Press release – 17 April 2023

Dustin Clausen is joining the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques (IHES) as a permanent professor in mathematics starting on April 17, 2023.

He did his undergraduate studies at Harvard university, and obtained his PhD in 2013 from MIT, working on Arithmetic Duality in Algebraic K-theory, under the supervision of Jacob Lurie. He then spent five years as a postdoc in Copenhagen, followed by two years in Bonn, first as a postdoc at the University of Bonn, and then as a research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics. He moved back to Denmark in 2020 to work as an associate professor at the University of Copenhagen.

His research interests are in algebraic K-theory, finding connections between number theory and homotopy theory.

During the past few years, Dustin Clausen has worked in collaboration with mathematician and Fields medalist Peter Scholze, on developing an important new, general theory of analytic geometry, combining algebra and topology, which they called Condensed mathematics. One of the first projects that Dustin Clausen will be working on once he arrives at the Institute will be to write up their latest results. He explains: “I feel very privileged to be joining IHES.  I believe that its quiet and calm environment will give me an excellent setting to carry on my research and do some much-needed writing.”

As part of his role as a professor at the University of Copenhagen, he has also enjoyed teaching and will consider giving lectures during his time at the Institute. “Students are a wonderful distraction to me and I love the fact that at IHES, I will be free to choose to teach if I want to.”

It is during the months that Clausen spent in France as a junior year high school student, that his passion for mathematics blossomed. “I discovered a different way of approaching math, one in which we were not only asked to solve problems but also to develop full proofs starting from axioms. It was more challenging, and I really enjoyed it.” By joining IHES, he is also coming back to where his interest for mathematics started.

Emmanuel Ullmo, Director of IHES, says: “We are very happy to welcome Dustin as a permanent professor at IHES. His talent as a mathematician will make him an invaluable member of our group of permanent professors and the Institute will benefit tremendously from his presence.”

Every year, four regional educational inspectors from the Académie de Versailles organize a visit to the IHES for high school students. The Institute is delighted to introduce these young students to the world of research.

On Saturday April 15, IHES welcomed 101 students, including over 60 girls, from high schools throughout the Académie de Versailles. Six regional educational inspectors were also on hand to supervise the event.

In small groups, the students were given a guided tour of the Institute by members of staff, including a presentation of the facilities and the mathematical sculpture, Skolem, Lump Bumps and Windy Figures. Participants then gathered in the amphitheatre of the Marilyn and James Simons Conference Centre, where they were welcomed by Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, former Director of IHES and currently Honorary Professor and holder of the Nicolaas Kuiper Chair.

Following this introduction, Benoit Sirois, physicist and doctoral student at IHES, presented his research on “Phase transitions and conformal bootsrap”, while Veronica Fantini, mathematician and post-doctoral student at IHES, answered the question “Why are there hurricanes on Earth?”. Following these presentations, there were many questions about the points presented, the speakers’ backgrounds, and the profession of researcher.

Press release – 13 April 2023

The Agilent Technologies Foundation has made a €100,000 gift to Friends of IHES supporting women scientists who come to IHES as part of its general visiting program. The gift contributes to the Friends of IHES endowment fund and its proceeds will fund the visits of women researchers. The gift will thus promote gender diversity among visiting researchers at IHES.

Every year IHES welcomes about 200 researchers as part of its general visiting program, which is central to the Institute’s scientific activity. These extraordinary researchers are selected by the Scientific Council and come to the Institute from across the world in order to benefit from its calm and quiet environment and from the possibility to interact with some of the best researchers in their field.

Only about ten percent of applications to the Institute’s visiting program come from women and in order to bridge this gender gap, IHES has been implementing a series of initiatives that aim to promote diversity and inclusion at IHES.

Agilent Technologies and its Foundation are committed to promoting diversity and inclusion, particularly across the science and technology sectors. Their €100,000 gift to the Friends of IHES endowment fund, whose proceeds will finance the visits of women scientists at IHES, intends to help the Institute increase the proportion of applications to its general visiting program made by women researchers. IHES expect that this will result in an increased proportion of women researchers visiting the Institute.

“Agilent is proud to support IHES, an organization that is not only successful in nurturing the advancement of knowledge, but also a force for supporting female mathematicians and theoretical physicists,” said Darlene Solomon, Agilent’s chief technology officer. “These disciplines are foundational to our multidisciplinary research advancements in the life sciences, diagnostics and applied chemical markets.”

The gift will be matched by the Simons Foundation International as part of their $10M matching pledge that is helping launch the endowment fund. Marilyn and James Simons, co-Chairs of Friends of IHES, said: “We are delighted to see that corporate sponsors in the USA are committed to diversity and inclusion and willing to promote diversity initiatives also in basic sciences.”

Emmanuel Ullmo, director of IHES, commented: “Women are an incredible resource to the advancement of science and it is essential that they are more represented across all STEM disciplines, including at IHES. It is wonderful that the Institute can count on sponsors such as Agilent Technologies. With their support we can move a step closer to making science more inclusive.”

On March 30^th, 2023, IHES representatives, taking advantage of their stay in California, visited the headquarters of Agilent Technologies in Santa Clara. Emmanuel Ullmo, director of IHES, Claire Lenz, director of development and communications as well as Kristina Lutsik, deputy director of development and communications, along with Jim and Marilyn Simons, Co-Chairs of the Board of Friends of IHES, met with Darlene Solomon, Chief Technology Officer and Member of the Board of Directors of the Agilent Foundation, Tom Beermann, VP Global Communications and Executive Director of the Agilent Foundation and Sally Frank, Manager of the Philanthropic Programs. IHES and Friends of IHES representatives visited two Agilent’s Centers of Excellence and got a chance to meet several women scientists employed by different divisions of Agilent. The guided tour was followed by a friendly luncheon.

IHES and Friends of IHES spent a week in the Bay Area meeting with friends, visitors and supporters, visiting local companies and organizing several events that gathered outstanding personalities.

Emmanuel Ullmo, Director General of IHES, currently spends a 3-month research visit at the Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute in Berkeley. IHES and Friends of IHES took this opportunity to visit the Bay Area and meet with its friends and supporters.

Accompanied by the Consulate General of France, IHES spent an intensive and inspiring week meeting some outstanding personalities. IHES was delighted to discover some innovative and disruptive projects of X, the Moonshot Factory, introduced by its Captain of Moonshots, Astro Teller. The Institute was also delighted to visit Agilent, a company that supports IHES in its projects aimed to increase the presence of women in mathematics.

Friends of IHES also organized several events. The Institute was thrilled to gather its friends, visitors and science lovers together with Gauthier and Nathalie Vasseur in their place in Menlo Park for a friendly « Maths Dinner ».

Additionally, Friends of IHES, in the presence of Marilyn and Jim Simons, the co-Chairs of the Board of Friends of IHES, organized an exclusive event with Emmanuel Candès, the Barnum-Simons Chair in Mathematics and Statistics, Stanford University, as keynote speaker in the Four Seasons hotel in San Francisco. His speech on “Predicting with confidence” was followed by a fundraising dinner during which Marilyn and Jim Simons announced that they were matching all donations made to the new Friends of IHES endowment fund up to 10 million dollars.

Friends of IHES and IHES ended this West Coast trip supporting Gioia De Cari’s fabulous play « Truth Values » performed at Théâtre Erick Moreau of Lycée Français de San Francisco. The play was followed by a post-show panel discussion moderated by professor Vijay Mehrotra with three participants: Marilyn Simons, co-Chair of Friends of IHES, Emille D. Lawrence, Associate Professor and Chair of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of San Francisco and Tatiana Toro, Director of Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute. Friends of IHES was thrilled to join Gioia De Cari in her efforts to support women in sciences and increase diversity in these fields.

From right to left: Vijay Mehrotra, professor of Business Analytics at the University of San Francisco, Marilyn Simons, co-Chair of Friends of IHES, Emille D. Lawrence, Associate Professor and Chair of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of San Francisco, Gioia De Cari, artist and author of “Truth Values” and Tatiana Toro, Director of Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute.

Press release – 15 march 2023

Ryan Thorngren will join the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques (IHES) on April 3^rd as a junior professor. This prestigious position is reserved to talented researchers at the early stages of their career and gives them the opportunity to spend five years at the Institute, where they can develop their research autonomously, all the while contributing to the Institute’s scientific activity and to making it an attractive hub for visiting researchers.

Born in Los Angeles, Ryan Thorngren did his undergraduate studies in mathematics at Caltech. He soon developed an interest in physics, which led him to studying applications of topology to quantum field theory at the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned his PhD. Topological phases, at the intersection between mathematics and condensed matter physics, continue to be at the center of his research interests.

After defending his PhD in 2018, Thorngren worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Weizmann Institute of Science, then at the Harvard Center for Mathematical Sciences and Applications (CMSA), and more recently at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, in Santa Barbara.

He will join IHES as a junior professor in April 2023. “I look forward to integrating into the community of IHES and to creating a group with similar interests in topological phases and condensed matter physics. I would like to organize a regular seminar and hire doctoral and postdoctoral researchers”.

Being at the Institute with a five-year position, without any teaching obligation, will also give him the necessary calm and dedicated focus to work on some important projects. He is currently writing a first book about symmetry-protected topological phases, for which there is not yet a unified reference in literature.

As a physicist with a background in mathematics, Ryan Thorngren also looks forward to joining IHES for the special role it played in the history of mathematics having been the home of some legendary figures such as Fields medalists Alexander Grothendieck and René Thom, who first developed cobordism theory, a theory that Ryan Thorngren applies to physics.

When asked about how he sees himself in ten years’ time, Ryan Throngren replied that he hopes to continue his career in research and to lead a research group, passing his knowledge on to the younger generations of students and early stage researchers. His philosophy is to go “where his research questions take him”, driven by the desire to be “where the most exciting things in my research field are happening”.

Press release – 21 March 2023

Alex Gerko, founder of the algorithmic trading firm XTX Markets, has just made a £1m gift to Friends of IHES that will contribute to its newly created endowment fund in the US.

This is the first donation that Alex Gerko has made to support IHES. This very generous gift honors the Institute and will importantly help drive its advancement.

The donation will contribute to the new, US-based endowment fund whose creation has been substantially promoted by Marilyn and Jim Simons, co-Chairs of Friends of IHES, who have committed to match the first $10m that will be given towards this project.

The couple’s matching gift through the Simons Foundation International will thus double the impact of the gift by Alex Gerko. This will contribute to supporting the Institute’s operational budget, where it is most needed.

Alex Gerko commented: “My success and that of XTX Markets has been built on mathematics. Supporting the new Friends of IHES endowment fund is a way for me to ensure that mathematical knowledge keeps on advancing.”

Marilyn and Jim Simons, co-Chairs of Friends of IHES, said: “We are very happy that Alex decided to participate to the Friends of IHES endowment fund in the US. His gift represents a major contribution to this new project and we are delighted to match it. We believe that the new endowment fund has the potential to be truly transformative for the future of IHES and we thank Alex for taking part in it.”

Emmanuel Ullmo, Director of IHES, added: “IHES is extremely grateful for Alex Gerko’s gift and for his choice to contribute to the Friends of IHES endowment fund. The donation will be an enormous boost to the Institute’s development. The fact that its proceeds remain unrestricted also means that IHES will be able to flexibly respond to different needs as they rise, which is an incredible asset for an institute as small as IHES.”

The Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques has learned with great sadness of the passing of André Haefliger, who was 93 years old. He was a great specialist in topology and in particular in the theory of foliations, and worked for many years as a professor at the University of Geneva. He exchanged a lot with René Thom and contributed substantially to the publication of his complete works. A talented violinist, he was passionate about music and several professors at the Institute had the opportunity to practice music with him.

André Haefliger was a member of the IHES Board of Directors from 1979 to 1989 and he then actively contributed to the Institute’s development and search for financial support.

Those at the Institute who had the pleasure of meeting him remember him as a great mathematician and a very warm person.

In this picture, taken at IHES in 1998, on the occasion of the celebrations for the Institute’s 40th anniversary, André Haefliger (left) is talking to Lawrence Siebenmann (right). © Dominique Wallon

Hugo Duminil-Copin, a permanent professor at IHES and Fields Medal 2022 laureate, went to Brussels on February 27, 2023 to present his research with the talk “From Coffee to Mathematics” at the Science and Cocktails scientific mediation event. Hugo Duminil-Copin’s presentation gathered more than three hundred science lovers in an emblematic Brussels performance hall, Atelier 210.

The same day, Hugo Duminil-Copin was received at the Residence of France by Ambassador François Sénémaud. This reception gathered some friends of IHES in Brussels : representatives of Belgian companies and national research agencies, as well as of the scientific and diplomatic world.

Furthermore, Hugo Duminil-Copin met the community of physicists and mathematicians of the Université Libre de Bruxelles and gave a seminar entitled “Marginal triviality of the scale limits of the critical Ising 4D and ϕ_4^4 models”.

While in Brussels, Hugo Duminil-Copin also participated in the Belgian radio and television of the French community program “Déclic” where he shared his vision of mathematics teaching methods and the beauty of this science.

In the photo, from left to right: Emmanuel Hermand, the Secretary General of the IHES, Hugo-Duminil Copin, permanent professor at IHES and Ambassador François Sénémaud. © French Embassy in Brussels.

Mathematician and theoretical physicist, Baroness Ingrid Daubechies, James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke University, has been awarded the 2023 Wolf Prize of the Wolf Foundation. This award acknowledges her work in the creation and development of wavelet theory and applied harmonic analysis.

Prof. Daubechies developed mathematical methods with tremendous applications to digital signal processing and image compression, that have had an important impact on medical and communications technologies.

She visited IHES several times in the past and in 2018 she gave a series of four lectures on “Time-Frequency Localization and Applications” at the Institute, as part of the “Leçons Hadamard” organized every year by the Fondation Mathématique Jacques Hadamard at IHES.

She has also taken part in some of the events organized by Friends of IHES in the United States and was the guest speaker at the 2015 Friends of IHES Gala on maths and games of chance.

Several renowned scientists have received the Wolf Prize in the past, including mathematicians close to IHES such as former permanent professors Mikhail Gromov, Pierre Deligne and Dennis Sullivan, but also Jacques Tits, John Tate and Jean-Pierre Serre. Prof. Daubechies is the first woman to be awarded the Wolf Prize in mathematics.

IHES warmly congratulates Ingrid Daubechies on receiving this very prestigious award, which recognizes the groundbreaking importance of her contributions to mathematics and its applications.

The Wolf Prize was created in 1979 by the Wolf Foundation. It is awarded annually to prominent scientists and artists from around the world for their achievements and contributions in the interest of humanity. The scientific categories recognized by the prize are Medicine, Agriculture, Mathematics, Chemistry, and Physics.

Prize announcement by the Wolf Foundation

Ingrid Daubechies on Carmin.tv

For several years now, the Fondation Mathématique Jacques Hadamard (FMJH), of which IHES is a founding member, has been organizing special days at the Institute, gathering master’s and PhD students as well as post-doctoral fellows in mathematics, particularly at the beginning of each academic year.

This year, the Foundation has decided to organize two events aiming to help students and early stage researchers in mathematics explore the different possible career paths available to them.  Undergraduate students had a chance to learn more about the world of research in academia, while students further along in their academic path were given the possibility to meet researchers outside academia.

On the one hand, the first edition of the event “Maths en herbe” (“Budding maths”) took place on January 18, 2023. This one-day event was open to undergraduate students in mathematics within the Paris-Saclay area, with the aim to give them a glimpse of research in mathematics.

About 80 students came to the Institute to participate in this event, where they could attend the presentations of young researchers at different levels of their careers.

On the other hand, the first of the “MathTech Meetings” was held at the Institute on January 25, 2023. The objective of this day was to raise awareness among doctoral and post-doctoral researchers in mathematics about research outside academia. The participants, about fifty, were able to meet researchers from Qube Research and Technologies, Edenred, iXBlue, Owkin and Criteo, who everyday apply their mathematical skills to advance technology.

IHES is pleased to have hosted these events as part of its partnership with the FMJH. These were important opportunities of discussion within the mathematical community.

After two editions organised remotely, IHES is happy to welcome again the Statistics and Computer Science for Data Science Day in Paris-Saclay, on March 9, 2023.

Organized by Gilles Blanchard (LMO/Université Paris-Saclay), and Florence Tupin (LTCI/Télécom Paris), the aim of this statistical and computer science day is to bring together mathematicians and computer scientists around some talks on recent results from statistics and machine learning.

Various topics in machine learning, optimization, deep learning, or optimal transport will be presented.

This workshop is particularly intended for doctoral and post-doctoral researchers.

The invited speakers are Isabelle Bloch (LIP6/Sorbonne Université – LTCI/Télécom Paris), Antoine Cornuéjols (MIA/AgroParisTech), Aymeric Dieuleveut (CMAP/École polytechnique), Elisabeth Gassiat (LMO/Université Paris-Saclay), Mohammed Nabil El Korso (L2S/CentraleSupélec), and Mathilde Mougeot (ENSIIE & Centre Borelli/ENS Paris-Saclay).

Information and registration on the conference webpage.

Presse release – 12 January 2023

Mathematics, a driving force for the reconstruction after the war: creation of the new International Centre for Mathematics in Ukraine, with the support of IHES.

On January 12, 2023, the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques (IHES) hosted the first support meeting for the creation of the new International Centre for Mathematics in Ukraine (ICMU), in the presence of mathematicians leading the project, representatives of European mathematical institutes and a few leading figures in mathematics philanthropy. The Ukrainian authorities were represented at this meeting by Mykhailo Podolyak, Adviser to the Head of the Office of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, while the French government was represented by Claire Giry, Director General for Research and Innovation at the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research. Six Fields Medal laureates[1] also participated in this meeting, showing their support and solidarity with the Ukrainian mathematical community.

In a speech welcoming the project, Advisor Mykhailo Podolyak declared: “This is a timely and exciting initiative. I am delighted to see an excellent team of our scientists who are willing to put their international experience into work for the future of Ukraine. Though at this time the major efforts of Ukrainian authorities are concentrated on solving the humanitarian and military problems, we acknowledge the importance of science in raising our economy after the war. It is of vital importance for Ukraine to be a part of the global scientific process.”

On behalf of the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research, Claire Giry declared: “We are very proud that French mathematics supports the creation of the new International Centre for Mathematics in Ukraine. I recall our collective desire to build a long-lasting partnership between our two research communities.”

Emmanuel Ullmo, Director of IHES, commented: “IHES is convinced that mathematics and science will be of paramount importance to prepare and build the future of Ukraine. We are proud to support this new International Centre for Mathematics.”

Mission of the International Centre for Mathematics in Ukraine

Believing firmly that science and research will have a key role to play in the reconstruction of Ukraine after the war, a group of mathematicians of Ukrainian origin have joined to create a new Centre for mathematical research, forming its initial Coordination Committee[2]. Building on a strong mathematical tradition in Ukraine, the mission of this Centre is to support high level research in mathematics, with special emphasis on training younger generations of scientists and developing mathematics in Ukraine. Aimed to push the global frontiers of knowledge, the Centre values its international nature, diversity and inclusion. ICMU is supported by the National Research Foundation of Ukraine (NRFU), a member of Science Europe.

Maryna Viazovska of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, laureate of the Fields Medal in July 2022 and member of the Coordination Committee, declared: “We will follow the models of other established institutions for fundamental research choosing those paths which will have maximal impact in the scientific community at this particular moment in our history.”

Organization of the new Centre

While the location of ICMU will be determined in consultation with the mathematical community, Ukrainian public bodies and partner organisations, and while scientists will be welcome physically in this Centre only once it will be safe to do so, the institution already has an official and legal existence, and will start organizing scientific events in partner institutions worldwide.

The foundation phase for the new Centre is currently led by the Centre’s Coordination Committee and an international Advisory Board[3]consisting of outstanding mathematicians, including three Fields medal laureates. Peter Scholze from the University of Bonn, Director of the Max Planck Institute in Bonn and Fields medal Laureate, member of this Board, declared: “The Max Planck Institute for Mathematics has been and is home to many Ukrainian mathematicians, including Maryna Viazovska as a PhD student, and stands in strong solidarity. I wholly welcome and support the foundation of this new center in Ukraine, which will greatly enhance and revitalize the mathematical community.”

As an independent foundation, the Centre will be governed by a Board of Trustees consisting of the leading figures of its partner organisations and donors, as well as a Scientific Board which will have the prerogative of planning its scientific activities. During the meeting, the Centre’s Coordinating Committee announced that the French mathematician Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, former director of IHES and former president of the European Research Council, had been elected as the first member of the Board of Trustees. In this capacity, he will help the formation of this Board. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon commented: “I am very honoured by the invitation made to me by Ukrainian colleagues to try and contribute to the establishment of a flexible tool focused on helping the Ukrainian mathematical community to be actively engaged in frontline research in close partnership with other institutions in the world with similar goals.”

It was also announced during the meeting that the algorithmic trading company XTX Markets was the founding and principal donor of the International Centre for Mathematics in Ukraine. XTX Markets has committed up to €1m in matched funding to establish the Centre, enabling any donations or pledges in 2023 to be matched 100%. Alex Gerko, Founder and co-CEO of XTX Markets, commented: “The International Centre for Mathematics will help Ukrainian researchers to collaborate with the rest of the world and share the country’s outstanding tradition in mathematics. We look forward to the Centre opening its doors soon, in a free and peaceful Ukraine.”

[1] Those participants are: Vladimir Drinfeld, Hugo Duminil-Copin, Peter Scholze, Maryna Viazovska, Cédric Villani, Efim Zelmanov.

[2] The Coordination Committee is composed of: Oleksandra Antoniouk, Dmitri Finkelshtein, Andrey Gogolev, Kostiantyn Iusenko, Andrii Khrabustovskyi, Okleksiy Klurman, Volodymyr Nekrashevych, Pavlo Pylyavskyy, Dmytro Savchuk, Lyudmyla Turowska, Maryna Viazovska, Masha Vlasenko, Iryna Yehorchenko.

[3] The Advisory Board is composed of: Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, Vladimir Drinfeld, Pavel Etingof, Pavel Exner, Rostislav Grigorchuk, Volodymyr Mazorchuk, Adam Skalski, Peter Scholze, Marcelo Viana, Efim Zelmanov.