Dinner Celebrating 30 Years of Scientific Cooperation Between IHES and NYU

On Tuesday, October 27, 2026, Friends of IHES brought together its friends and supporters for a dinner at the Rosenthal Pavilion at New York University to celebrate 30 years of scientific cooperation between IHES and NYU, in the presence of Linda Mills, President of NYU, and Marilyn Simons, Chair of Friends of IHES.

Misha Gromov and Hong Wang: Two Outstanding Mathematicians

The evening honored two outstanding mathematicians who spend their time between IHES and NYU’s Courant Institute.

Misha Gromov, Emeritus Permanent Professor at IHES, has held the position of Jay Gould Professor of Mathematics at NYU’s Courant Institute since 1996. He was awarded the Abel Prize in 2009 for his groundbreaking contributions to geometry.

Misha Gromov profoundly transformed the field by systematically incorporating objects with less regularity than those traditionally studied. This led him to unexpected results on how curvature controls geometry. His work also gave rise to new geometric invariants, such as Gromov–Witten invariants, which have since been widely adopted by theoretical physicists.

Hong Wang, a mathematician specializing in harmonic analysis, has been a Permanent Professor at IHES since September 2025. She also holds a position at NYU, where she is Silver Professor of Mathematics. In July 2026, she was awarded the Fields Medal, notably for her joint resolution of the three-dimensional Kakeya conjecture with Joshua Zahl. Her doctoral thesis drew on methods developed by Jean Bourgain, who was a Permanent Professor at IHES from 1985 to 1993. At both the Courant Institute and IHES, she regularly exchanges ideas with Misha Gromov, whose mathematical work she admires.

Strong Ties Between the Two Institutions

Beyond these two distinguished careers, numerous researchers contribute to the close relationship between NYU and IHES. Yuri Tschinkel, Professor at NYU and Executive Vice President at the Simons Foundation, has served on the IHES Board of Directors since 2024. Three other mathematicians from the Courant Institute are regular visitors to IHES: Gérard Ben Arous, Silver Professor of Mathematics and former Director of the Courant Institute; Sylvia Serfaty, Silver Professor of Mathematics at NYU; and Scott Armstrong, Professor of Mathematics at NYU.

In addition, Frank Merle, holder of the Chair in Analysis at IHES, previously served as an Assistant Professor at the Courant Institute. In this video, he reflects on his time at NYU and his encounter with Jean Bourgain.

An Evening Celebrating Franco-American Friendship

Moderated by Siobhan Roberts, journalist, author, and Executive Editor of the Notices of the American Mathematical Society, the evening gave guests a deeper understanding of the work of Misha Gromov and Hong Wang through presentations by Bruce Kleiner, Silver Professor of Mathematics at NYU, and Christopher Sogge, J.J. Sylvester Professor at Johns Hopkins University.

The event brought together numerous distinguished guests, including:

• Cédrik Fouriscot, Consul General of France in New York;
• Linda Mills, President of NYU;
• Marilyn Simons, Chair of Friends of IHES;
• Emmanuel Ullmo, Director of IHES;
• Atlas Wang, Research Director at XTX Markets.

Establishment of a Friends of IHES Postdoctoral Fellowship at IHES

The evening led to the establishment of a new Friends of IHES Postdoctoral Fellowship at IHES.

IHES and Friends of IHES extend their warmest thanks to XTX Markets for sponsoring the event; NYU’s Office of Global Science and Technology and the Courant Institute School of Mathematics, Computing, and Data Science for hosting the celebration; and all the guests who contributed to the fundraising appeal.