Les Amis de l'IHES - IHES

Les Amis de l’IHES

Les Amis de l’IHES helps to promote the cutting edge research carried out at IHES as widely as possible. They organize conferences aimed at a broad audience, to introduce current research projects and organize cultural events of a scientific nature.

Les Amis de l’IHES is an association which was created on 8 October 1998 to coincide with the Institute’s 40th anniversary celebrations. Louis Michel was Chairman until he passed away on 30 December 1999; he was succeeded by Marcel Berger, former IHES Director, by Jean-Marc Deshouillers, professor at the University Victor Segalen Bordeaux 2 and by Valentin Poénaru, former professor at the Paris-Sud University (Orsay) from 2009 until  2022. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, former IHES Director, was appointed President on 31 May 2022.


Conference by Elaine Chew on April 16, 5:30 pm

New event organized by Les Amis de l'IHES with Elaine Chew on Thursday April 16, 2026 at 5:30 pm in the Marilyn and James Simons Conference Centre and on Zoom.

New event organized by Les Amis de l’IHES on Thursday April 16, 2026 at 5:30 pm (French Time) at IHES

Elaine Chew (pianist and researcher at King’s College London) will give a conference in English  (in simultaneous translation) and in hybrid format, entitled:

“Music of the Heart: Analogies and what they mean for heart health”

Our hearts sustain life. The muscles of the heart relax and contract 100,000 times a day, 3 billion times in a typical lifetime, to pump blood throughout the body. Heart disease is responsible for 1/3 of deaths worldwide. Music is an expression of life, relying upon fundamental physiological analogies to heartbeats and breathing to both mimic and evoke bodily experiences.

What can music tell us about heart disease? How can it be used precisely in medical interventions?

In this lecture, we shall explore the analogic connections between music and heartbeats (including abnormal ones) and the opportunities they present for music-based cardiovascular diagnostics and therapeutics, i.e. music heart theranostics.

This lecture will be accompanied by performances of piano music made from cardiac arrhythmias and real-time visualisations of music’s impact on heartbeats and breathing.

Register here.

Contact : Ingrid Peeters

The IHES video channel

Since 2013, IHES has uploaded all of its conferences, lectures and public events onto its YouTube channel. View all the scientific events there.