IHES
Publication of the 2019 activity report
A word from the Chairman
Nearly 20 years ago, I walked through the gates of Bois-Marie for the first time. From that day onwards, my interest in this institution and my admiration for it have grown steadily: interest in the work of passionate and exciting researchers, and admiration in particular for the aptitude IHES shows in forging solid and ever-renewed ties within a very large ecosystem.
The loyalty that researchers, visitors, academic partners, staff members, donors and friends demonstrate towards the Institute is the key to the steady and sustained development of IHES. There were many proofs of this loyalty in 2019.
BNP Paribas, through its Chief Executive Officer Jean-Laurent Bonnafé, has been supporting IHES since 2015. This precious commitment has been renewed through a major donation to the Director’s Chair, thus ensuring the continuity of a position that is essential to the smooth administrative and scientific operations at the Institute.
Huawei Technologies France are also committed to supporting fundamental research over the long term and to confirming its ties with IHES. This commitment led to a large donation which created the Huawei Chair in Algebraic Geometry. Huawei has supported the Institute since 2012.
A substantial donation marks the resumption of strong scientific relations between the Institute and IBM, which was one of the first founding members of IHES. We look forward to the close collaborations that will arise out of this partnership.Naturally, it is also thanks to the donations of our dozens of regular donors that we are able to manage the daily lives of researchers and staff more smoothly.
Our ties with our donors and friends accross the Atlantic Ocean are old ties and they grow stronger year after year. We now hold two events in the United States: in addition to a gala every other year, we host a breakfast event for about twenty science enthusiasts. The creation of a fund capitalised in the United States is a perfect symbol of our donors’ desire to provide long-term support, which we are determined to grow through our current campaign IHES, à l’avant-garde de la science.
I would like to pay tribute to the remarkable work and strong engagement from the members of Friends of IHES and from its president, Michael R. Douglas. It only remains for me to share my pride in being involved with an institution that is making a formidable success of a long-term gamble – a gamble that allows the most decisive scientific discoveries to mature, and a gamble that cements scientific and human relations for the greater success of our Institute.
Marwan Lahoud
President of IHES
