher based at IHES, and one of her PhD students, Balthazar Fléchelles. The Institute is thus part of a larger mathematical and scientific community: a founding member of Université Paris-Saclay, it works closely with several partners, including CNRS (the French National Research Center).

H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco and Patrice Cellario also visited the IHES library, where they were able to greet David Ruelle, a physicist and permanent professor until 2000 and now professor emeritus at IHES, winner of the Albert 1er de Monaco prize in 1979, awarded by the Academy of Sciences.

Finally, before going to lunch, they met Luc Illusie, a mathematician specializing in algebraic geometry, who was on site for the conference organized in his honor on the occasion of his 80th birthday (81st in fact due to the pandemic!) from 8 to 11 June. Luc Illusie is a precious and faithful member of the Institute’s community: he attended the famous A. Grothendieck’s Seminar during IHES’ first years.

After having had lunch at the Institute’s cafeteria, H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco and Patrice Cellario went to the Marilyn and James Simons Conference Center, where Thibault Damour, a physicist and permanent professor at IHES, gave a talk on gravitational waves. A good opportunity to get a sense of the scientific progress made since Albert Einstein’s first scientific work on this topic, with the most recent observational breakthroughs and their theoretical basis.

A virtual conference in honor of Luc Illusie was held from 7 to 11 June 2021. On this occasion, the following speakers gave talks:

Ahmed Abbes, Vladimir Berkovich, Bhargav Bhatt, Kęstutis Česnavičius, Miaofen Chen, Hélène Esnault, Ofer Gabber, Yongquan Hu, Nicholas Katz, Kazuya Kato, Gérard Laumon, Akhil Mathew, Sophie Morel, Ngô Bảo Châu, Arthur Ogus, Martin Olsson, Takeshi Saito, Yunqing Tang, Michael Temkin, Yichao Tian, et Cong Xue.

The programme [with a timetable centered on TU+2] is available at the following address as well as a registration form you will have to complete to receive the connexion link:

https://server.mcm.ac.cn/~zheng/LI/

Watch the videos of the conference:

As every year, IHES was delighted to host the Statistics & Computer Science Day for Data Science at Paris-Saclay on 5 February 2021. Due to the current health context, the conference was held entirely on video-conference, via Zoom.

Organized by Thanh Mai Pham Ngoc (LMO) and Charles Soussen (L2S), the aim of this statistical and computer science day is to bring together mathematicians and computer scientists around some talks on recent results from statistics and machine learning. Various topics in machine learning, optimization, deep learning, or optimal transport will be presented.

Invited speakers were: Guillaume Charpiat (LRI), Lenaïc Chizat (LMO), Emilie Chouzenoux (CVN), Agnès Desolneux (Centre Borelli), Gaël Richard (Télécom Paris) and Gaël Varoquaux (INRIA Parietal).

Information and registration: on the conference webpage.

Announcement provided by the Maxwell Institute:

The Atiyah Lecture, to commemorate Sir Michael Atiyah (1929-2019) and delivered by a distinguished mathematician who has provided a service to the international mathematical community, is part of the series of distinguished annual lectures run by The Maxwell Institute.

First of the Maxwell Institute’s Atiyah Lectures was given on 11 January 2021 at 15.00-16.00 (GMT)

“We are privileged to have Professor Jean-Pierre Bourguignon as our inaugural Atiyah lecturer. Professor Bourguignon is a distinguished differential geometer who served as director of the IHES, president of the Société Mathématique de France, president of the European Mathematical Society, and most recently president of the European Research Council.”

The Atiyah Lecture was only held via Zoom (Meeting ID: 834 0835 9124 – Mdp: IAL).

The title “What is a Spinor?” is the title of the lecture given by Sir Michael Atiyah in September 2013 at IHES on the occasion of the farewell conference for the retirement of Professor Bourguignon as director.

 

More information:

• Web page for the lecture at The Maxwell Institute
• Web page for the lecture at the ICMS
• Title and abstract of the lecture

Watch the lecture online.

The friendship between IHES and the United States has been a privileged one since the Institute’s early days. Now more than twenty years ago, Friends of IHES was born to honor and strengthen the relationship between IHES and American scientists, partners and donors.

Such a relationship has been reinforced through regular meetings and events that normally take place throughout the year but have mostly been canceled in 2020 due to the restrictions on traveling and gatherings imposed by the current pandemic.

This year instead, Friends of IHES and IHES invited their whole network to take “A Glimpse into the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques”, an online event held in the presence of Marilyn and Jim Simons, key sponsors for IHES, Michael R. Douglas, president and chairman of Friends of IHES, and Emmanuel Ullmo, director of IHES. The event was introduced by the French Ambassador to the US, Philippe Etienne.

The event startedwith the premiere of “IHES, a Scientific Paradise Born of Franco-American Friendship”, a short movie taking the audience through some of the key milestones that have marked the history of the Institute, with a special emphasis on the relationship with the United States and the support of major donors.

Later on, Slava Rychkov, permanent professor at IHES, introduced the audience to one of the most fascinating phenomena observed throughout physics, the emergence of universality, in a talk titled “Universality in Physics”, followed by Q&A.

Watch the videos of “A Glimpse into IHES”

Watch the introduction to the event: