Gérard Ben Arous, mathematician
Alexzandria Figueroa and Robert Penner Chair since 2023
Gérard Ben Arous is a professor of mathematics at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University and a specialist in probability theory and its applications.
Gérard Ben Arous is particularly interested in the connections between probability and statistical physics, statistics, data science, industrial applications as well as other domains of mathematics, mainly analysis and differential geometry.
Gérard Ben Arous studied at the École normale supérieure in Paris and received his master’s degree and his Ph.D. from the University of Paris 7, under the supervision of Robert Azencott. After several positions at the École normale supérieure, at the Orsay University and at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (where he founded the Bernoulli Center), he joined the Courant Institute in New York in 2002. He has been its director from 2011 to 2016. He then helped build the Sciences at NYU-Shanghai, before coming back to Courant Institute in New York as a Silver Professor of Mathematics in 2020.
Today, Gérard Ben Arous’ research focuses mainly on the time evolution of complex systems, and the universal aspects of their long-time behavior and of their slow relaxation to equilibrium, in particular how complexity and disorder imply aging.
Rollo Davison prize, Imperial College (1993)
Montyon prize of the French Academy of Sciences (1996)
Lady Davis Senior Fellow, Israel (2000)
Member of the International Statistical Institute (2004)
Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (2011)
Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2015)
Chevalier de l’ordre des Palmes Académiques (2017)
Member of the National Academy of Sciences (2020)
