Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques
Encyclopedia
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
institute supporting advanced research in mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
and theoretical physics
Theoretical physics
Theoretical physics is a branch of physics which employs mathematical models and abstractions of physics to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena...
. It is located in Bures-sur-Yvette
Bures-sur-Yvette
Bures-sur-Yvette is a commune in the Essonne department in Île-de-France in northern France.Inhabitants of Bures-sur-Yvette are known as Buressois.-Geography:...
just south of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
The IHÉS, founded in 1958 by businessman and mathematical physicist Léon Motchane with the help of Robert Oppenheimer
Robert Oppenheimer
Julius Robert Oppenheimer was an American theoretical physicist and professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley. Along with Enrico Fermi, he is often called the "father of the atomic bomb" for his role in the Manhattan Project, the World War II project that developed the first...
and Jean Dieudonné
Jean Dieudonné
Jean Alexandre Eugène Dieudonné was a French mathematician, notable for research in abstract algebra and functional analysis, for close involvement with the Nicolas Bourbaki pseudonymous group and the Éléments de géométrie algébrique project of Alexander Grothendieck, and as a historian of...
, aims to bring together top researchers in the field. It has a small number of permanent professors, appointed for life, and invites about 200 visitors a year for varying terms averaging three months. It also has a small number of so-called long-term visitors. Research is not contracted or directed: it is left to each individual researcher to pursue their own goals. Permanent professors are only required to be in residence six months a year.
Design of the IHÉS is said to be influenced by Robert Oppenheimer, who was then the Director of the Institute for Advanced Study
Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study, located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States, is an independent postgraduate center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It was founded in 1930 by Abraham Flexner...
in Princeton. The strong personality of Alexandre Grothendieck and the broad sweep of his revolutionizing theories were a dominating feature of the first ten years at the IHÉS. René Thom
René Thom
René Frédéric Thom was a French mathematician. He made his reputation as a topologist, moving on to aspects of what would be called singularity theory; he became world-famous among the wider academic community and the educated general public for one aspect of this latter interest, his work as...
was another prominent figure in its early history. Dennis Sullivan
Dennis Sullivan
Dennis Parnell Sullivan is an American mathematician. He is known for work in topology, both algebraic and geometric, and on dynamical systems. He holds the Albert Einstein Chair at the City University of New York Graduate Center, and is a professor at Stony Brook University.-Work in topology:He...
is remembered as one who had a special talent for encouraging fruitful exchanges among visitors and provoking a new and deeper insight into their ideas.
The IHÉS runs a highly regarded mathematical journal, Publications Mathématiques de l'IHÉS
Publications Mathématiques de l'IHÉS
Publications Mathématiques de l'IHÉS is a mathematical journal. It is published by Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques, with the help of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique....
.
The Directors of the IHÉS in chronological order: Léon Motchane (1958–71), Nicolaas Kuiper
Nicolaas Kuiper
Nicolaas Hendrik "Nico" Kuiper was a Dutch mathematician, known for Kuiper's test and proving Kuiper's theorem. He also contributed to the Nash embedding theorem.Kuiper completed his Ph.D...
(1971–85), Marcel Berger
Marcel Berger
Marcel Berger is a French mathematician, doyen of French differential geometry, and a former director of the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques , France...
(1985–94) and Jean-Pierre Bourguignon
Jean-Pierre Bourguignon
Jean-Pierre Bourguignon is a French mathematician, working in the field of differential geometry.He was president of the Société Mathématique de France from 1990 to 1992. From 1995 to 1998 he was president of the European Mathematical Society...
(1994–present).
Some of the top mathematicians who were or are now permanent professors at the IHÉS include
Jean Bourgain
Jean Bourgain
Jean Bourgain is a Belgian mathematician. He has been a faculty member at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and, from 1985 until 1995, professor at Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques at Bures-sur-Yvette in France, and since 1994 at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton,...
, Alain Connes
Alain Connes
Alain Connes is a French mathematician, currently Professor at the Collège de France, IHÉS, The Ohio State University and Vanderbilt University.-Work:...
, Pierre Deligne
Pierre Deligne
- See also :* Deligne conjecture* Deligne–Mumford moduli space of curves* Deligne–Mumford stacks* Deligne cohomology* Fourier–Deligne transform* Langlands–Deligne local constant- External links :...
, Mikhail Gromov, Alexandre Grothendieck, Oscar Lanford III
Oscar Lanford
Oscar Eramus Lanford III is an American mathematician working on mathematical physics and dynamical systems theory. He was awarded his undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University and the Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1966 under the supervision of Arthur Wightman...
, Laurent Lafforgue
Laurent Lafforgue
Laurent Lafforgue is a French mathematician.He won 2 silver medals at International Mathematical Olympiad in 1984 and 1985....
, Maxim Kontsevich
Maxim Kontsevich
Maxim Lvovich Kontsevich is a Russian mathematician. He is a professor at the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques and a distinguished professor at the University of Miami...
, Dennis Sullivan
Dennis Sullivan
Dennis Parnell Sullivan is an American mathematician. He is known for work in topology, both algebraic and geometric, and on dynamical systems. He holds the Albert Einstein Chair at the City University of New York Graduate Center, and is a professor at Stony Brook University.-Work in topology:He...
and René Thom
René Thom
René Frédéric Thom was a French mathematician. He made his reputation as a topologist, moving on to aspects of what would be called singularity theory; he became world-famous among the wider academic community and the educated general public for one aspect of this latter interest, his work as...
. The long-term visitors are Christophe Breuil
Christophe Breuil
Christophe Breuil is a French mathematician, who works in algebraic geometry and number theory.-Academic life:Breuil attended schools in Brive-la-Gaillarde and Toulouse and studied from 1990 to 1992 at the Ecole Polytechnique....
, Dirk Kreimer
Dirk Kreimer
Dirk Kreimer is a German physicist who pioneered the Hopf-algebraic approach to quantum field theory with Alain Connes and other co-authors. He is currently affiliated with IHES and Boston University.-External links:*...
, Ofer Gabber and Christophe Soulé
Christophe Soulé
Christophe Soulé is a French mathematician working in algebraic geometry and number theory.In 1979, he was awarded a CNRS Bronze Medal. He received the Prix J. Ponti in 1985 and the Prix Ampère in 1993. Since 2001, he is member of the French Academy of Sciences...
.
The theoretical or mathematical physicists who were or are now permanent professors at the IHÉS
are Louis Michel
Louis Michel (physicist)
Louis Michel was a French mathematical physicist at IHES. He was born in Roanne, near Loire, on 4 May 1923 and died in Bures-sur-Yvette on 30 December 1999.-Biography:...
, Jürg Fröhlich
Jürg Fröhlich
Jürg Martin Fröhlich is a Swiss mathematician and theoretical physicist.In 1965 Fröhlich began to study mathematics and physics at Eidgenössischen Technischen Hochschule Zürich...
, David Ruelle
David Ruelle
David Pierre Ruelle is a Belgian-French mathematical physicist. He has worked on statistical physics and dynamical systems. With Floris Takens he coined the term strange attractor, and founded a new theory of turbulence...
, Thibault Damour
Thibault Damour
Thibault Damour is a French physicist.He is a professor of theoretical physics at the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques since 1989....
, Nikita Nekrasov
Nikita Nekrasov
-Background:Nerkrasov was born in Moscow, Russia and attended the Moscow State 57th School, graduating in 1995. He went on to graduate with honors from Moscow Physical Technical Institute in 1995. Nekrasov did his graduate work at Princeton University, receiving his PhD in 1996...
.
External links
- Home page: http://www.ihes.fr
- The IHÉS at Forty, by Allyn Jackson