Oscar E. Lanford III, Physicist

Permanent professor at IHES from 1982 to 1989

Oscar E. Lanford III was a professor at the University of Berkeley before joining IHES. He studied how - irreversible - macroscopic evolutions can be deduced from certain - reversible - microscopic models.

At IHES, Oscar E. Lanford III focused on work in dynamical systems theory, including the application of ideas from renormalization group theory to dynamical systems. He was also interested in demonstrations assisted by computer and was in charge of the first computer facilities at IHES.

Oscar E. Lanford III always kept close ties with the Institute. He even acted as interim Director for the Institute from 2007 to 2011, during the research trips abroad of the former Director, Jean-Pierre Bourguignon.

Oscar E. Lanford III passed away on November 16, 2013. He had wished to donate an apartment to the Institute: “a way of giving something back in return for the many opportunities that had been offered to him over the years,” explained his wife and daughter.

IHES wanted to honor Oscar by naming the Director’s science office after him, in perpetuity.

Read Arthur Jaffe’s tribute to Oscar E. Lanford III here.

All professors