On December 16^th, 2020, Prof. Robert Penner, René Thom Chair at IHES, will host the conference SciTech Central COVID-19, the 11^th International Virtual Seminar on COVID-19 Part II. It will be a one-day seminar featuring academics, researchers, scientists, students, faculty members, healthcare executives, and doctors who will share their perspective and reflections on the impact of COVID-19 on our lives. The topics discussed will range from treatment and healthcare to the economic repercussions of the pandemic.

 

Robert Penner’s welcome message to the conference:

“With the advent of mRNA vaccines for covid, we have entered a new age of antiviral technology, and it comes not a moment too soon. In its impact on human health and society as a consequence, I believe this will be as profound for our species as was the development of antibiotics. Let us hope this quickly and resolutely is a turning point in our fight against covid and more generally against the countless other viral diseases which threaten humanity. These aspects of vaccinology are among the many timely topics across the health sciences, biomedicine, and social repercussions of covid to be presented in this SciTech Central COVID-19 Virtual Conference.”

Visit the conference webpage, to learn more and register

Learn more about the 11^th International Virtual Seminar on COVID-19 Part II

Watch Robert Penner’s talk premier:

——–  IMPORTANT INFORMATION  ——–

Due to the evolution of the health situation related to the Coronavirus epidemic, the conference was finally given totally online. Find below the videos of the conference.

 

A conference on “Algebraic Structures in Perturbative Quantum Field Theory” was organized by Erik Panzer (University of Oxford) and Karen Yeats (University of Waterloo) at IHES. Organized in honor of the 60th birthday of Dirk Kreimer, the conference was held from 16 to 20 November 2020 online via Zoom.

Perturbative Quantum Field Theory

Perturbative quantum field theory is essential for precision calculations of observables measured in experiments like the LHC, and therefore it is crucial for our understanding of the physics of the universe. At the same time, it is an extremely rich source of connections to a wide range of active research areas in mathematics. For example, Feynman integrals give rise to interesting motives and periods in algebraic geometry, their renormalization rests on combinatorial Hopf algebras underlying Feynman graphs, and further relations to noncommutative geometry and the moduli space of tropical curves and outer space have also been discovered.

Besides, this growing program keeps expanding in both breadth and depth, and exciting young researchers are entering the field. Now is an opportune time to bring together scientists working on all related aspects, to review old and new connections, and to advance the state of the art. Lectures by established scientists will be accompanied by talks from young researchers, including a session dedicated to present and discuss open problems.

Dirk Kreimer, specialist of perturbative quantum field theory

Close collaborations between mathematicians and physicists have been absolutely key for this kind of research, and many were initiated by Dirk Kreimer. Throughout his career, he made substantial contributions across these topics and led students and collaborators to the profound mathematical structures in perturbative quantum field theory that we are aware of today. Dirk Kreimer spent a particularly productive time at the IHES, and it is an honor that this workshop takes place in its inspiring and interdisciplinary environment.

Invited speakers at the Algebraic Structures Conference are:

• Ali Assem Mahmoud (University of Waterloo),
• Marc Bellon (LPTHE – Sorbonne Université),
• Marko Berghoff (Humboldt-Universität),
• Spencer Bloch (University of Chicago), 
• Johannes Blümlein (DESY Zeuthen), 
• Michael Borinsky (Nikhef),
• David Broadhurst (The Open University), 
• Francis Brown (University of Oxford),
• Yvain Bruned (University of Edinburgh),
• Alain Connes (IHES & Collège de France),
• Andrei Davydychev (Moscow State University),
• Gérald Dunne (University of Connecticut),
• Kurusch Ebrahimi-Fard (NTNU Trondheim), 
• Loïc Foissy (Université du Littoral Côte d’Opale),
• Hadleigh Frost (University of Oxford),
• John Gracey (University of Liverpool), 
• Martin Hairer (Imperial College London),
• Alexander Hock (Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster),
• Ralph Kaufmann (Purdue University), 
• Thomas Krajewski (CPT Aix-Marseille), 
• Dominique Manchon (CNRS & Université Clermont-Auvergne),
• Lukas NABERGALL (University of Waterloo),
• Sylvie Paycha (Institut für Mathematik Potsdam),
• Olivier Schnetz (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg), 
• Christian Schubert (Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolas de Hidalgo),
• Matt Szczesny (Boston University), 
• Walter van Suijlekom (Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen), 
• Karen Vogtmann (University of Warwick),
• Raimar Wulkenhaar (Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster).

For more information, please visit the conference webpage.

IHES and the organisers of the Beijing-Paris-Tokyo Arithmetic Geometry Seminar stand in solidarity with their black colleagues as well as all discriminated communities in the USA and around the world, in the fight against the plague of systemic racism.

In response to the call launched by #ShutDownAcademia, #ShutDownStem and #Strike4BlackLives movements, and with the agreement of the speaker, Christophe Breuil’s lecture has been moved from Wednesday June 10 to Wednesday June 17 at 10:30 am (Paris).

The lecture will be given by webinar. If you have not yet registered, you can do so by filling in the form here before June 16.

The abstract of the lecture is available here:

http://www.ihes.fr/~abbes/SGA/breuil.html

From February 10 to 14, 2020, the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques hosted the conference “Integrability, Anomalies and Quantum Field Theory“. Organised by Anton Alekseev (University of Geneva) and Maxim Kontsevich (IHES), this conference honoured Professor Samson Shatashvili on his 60^th birthday.

The interactions of Mathematics and Physics have greatly intensified during the last three decades, and it led to a number of very significant breakthroughs in Mathematics. Among other things, these breakthroughs include new invariants of 3 and 4-dimensional manifolds, the discovery of mirror symmetry in Algebraic Geometry, and the theory of deformation quantization.
This progress became possible due to close interactions between Mathematics and theoretical Physics and due to the dialogue between mathematicians and physicists working on similar problems but using very different methods.

The conference touched upon two important aspects of interaction between Mathematics and Quantum Field Theory.

Quantum Integrability is a very interesting theory which was first discovered on the Physics side. It was soon realized that it is related to Algebra through the theory of Vertex Operator Algebras (VOA) and to Complex Analysis (through the study of various Riemann-Hilbert problems). The problem of Bethe Ansatz completeness became an important mathematical problem and a driving force in Combinatorics and Representation Theory. Recently, relations between quantum integrability and Geometric Representation Theory (on the Mathematics side) and Quantum Gauge Theory (on the Physics side) attracted a lot of attention of the research community. These links will be one of the major topics of the conference.

Anomalies were discovered in Physics as the phenomenon when symmetry of a system changes under quantization. Famously, it occurs in gauge theories and in string theory, and it serves as one of the key criteria for choosing realistic models of field theory. Anomalies also became one of the important topics in Mathematics. They are related to the behaviour of determinant bundles of Dirac operators on manifolds, to the index theory and to K-theory. In many cases, anomalies represent the part of Quantum Field Theory which can be defined and computed mathematically. Anomalies will be one of the key topics of the meeting.

Professor Samson Shatashvili made deep contributions in the theory of anomalies and in quantum integrability. In particular, in collaboration with Ludwig Faddeev he discovered the interpretation of gauge theory anomalies in terms of abelian extensions of gauge groups on manifolds of odd dimension. In the theory of quantum integrability, together with a number of collaborators he discovered a deep link between Bethe equations and supersymmetric quantum gauge theory.
Professor at the Trinity College, Dublin and at the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics, Stony Brook, he served as a Louis Michel Chair and then as an Israel Gelfand Chair at IHES. He contributed in a significant way in the development of ideas and in the unique research atmosphere of IHES.

Invited speakers were:
Costas Bachas (ENS-Paris), Jean-Michel Bismut (Université Paris-Sud Orsay), Gregory Gabadadze (New York University), Sergei Gukov (Caltech), Simeon Hellerman (IPMU), Chris Hull (Imperial College London), Vladimir Kazakov (ENS-Paris), Zohar Komargodski (SCGP), Vladimir Korepin (Stony Brook University), Manuela Kulaxizi (Trinity College Dublin), Sergei Lukyanov (Rutgers University), Ruben Minasian (IPhT & CEA Saclay), Vasily Pestun (IHES), Alexey Rosly (ITEP, Skoltech, HSE, IITP, Moscow), Sinead Ryan (Trinity College Dublin), Ivo Sachs (LMU Munich), Nana Shatashvili (Tbilisi State University, Georgia), Fedor Smirnov (LPTHE Sorbonne-Université), Leon Takhtajan (Stony Brook University), Anne Taormina (Durham University), Cumrun Vafa (Harvard University), Pierre Vanhove (IPhT & CEA Saclay), Erik Verlinde (Universiteit van Amsterdam), Alexander Zamolodchikov (Stony Brook University).

Programme and registration on the conference web page.

Video playlist of the conference:

To mark the beginning of a new academic year, the Fondation Mathématique Jacques Hadamard (FMJH) organises a 3-day start of the year for M1 and M2 students of the Mathematical and Applications Master’s degree at Université Paris-Saclay.

From September 4 to 6, students gather at IHES to interact and discuss around lectures, mini-courses and informal discussions, This is also an opportunity for them to get an overview of the IHES’ research activity.

Institutions participating in this 3-day event are: Paris-Sud University, École polytechnique, University of Versailles St. Quentin, ENS Paris-Saclay, Évry-Val-d’Essonne University, ENSTA and CentraleSupélec.

As one of the temples of mathematics, IHES is happy to welcome the FMJH for the 9th time on this occasion.

Find the programme of these days and register on the FMJH website.

The 2019 Friends of IHES gala will be held on November 5 at the Harvard Club of New York City and it promises to be a memorable evening!

The theme of this edition will be Game Theory: the Science of Strategy. Based in mathematics, Game Theory helps us understand the strategic reasoning at play in competition, and gives us the tools and language to analyze different paths and examine multiple solutions.

Honored guest speaker Constantinos Daskalakis, professor at MIT and the recipient of the 2018 Rolf Nevanlinna Prize, among many other awards, will guide us through the intricacies of this topic.

Sylvia Nasar will serve as Master of Ceremonies. She is the author of A Beautiful Mind the now-classic biography of mathematician and Nobel laureate John Nash that inspired the Academy-Award winning movie and became a global bestseller. Additionally, she was an economics correspondent at the New York Times and is the John S. and James L. Knight Professor Emerita at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

2019 marks the 20th anniversary of Friends of IHES, and  this gala will be an occasion to celebrate this milestone together. Game Theory: the Science of Strategy promises to be an exceptional evening of entertainment and learning with friends, old and new.

Friends of IHES and IHES are profoundly grateful to the gala main benefactors, for their generous support of the Institute’s mission. In particular, premier sponsor BNP Paribas and Gala Chairs Florence & David Faucon and Barbara Amonson & Vincent Della Pietra.

Please reserve your seat today.

Each year in the Spring and for a selection in June, IHES is calling for proposals for future Summer Schools to be held over two weeks. Their theme may relate to any topic in mathematics or theoretical physics.

Held yearly in July, these Summer Schools are designed to provide a hundred young researchers with an overview of recent developments in key subjects of mathematics and theoretical physics.

To learn more about this call for proposals and to submit your projects, visit the call for proposals webpage.

Alain Valette, born on 24 December 1958, obtained his thesis in December 1983, entitled “K-theory for certain C*-algebras associated with Lie groups” under the co-directorship of Lucien Waelbroeck and Alain Connes. He has been a professor at the University of Neuchâtel since June 1988. His mathematical contributions are numerous and have a very broad spectrum, including operator algebras, graph theory and group geometry. The books he has written with several co-authors, for example on the Kazhdan property (T), the expansion graphs or the Baum-Connes conjecture, are works of reference that have been crucial in the modern development of these subjects.

The conference, organized by Indira Chatterji (Univ. Nice Sophia-Antipolis), Yves de Cornulier (Univ. Lyon 1), Soyoung Moon (Univ. de Bourgogne, Dijon), Yves Stalder (Univ. Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand) and Romain Tessera (Univ. Paris-Sud 11), will be held at IHES on 17 and 18 December 2018. The list of speakers includes: Goulnara ARZHANTSEVA (University of Vienna), Bachir BEKKA (University of Rennes 1), Pierre-Emmanuel CAPRACE (Université catholique de Louvain), Alain CONNES (Collège de France & IHES), Ana KHUKHRO (University of Cambridge), Georges SKANDALIS (IMJ-PRG), Stefaan VAES (KU Leuven) and Karen VOGTMANN (University of Warwick).

Registration is free but compulsory

Programme

Poster

The last event of IHES 60th Anniversary program took place on November 16. Presided by the Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, Frédérique Vidal, the ceremony gathered many officials, scientists and supporters, who were there to express their commitment to the Institute.

In his speech, Emmanuel Ullmo honoured the visionary spirit of the founder, Léon Motchane, and the work of previous directors, Nicolaas Kuiper, Marcel Berger and Jean-Pierre Bourguignon. The Director presented his vision for the IHES and officially launched the Institute’s 3rd fundraising campaign. Live from his new-york Foundation, Jim Simons, Board Director of the IHES, reiterated his trust and support for the Institute’s scientific development. Marwan Lahoud, Chairman of the IHES Board of Directors, then thanked the Institute’s partners and expressed his satisfaction at contributing to the new campaign with his wife. Finally, the Minister praised the excellence of the IHES, emphasizing its ability to take risks: “The IHES does not recruit Fields medals,” she recalled, “it incubates them.”

Frédérique Vidal then inaugurated the Alix and Marwan Lahoud building. Launched in 2018, the construction of an annex to the science building had become necessary to handle the increasing activity, and to host in particular post-doctoral fellows. The Institute has chosen to name the new building “Alix and Marwan Lahoud” to express the deep bond between the IHES and its Chairman and to thank the Lahouds for their extraordinary generosity. The visit to this new research facility revealed the Grothendieck statue made by the artist Nina Douglas and donated by the Simons to the IHES.

“Savant Mélange, an event celebrating scientific research”, was held on October 16 at the Grand amphithéâtre de la Sorbonne.

As part of the celebrations for its 60th anniversary, IHES organized a free and open event, an opportunity for great scientists and science enthusiasts to share their enthusiasm for research with a wide audience.

Nearly 800 people attended the event hosted by Mathieu Vidard, decipherer of the most complex sciences, and which brought together such passionate and visionary personalities as Cédric Villani, mathematician and MP, Thibault Damour, physicist specialised in gravitational waves, Claire Voisin, mathematician and professor at Collège de France and Bruce Benamran, a youtuber whose vocation in to make complex scientific concepts understandable by the widest audience. Through a series of short and varied interventions, they shared their discoveries, their backgrounds and their passion for scientific research.

Throughout the evening, the public was able to propose questions on social networks, that Mathieu Vidard asked the speakers on stage. This gave Cédric Villani the opportunity to give us his point of view on whether one can be a self-taught mathematician and Claire Voisin was able to give her advice to young scientists to “start very broad and very ambitious” and explain to us why she chose algebraic geometry as a research subject.

Noting the presence of young people in the audience, Emmanuel Ullmo, Director of IHES, commented: “So many students willing to come here to hear us talk about science, it’s encouraging! ». Indeed, nearly 300 students from the academies of Versailles, Paris, Orléans were present, as well as a group of high school students who are members of the “Science Ouverte” association.

The evening was broadcast live and is now available in its entirety on our Youtube channel, but you can also watch the speeches separately.

Find all the best tweets from Savant Mélange.

IHES sincerely thanks BNP Paribas, UNESCO and the Mairie de Paris, who made this event possible.

 

Partners:

On Monday 22th January, 2018, IHES will host the 8th Itzykson Seminar, titled “Parafermionic observables and 2D statistical physics”.

The program includes three lectures. The morning will be dedicated to an introduction to the topic of parafermionic variables given by Hugo Duminil-Copin (IHES). In the afternoon Denis Bernard (ENS Paris) will present an introduction to different parafermionic variables and fields in statistical physics. Dmitry Chelkak (ENS Paris & PDMI, St. Petersburg) will apply these concepts to the 2D Ising model.

The detailed program of the conference is available here.
Watch the videos on our youtube channel.

Since 2012 the Itzykson seminars have been organized by Nicolas Curien, Thibault Damour, Maxim Kontsevich, Kirone Mallick, Stéphane Nonnenmacher and Pierre Vanhove within the context of the Labex Mathématiques Hadamard (LMH).

Participation is free but registration is compulsory. A buffet lunch will be offered and young researchers can ask LMH for their travel expenses to be reimbursed.

For more information: Itzykson Seminar – LMH

On December 6 – 9, IHES will host the conference “Riemannian Geometry: Past, Present and Future: an homage to Marcel Berger”.

Organised by Pierre Bérard (Université Grenoble Alpes), Gérard Besson (CNRS & Université Grenoble Alpes) and Pierre Pansu (Université Paris-Sud), three of his former students, the conference will constitute a special tribute to Marcel Berger, a differential geometer and the IHES director between 1985 and 1993.

Marcel Berger’s contributions to mathematics are important and diverse. His thesis permitted the classification of holonomy groups of Riemannian, non-locally symmetric manifolds, that had an important impact during the 1990s on theoretical physics. He is also to be credited for the ¼ pinching sphere theorem.

But his contributions to mathematics go far beyond his research results: he also inspired the several young mathematicians who had the chance to be among his students and, through his books, he helped clarify some key concepts in differential geometry. The seminars on Riemannian geometry that he organized during the 1970s and 1980s at Paris VII were an important occasion for informal exchanges between more experienced and young researchers. He had a fundamental influence on the round tables organized by his friend Arthur L. Besse

Taking place over four days, the conference will gather some of the most important personalities in Riemannian geometry and it will also be an occasion to define its current state of the art and to think of its possible future developments.

Registration is free but compulsory.

Click here for more information.