Launch of the collaboration between the Xuemin Institute of Advanced Studies, Fudan University and IHES

On 24 June 2026, IHES welcomed a scientific delegation from the Xuemin Institute of Advanced Studies (Xuemin IAS) at Fudan University, from Shanghai, China. The visit marked the official launch of a collaboration between the two institutions and an opportunity to strengthen their scientific dialogue within the framework of a new program, “Xuemin Rising Stars Program”.

The day opened with scientific presentations delivered by three scholars from the delegation:

Élie Aïdékon, Professor at the School of Mathematical Sciences at Fudan University, gave a talk entitled Three Perspectives on Brownian Motion, focusing on the geometric and stochastic structures associated with Brownian motion.

Chris Brav, Professor at the Shanghai Institute for Mathematics and Interdisciplinary Sciences (SIMIS), presented Noncommutative Geometry at Infinity. His work offers a unified construction of the boundary at infinity, compatible with both rigid analytic approaches and noncommutative geometry through DG categories. It is carried out in collaboration with Yuan Gao and Yingdi Qin.

Satoshi Nawata, Associate Professor in the Department of Physics at Fudan University, shared his research on Mysterious Relations between the Geometry of Hitchin Moduli Spaces and VOA Modules from 4d N=2 Theories, exploring the connections between the representation theory of vertex operator algebras and the geometry of Hitchin moduli spaces.

IHES permanent professors, scientific visitors and young researchers attended the presentations and took part in the discussions that followed – exchanges intended to lay the groundwork for a lasting collaboration.

Following the presentations, IHES and the Xuemin Institute of Advanced Studies signed a Memorandum of Understanding. This collaboration agreement was signed by Emmanuel Ullmo, Director of IHES, and Xiahong Helena Yang, Executive Dean of Xuemin IAS. The partnership formalizes and sustains scientific exchanges between the two institutions.