Permanent professor since 1989
Thibault Damour is a theoretical physicist who works on Einstein's general relativity theory, cosmology and the new gravitation concepts suggested by the unification of general relativity and quantum theory defined by string theory.
Permanent professor since 2016
Hugo Duminil-Copin is a probabilist. His work focuses on the mathematical branch of statistical physics. He uses ideas from probability theory to study the critical behavior of various models on networks, such as the Ising, Potts, the self-avoiding walks and the percolation models. These mathematical objects describe a number of physical phenomena (such as magnetization, polymers, material porosity, etc.) by reframing them through random trajectories, sets or graphs.
Permanent professor since 1995, holder of the AXA-IHES Chair for Mathematics
Maxim Kontsevich belongs to a new generation of mathematicians who have been able to integrate in their area of work aspects of quantum theory, opening up radically new perspectives.
Permanent professor since 2014 - On leave
Vasily Pestun is a theoretical physicist who works in the field of quantum field theory and string theory, researching the dynamics of strongly interacting supersymmetric gauge theories and conformal field theories in various dimensions.
Director since 2013
A mathematician, his area of research is algebraic geometry and arithmetic. He graduated from École Normale Supérieure de Cachan (class of 1985) and holds a PhD in Mathematical Sciences from Université Paris-Sud (1992).
Permanent professor since 2021
Laure Saint-Raymond’s work focuses mainly on the asymptotic analysis of systems of partial differential equations, in particular those governing the dynamics of gases, plasmas, and fluids.
Permanent professor since 2017
Slava Rychkov is a theoretical physicist developing approaches to strongly coupled quantum and conformal field theories which are not exactly solvable, with applications to high energy, statistical and condensed matter physics.
CNRS Research Director at IHES
Ahmed Abbes mainly studies geometrical and cohomological properties of sheaves on varieties on perfect fields of characteristic p>0 or on p-adic fields, designed for applications in arithmetic and algebraic geometry.
CNRS Research Director at IHES
Thierry Bodineau's work focuses on mathematical problems from statistical mechanics. He has studied, in collaboration with Bernard Derrida, stochastic processes to characterize the properties of flow in non-equilibrium systems. More recently, he has worked, with Isabelle Gallagher, Laure Saint-Raymond and Sergio Simonella, to analyze the stochastic behavior of hard sphere dynamics in the kinetic limit.
CNRS Research Director at IHES
Ofer Gabber is a mathematician who contributes to various topics in algebra and algebraic geometry, such as étale cohomology, logarithmic geometry, alterations of schemes and the theory of pseudo-reductive groups.
CNRS Research Director at IHES
Fanny Kassel studies geometric, dynamical, and spectral aspects of discrete subgroups of Lie groups. She is particularly interested in actions of discrete groups on homogeneous spaces, in relation to geometric structures on manifolds and to higher Teichmüller-Thurston theory.
CNRS Research Director at IPhT - CEA Saclay
Professor Gregory Korchemsky is on a delegation to IHES from September 2021 to September 2023.
Université de Cergy-Pontoise - IHES Chair in Analysis
Frank Merle is studying the singularities of non-linear partial differential equations. Member at Université de Cergy-Pontoise of the CNRS "Analysis, geometry and modelization" lab (UMR 8088), his research themes that arise out of hard analysis and have an important impact on mathematical physics.
CNRS Research Director, visiting IHES
Jérémie Szeftel, CNRS Research Director at the Jacques-Louis Lions Laboratory of Sorbonne University, specializes in nonlinear partial differential equations, and more particularly in the equations of general relativity and the phenomenon of finite time explosion.
IHES-Université de Lyon chair in Analysis
Cédric Villani's research focuses on the study of partial differential equations and their applications to physics, particularly to statistical physics and optimal transport theory.
Find the former CNRS/CEA research directors and associate professors
Junior Professor in Mathematics since 2022
Yilin Wang is working on topics at the interface of Complex analysis and Probability theory. Her current research focuses on themes that aim at enlightening the connections among Random conformal geometry, Geometric function theory, and Teichmüller theory.
Léon Motchane Chair holder since 1979
Emeritus College de France professor since 2017
After pioneering contributions on operator algebras, Alain Connes developed an ambitious programme aimed at founding a "noncommutative geometry".
IHES Director 1994-2013
Nicolaas Kuiper honorary professor at IHES since 2013
Jean-Pierre Bourguignon holds an engineering degree from École Polytechnique (year group 1966) and a Ph.D. in mathematical sciences from University Paris 7 (1974). His field of predilection is differential geometry, particularly in its relations with partial differential equations and mathematical physics.
Permanent professor 1964-2000
Emeritus professor since 2000
David Ruelle has proved a structure theorem about a class of polynomials which appear in the well-known Circle Theorem of Lee and Yang. Otherwise, he has worked mainly on the problem of linear response in differentiable dynamics, and its applications to nonequilibrium statistical mechanics.
CNRS Research Director at IHES (1986-2016)
Emeritus CNRS professor since 2017
Christophe Soulé studies Arakelov theory of arithmetic surfaces.
Permanent professor 1982-2015
Emeritus professor since 2015
Mikhail Gromov has totally reshaped geometry, by showing how important it was to take into account systematically and in their entirety objects less regular than those normally considered by geometers.
Permanent professor at IHES from 1985 to 1995
Jean Bourgain was awarded the Fields Medal in 1994. He mainly worked on ergodic theory and partial differential equations. After leaving IHES, he held a position at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, until his death in 2018. Jean Bourgain was elected foreign associate of the French Academy of Sciences in April 2000 and in 2016 he was awarded the Antonio Feltinelli prize by the Italian Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei.
Permanent professor at IHES from 1970 to 1984
Pierre Deligne continued the work on algebraic geometry initiated by Alexander Grothendieck. A deep understanding of the role cohomology theories play in the study of algebraic varieties is due to him.
Permanent professor at IHES between 1958 and 1964
Jean Dieudonné was a specialist in group theory, topology and functional analysis. He was the great “scribe” of French mathematics, writing the works of Bourbaki and Grothendieck.
Permanent professor at IHES from 1978 to 1982
Jürg Fröhlich works on quantum field theory (including axiomatic quantum field theory, conformal field theory, and topological quantum field theory), on the precise mathematical treatment of models of statistical mechanics, on theories of phase transition, on the fractional quantum Hall effect, and on non-commutative geometry.
Permanent professor at IHES from 1958 to 1970
Alexander Grothendieck set the framework for modern algebraic geometry, which is now universally adopted. His work was further amplified by Pierre Deligne, originally his disciple, who was recruited to IHES at the age of 26 and is now established at the Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS) in Princeton. Thanks to these new tools, it was possible to bring algebraic geometry and number theory together in a decisive way. He wrote the first four chapters of the famous “Éléments de Géométrie Algébrique” with Jean Dieudonné from 1960 to 1967.
Permanent professor from 2000 to 2021
Laurent Lafforgue became a mathematician mainly through the study of the new algebraic functorial geometry that Alexander Grothendieck created at the end of the 1950s and that he developed at IHES with his collaborators and students.
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.
Permanent professor at IHES between 1962 and 1992
Louis Michel worked on the symmetry of the laws of nature, on particle theory, and on the unification of fundamental interactions. Louis Michel was, like Eugene Wigner, one of the great promoters of the use of group theory in physics, both in the theory of elementary particles and in crystallography.
Founder of IHES
IHES Director from 1958 to 1971
Léon Motchane was born in Russia in 1900. He studied in Lausanne, Switzerland, before becoming a physician assistant in a laboratory. He arrived in France in 1924 and left the academic world for the business world. Fascinated by mathematics and physics, Léon Motchane continued his education in mathematics at the age of 54 and obtained his thesis under the supervision of Gustave Choquet.
Permanent professor at IHES from 2000 to 2013
Nikita Nekrasov received his PhD from Princeton University in 1996. A physicist, he is best known for his works at the interface of gauge theories and string theory and on modern mathematical physics, thus enriching all these areas of research.
Permanent professor at IHES from 1974 to 1997
Dennis Sullivan, an American mathematician, split his research activities between the US and France for years. A topologist, specialised in dynamics, he had a rare gift for promoting exchanges among researchers and motivating them to reach new heights in their thinking.
Permanent professor at IHES from 1963 to 1990
René Thom covered a huge area of science: starting from topology, the field of mathematics that looks at forms and deformations, he created the “mathematics of morphogenesis”, putting forward models for biology and human sciences.
The Institute offers outstanding scientists a place where they can focus exclusively on their research
200 mathematicians and physicists from all over the world invited each year
Throughout the year, IHES organises many events open to all
IHES visitors are selected by the Scientific Council every year in June and December
Find many references in the library, Publications Mathématiques and preprints online catalogs
Each donation to IHES counts and helps to advance research
