Discover the mathematical community

Sophie Achard

When I came back to work in Grenoble and was recruited by the CNRS, I worked on an interdisciplinary project in an interdisciplinary commission, I was able to directly talk with doctors. This has been a shifting point, not only because I had the brain’s images, but I had the doctor’s comments and clarifications of the person who was behind. I already felt like I was living in a dream, because to be able to set up the mathematical tools allowing us to connect and discuss with the doctors is already amazing, just as to be able to continue this.

Prizes

• CNRS Silver Medal 2023

Research thematics

Alexandre Afgoustidis

For about ten years now, learning and thinking about the ideas of other mathematicians has been a source of wonder and joy to me. I hope this enthusiasm will stay with me for a long time.

Research thematics

Bill Allombert

As a research engineer in number theory developing a free computer algebra system, I’m involved in enriching it through interactions with mathematicians and disseminating it among the community worldwide, so that it serves as a tool for the community.

Research thematics

Nalini Anantharaman

The driving force as a researcher is not only to try to publish what you know, it is to know how to say what you don’t know. Having the courage to admit ignorance and do the work to overcome it.

Prizes

• Plenary speaker ICM 2018
• CNRS silver medal 2013
• Poincaré Prize 2012
• Salem Prize 2010
• Member of the French Académie des sciences

Research thematics

Viviane Baladi

Professional trips and academic seminars punctuate the life of a mathematician, yet some leave deeper traces than others. I remember listening to Daniel Smania in Brazil in 2006. He was evoking a formula that had previously and very mysteriously appeared in my own calculations. Listening to him, an illumination came to me. The formula finally made sense.

Prizes

• CNRS silver medal 2019
• Member of Academia Europaea

Research thematics

Claude Bardos

I am fascinated by the span of mathematics. To do mathematics is to make advances which benefit mathematics themselves as well as all human activities. And it feels like that very mathematical ambition had an impact on the behavior of the research community.

Prizes

• ICIAM Maxwell Prize 2019

Research thematics

Yves Benoist

What stands out for me is the evolution of great ideas, for example the history of a theorem spanning several centuries with all its twists and turns

Prizes

• Invited speaker ECM2021
• Invited speaker ICM 2014
• Takagi Lecture 2012
• Clay Research Award 2011

Research thematics

Joackim Bernier

I have always felt the need to get to the bottom of things; I think this is what convinced and seduced me in mathematics.

Research thematics

Jean-Michel Bismut

Mathematics needs young people more than ever. The extraordinary development of the recent years makes it an urgent task to fully transmit to the next generations these fantastic tools. Even though knowledge and experience certainly help, we need the drive and energy of young people having the necessary strength and courage to develop our science further, and also disseminate our common standards of truth and respect for facts.

Prizes

• Shaw Prize 2021
• Member of the French Académie des sciences, Academia Europaea

Research thematics

Sébastien Boucksom

Fundamental mathematics have reached an extremely high level of specialization nowadays, because of the great sophistication achieved in many of its subfields. As a result, research in mathematics tends be organized in smaller communities that can only make sense at an international level. International meetings have become extremely frequent, inducing a very strong feeling, in which international collaborations are all but natural. It is just as simple and common to collaborate with someone on the other side of the planet as it is with your colleague next door, I couldn’t even conveive of my research without this interconnectivity.

Prizes

• Invited speaker ICM 2018

Research thematics

Mireille Bousquet-Mélou

Prizes

• CNRS Silver Medal 2014
• ICM Invited speaker 2006
• Member of the French Académie des Sciences

Research thematics

Pierrick Bousseau

I have greatly beneficiated from international collaboration, first during my PhD in London and then during my postdoc in Zurich. Collaborations still play an important role in my current research.

Research thematics

Rémi Boutonnet

Mathematicians form a free group; they can go in every direction, their only boundary is at infinity.

Prizes

• CNRS bronze medal 2021

Research thematics

Christophe Breuil

I have a hope for the younger generations: that the various governments finally become fully aware how difficult it is to find a permanent academic position as a young mathematician. It seems to me that it is even more difficult than in the past, as the competition for permanent positions is now worldwide. And that’s a new issue.

Prizes

• CNRS silver medal 2017
• Invited Speaker ICM 2010

Research thematics

Vincent Calvez

The most exciting research projects to me are when math enlightens biological processes, and reciprocally new mathematical problems emerge from biology.

Prizes

• EMS Prize 2016
• CNRS Bronze Medal 2014

Research thematics

Serge Cantat

I admire many mathematicians for their passion for mathematics, their ability to share mathematics, their energy in transmitting mathematics, or simply for listening to others.

Prizes

• Invited speaker ICM 2018

Research thematics

Dmitri Chelkak

To be a mathematician one needs to be both a philosopher and a craftsman. It is absolutely great when a beautiful new structure appears and one can easily explain why it is natural and fundamental. But you also have to work on details: think carefully about the demonstrations of the “technical” lemmas that will constitute a well constructed theory. To me, that’s what analysis is all about.

Prizes

• Invited speaker ICM 2018
• Salem Prize 2014

Research thematics

Karine Chemla

I think young people should have faith in the questions that appear important and meaningful to them, and not follow fashions, which usually lead to results that are only of short-lived value.

Prizes

• 2020 Otto Neugebauer Prize
• Member of Academia Europaea

Research thematics

Albert Cohen

Beyond its ubiquitous usefulness in applications, the attractiveness of mathematics lies in its intrinsic beauty.

Prizes

• Blaise Pascal Medal 2020
• Invited speaker ECM 2020
• Plenary speaker ICIAM 2007
• Invited speaker ICM 2002
• Member of European Academy of Sciences

Research thematics

Charles Collot

Doing math is to access an exciting unknown for the mind after a long reflection that we must master.

Prizes

• ERC Starting Grant 2023

Research thematics

Jean-Michel Coron

What I like about control theory is the freedom we encounter. We are the ones who choose control to realize desired goals: we don’t just predict what will happen, we are in charge. These objectives are various, typically reaching a desired state or stabilizing a point of equilibrium, like a broom stick that we try to balance on our finger by moving the finger according to the inclination of the broom, its speed, etc.

Prizes

• W.T. and Idalia Reid Prize in Mathematics 2017
• ICIAM Maxwell Prize 2015
• Member of the French Académie des sciences

Research thematics

Nicolas Curien

Similar to jokes, the best proofs in mathematics are concise and feature unexpected punchlines.

Prizes

• ERC Consolidator Grants 2022

Anne-Laure Dalibard

Today, many crucial subjects for society or mankind raise fundamental scientific questions (e.g. climate change, data analysis). Mathematicians already play a large part in addressing these issues, and their role is bound to increase even further. We need many mathematicians, and it really is a great job: you can choose the subjects on which you work, exercise your creativity and curiosity, learn about new subjects regularly, and work from any place you like. Join us!

Prizes

• CNRS Bronze Medal 2018

Research thematics

Béatrice de Tilière

Besides the love of mathematics, working in an international community is one of the reasons I chose this profession. It is a wonderful feeling to work in a universal language that allows you to communicate and have common interests with people from all countries around the world.

Prizes

• CNRS Bronze Medal 2017

Research thematics

Pierre Degond

I like being in front of a blank page: that moment when I start
reflecting on a new question without a clue about how to begin. I am also
keen to interact with other researchers, especially junior mathematicians.
It’s important to be able to share the pains and thrills of doing
mathematics with others.

Prizes

• Invited speaker ICM 2018
• Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit 2014-2018

Research thematics

Jean-Marc Delort

What I find remarkable at the Intenartional Congress of Mathematicians is that some plenary speakers manage to give an idea of their research field to an audience whose specialty is far from it. This is a specificity of the international congress.

Prizes

• Invited speaker ICM 2018

Research thematics

Ya Deng

For me it is important to understand the general picture in mathematics. I am fascinated with the subjects admitting a rich structure which impacts on different branches of mathematics. Exchanging ideas and collaborating with colleagues all over the world bring me different intuitions.

Research thematics

Philippe Di Francesco

It is a great chance to be able to count among my colleagues and friends many mathematicians and physists from different countries, cultures and backgrounds, and it is hard to describe the pride and pleasure of being a small part of something greater that transcends borders, whether of countries, fields of research, or even of thinking.

Prizes

• Invited speaker ICM 2018

Research thematics

Eleonora Di Nezza

Collaborating and discussing with people across the world enriched my way of doing research: it taught me to think differently and it opened up different perspectives.

Let’s be honest: mathematics is hard. It requires a lot of passion and perseverance. But then, there is this magical moment when everything appears clearly, when all the computations go smoothly and the solution is there. And this is when you realise that Mathematics is beautiful and it is worth it!

Prizes

• CNRS bronze medal 2021

Research thematics

Mitia Duerinckx

I feel the urge or need to understand the world. If physics fascinates me, the only language that I manage to understand is that of mathematics

Research thematics

Hugo Duminil-Copin

I like the human component of mathematics. There’s nothing like a passionate discussion with the author of a proof to understand its full potential.

Prizes

• Fields Medal 2022
• Dobrushin Prize 2019
• Invited speaker ICM 2018
• Loeve Prize 2017
• New Horizons Prize in Mathematics 2017
• Prize of the European Mathematical Society 2016
• Member of Academia Europaea

Research thematics

Anna Erschler

Mathematics can show us amazing beauty of this world. Many things in the past and nowadays would not be possible without mathematics. Mathematics will allow to create new things in the future that we can not yet imagine.

Mathematics in France is strong and France provides very good conditions to work.

Prizes

• CNRS silver medal 2020

Research thematics

Maria Esteban

It is vital to know what’s being done elsewhere, to read other researchers’ works, to attend conferences, thereby discovering quite nice spots!, and to get to discuss with other mathematicians or scientists whose approach complements ours, and sometimes make friends… Collaborating with friends is twice the pleasure!

Prizes

• Blaise Pascal Medal of the European Academy of Sciences 2021
• SIAM Prize for Distinguished Service to the Profession 2019
• Member of Academia Europaea, European Academy of Sciences

Research thematics

Florian Faucher

In applied mathematics, one often tries to put theoretical results in light of concrete applications through the use of numerical methods. It is a multidisciplinary endeavor that requires interaction with experts from different fields and a curiosity not only for the mathematical aspects and the physics questions. Research can be a frustrating process, but it is compensated by the enriching understanding one acquires.

Prizes

• l'ERC Starting Grants 2023

Research thematics

Bassam Fayad

What I like the most in my job as a researcher is the freedom to choose what to work on, it is the state of fever that I get into when I become obsessed with a beautiful problem. And if it works, that’s all the better, but if it doesn’t, it will still have been worth it! It is the joy of finding an idea, of sharing with someone or learning from someone. But most of all, it is the possibility, the duty, to remain curious about everything.

Prizes

• Invited speaker ICM 2018

Research thematics

Giovanni Forni

Prizes

• ERC Advanced Grants 2023

Javier Fresán

What amuses me the most in mathematics is to browse through an old calculus book, pick an integral at random, and try to figure out what’s going on geometrically. I like to imagine myself as a mathematician from the 19th century who has been lucky enough to travel in time and learn about motives, perverse sheaves, tannakian categories… only to go back to his true love: special functions.

Prizes

• CNRS Bronze Medal 2023

Research thematics

Elena Gaburro

Behind every result is a new challenge.

Prizes

• Peter Lax Award 2024
• ERC Starting Grant 2023

Research thematics

Isabelle Gallagher

I enjoy working with small groups of colleagues. I have been working with some of my collaborators for many years, and I find this extremely rewarding. What I also like in my job is the absence of hierarchy between colleagues (that is, most of the time!): from your PhD onwards, you belong to the mathematical community.

Prizes

• Coxeter Lecturer Fields Institute Toronto 2020
• Invited speaker ICIAM 2019
• CNRS silver medal 2016
• Invited speaker ICM 2014

Research thematics

Josselin Garnier

I enjoy freedom and the urge of challenges. I enjoy teaching and doing research in different environments. I strive to address new domains, it gives me the feeling of being afresh, as I was as a student.

Prizes

• Invited speaker ICM 2018
• Felix Klein Prize European Mathematical Society 2008

Research thematics

Anthony Genevois

For me, doing mathematics consists in exploring and experimenting an abstract universe, made of infinitely many worlds tightly connected together, and then in describing it in an esthetic way, a way that is simple, rigourous, and illuminating

Research thematics

Penka Georgieva

Prizes

• CNRS Bronze Medal 2022

Research thematics

Léo Girardin

For me, being a mathematician means confronting the most
sophisticated mental constructions that the human mind could
conceive, the most refined puzzles and brainteasers. The
opportunity to contribute, as a mathematician, to research in life
sciences, a formidable source of such challenges and a societal
priority for the XXIst century, is priceless.

Research thematics

Catherine Goldstein

I am fascinated by the way mathematicians construct concepts or results that seem very stable in the long run, but when looked at closely are in fact only reached through a process of creation, of identification, adaptation, transmission and rewriting, across many countries and with many persons involved. My work aims to unravel that scientific process and the human adventure behind it.

Prizes

• Plenary speaker ICM 2018

Research thematics

Sébastien Gouëzel

After many years studying mathematics and doing new mathematics, I still find it amazing how ideas coming from one subfield of mathematics can be extremely fruitful when applied to another field, and how much fun it is to unearth such unexpected relations. Mathematics are creativity and imagination before anything else!

Prizes

• Brin Prize 2019
• Invited speaker ICM 2018

Research thematics

Élise Goujard

Prizes

• CNRS Bronze Medal 2023

Research thematics

Barbara Gris

As mathematicians, we have the opportunity to study phenomena of various origins: biology, physics, computer sciences… Each meeting is an opportunity to discover a new field of research and to start a new collaboration. It is a real chance to be able to take an interest in such a multitude of subjects!

Research thematics

Claire Guerrier

I would say that mathematics is about understanding how objects fit together.

Research thematics

Colin Guillarmou

Research in mathematics is a great activity : you have a total freedom on what you want to work and think about, you can travel and meet other mathematicians around the word, and then teach what you learnt or discovered to other mathematicians and students.

Prizes

• Invited speaker ICM 2018

Research thematics

Alice Guionnet

I would like to tell young women to just go for it, do what they like. Working as a researcher is exciting and provides a freedom that is barely to be found elsewhere.

Prizes

• Plenary speaker ICM 2022
• Blaise Pascal Medal 2018
• Loeve Prize 2009. Member of the French Académie des sciences, Academia Europaea, European Academy of Sciences

Research thematics

Raphaèle Herbin

Mathematics as a universal language makes it possible to work with biologists, chemists, physicists or engineers… One keeps learning new things and that’s what I like.

Prizes

• CNRS Innovation Medal 2017

Research thematics

Pierre-Emmanuel Jabin

What I like the most about being a mathematician is the freedom to choose what to work on according to my personal interest and to explore the questions and directions that seem most promising or exciting.

Prizes

• Invited speaker ICM 2018

Research thematics

Jacek Jendrej

Prizes

• ERC Starting Grant 2023

Fanny Kassel

Prizes

• CNRS Bronze Medal 2015

Raphaël Krikorian

Mathematics is a magnificent building conceived out of thought, that is never static and where each concept, even the most abstract, finds an echo in the real world, in everyday life. The pleasure of research for me lies there: in being in the dark, in not knowing where to start, in tracking down the relevant phenomena, exploring fruitless paths, and the (rare) flashes of insight.

Prizes

• Invited speaker ICM 2018

Research thematics

Krzysztof Kurdyka

What I like about mathematics is the feeling that I get when I understand something (which doesn’t happen every day!). I tend to view mathematical facts as one looks at real objects. Also, I like developing new concepts and approaches that allow me to summarize a mathematical idea in just a few lines.

Prizes

• Invited speaker ICM 2018

Research thematics

Vincent Lafforgue

ICM and ECM are the only international congresses gathering mathematicians of all domains. They are precious opportunities for the mathematical community to become awareness of itself and of all its potentialities

Prizes

• Breakthrough Prize 2019
• Plenary speaker ICM 2018
• CNRS silver medal 2015

Research thematics

Claudio Landim

What I like about mathematics is the freedom and the possibility it gives me to get away from real life. I like finding abstract structures that express a regularity, a deep understanding of a problem of physical origin, and verifying the validity of a model that reflects reality and remains simple enough to prove theorems about it.

Prizes

• Invited speaker ICM 2018

Research thematics

Jean-Bernard Lasserre

What I like the most in research is to highlight (possibly through a “unifying” theory) potential links between apparently different problems. If, in addition, this theory allows the development of new tools (for example, algorithms) for the effective resolution of these problems, that’s the cherry on top.

Prizes

• Invited speaker ICM 2018
• John von Neumann Theory Prize 2015
• Khachiyan Prize of the INFORMS Optimization Society 2015
• Lagrange Prize in Continuous Optimization 2009

Research thematics

Claude Le Bris

The most significant advances in applied sciences are often based on fundamental science advances obtained through a fresh and transverse, if not iconoclastic look, much more than on incremental improvements of the state of the art on a particular case.

Prizes

• Invited speaker ICIAM 2019
• Coxeter Lecturer Fields Institute Toronto 2018

Research thematics

Jean-François Le Gall

I consider it a rare privilege of our profession to have the opportunity to develop fruitful and often friendly relations with colleagues from all over the world. Many of my best mathematical works have been stimulated by such interactions.

Prizes

• Wolf Prize 2019
• Loeve Prize 1997
• Fermat Prize 2005
• Member of the French Académie des sciences, European Academy of Sciences

Research thematics

Thomas Leblé

Putting a problem into perspective, finding an elegant solution, writing it up. There is a strong relationship between mathematics and language and aesthetics.

Research thematics

Thibault Lefeuvre

A laboratory is perhaps one of the few places where curiosity is never a bad thing!

Research thematics

Yvon Maday

To get into the applications of mathematics, you need to know your field well, your specialty of course, but you also need to have an understanding of other specialties in mathematics, and, with these tools, you can meet specialists in other disciplines who are willing to address fundamental questions with you. To young people entering research I would say: don’t be afraid, it is exciting and intellectually rich.

Prizes

• ICIAM Pioneer Prize 2019
• Member of European Academy of Sciences

Research thematics

Amine Marrakchi

I was deeply marked by the story of Evariste Galois. His example shows that tenacity, audacity and independence of mind are essential qualities for a scientist.

Research thematics

Yvan Martel

In 2018, I spent two weeks in Brazil to give an invited lecture at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Rio de Janeiro and to attend the satellite conference Nonlinear Dispersive Equations organized in Florianopolis the week before. These conferences and an invitation to visit IMPA (CNRS IRL2924) gave me an opportunity to meet among others a large number of mathematicians working in Brazil and more largely in Latin America. Regular interactions between mathematicians working in the same field are very important.

Prizes

• Invited speaker ICM 2018
• Invited speaker ECM 2008

Research thematics

Bertrand Maury

Prizes

• CNRS Silver Medal 2022

Research thematics

Ludovic Métivier

The best way to guarantee that progresses are made in mathematics is to keep researchers communities as lively as possible. New ideas stem from exchanges with other researchers through conferences, seminars, summer schools, and peer-reviewed publications in international journals. The continuous exchange with colleagues from across the country and across the world is pretty stimulating.

Prizes

• CNRS Bronze Medal 2019

Research thematics

Yves Meyer

Prizes

• Prix Abel 2017
• Member of the French Académie des sciences

Research thematics

Grégory Miermont

Research in mathematics is probably one of the jobs where one has the most freedom. Maths researchers cherish their independence, they find their own research topics, collaborate with whoever they like, and organize as many friendly and relaxed moments as they can during conferences, because these are the most likely to spark new discussions and ideas! It is always such a pleasure when a very vague idea discussed over coffee comes to fruition and becomes a theorem!

Prizes

• CNRS silver medal 2018
• EMS Prize 2012

Research thematics

Eva Miranda

I would like to give today’s girls role models of female scientists who are brilliant, committed women, but not out-of-touch superheroines.

Prizes

• LMS Hardy Lecturer 2023
• François-Deruyts Prize 2022
• Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award 2022
• Plenary speaker ECM 2021
• FSMP Chair of Excellence 2017-2018
• ICREA Academia Prize 2016 & 2021

Research thematics

Sepideh Mirrahimi

What I find most rewarding about my job is the sense of fulfillment when I grasp how to approach my problem in order to solve it, along with the interdisciplinary aspect and the collaborative exchange between mathematics and biology, witnessing the mutual enrichment between disciplines.

Prizes

• CNRS Bronze Medal 2022

Research thematics

Clément Mouhot

I enjoy the childlike pleasure of solving problems by investigating for months or even years. The feeling of being part of an adventure bigger than oneself, and which has meaning.

Prizes

• Invited speaker ICM 2018

Research thematics

Stéphane Nonnenmacher

I started my academic career as a theoretical physicist, and slightly shifted towards pure mathematics. Mathematics is a part of a global project, science. Yet, as opposed to other sciences, research in mathematics does not directly rely on experiments and observations of the world, the research objectives being set by the mathematicians themselves, not by experimental results. This gives the mathematician a large freedom to set up his or her research paths; in this context, exchanges with peers become utterly important when making choices of research directions.

Prizes

• Invited speaker ICM 2018

Research thematics

Olga Paris-Romaskevich

I consider the profession of mathematician as an artistic profession. I try to practice it as such.

Prizes

• Irene Joliot-Curie "Special Commitment" Prize
• L’Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science 2016

Research thematics

Gabriel Peyré

Interacting with the younger generations enriches. They will always raise very relevant, often non trivial, questions.

Prizes

• ERC Advanced Grants 2023
• CNRS silver medal 2021
• Invited speaker ECM 2021

Research thematics

Vincent Pilloni

What strikes me most is to be with mathematicians in action, to think with them about a new problem, and to see their ideas being organised

Prizes

• Invited speaker ICM 2018

Research thematics

Wei Qian

I came to France at the age of 18 for preparatory classes, and have been strongly impressed by the mathematical culture here. During my doctoral thesis, I discovered that mathematics is not cold and difficult, but full of intuitions and imagination. I cherish the opportunity to be a researcher in CNRS, because it offers an extraordinary freedom which allows one to work on deep questions and explore new research directions.

Research thematics

Patricia Reynaud-Bouret

Research in mathematics can be very exciting !! it is about learning new things, being asked new questions by very different people, and trying to formalize and mathematize it. Mathematics is a wonderful language that can help very different people to communicate and to push forward science. Everyday, I’m trying to do that in fields that can be very far away from mathematics at first glance.

Prizes

• CNRS silver medal 2021

Research thematics

Simon Riche

Prizes

• CNRS Bronze Medal 2016

Research thematics

Geneviève Robin

By doing applied mathematics, I combine my taste for abstraction with my desire to work for health and biodiversity monitoring.

Research thematics

Laure Saint-Raymond

I spend a lot of time teaching, attending seminars, digging into the literature to keep up with what’s going on and communicating the results of my research. Working at the blackboard is a creative, almost recreative part. I enjoy doing it with others, even when we do not get anywhere or do not at all find what we were heading at!

Prizes

• Plenary speaker ICM 2022
• Bôcher Prize 2020
• Fermat Prize 2015
• Irene Joliot-Curie "Young Female Scientist" Prize 2011
• Ruth Lyttle Satter Prize 2009
• EMS Prize 2008. Member of the French Académie des sciences, Academia Europaea, European Academy of Sciences, Acadecy of Sciences of Paris, French University Institut

Research thematics

Olivier Schiffmann

The mathematicians who have made the greatest impression on me or whom I admire the most are not necessarily those who have developed large, “well-oiled” theories – even though their influence on mathematics is undoubtedly the most important one -; I am personally more attracted to those whose work you need to rummage through, who write papers full of calculations or mysterious constructions and complex conjectures, driven by a diffused but tenacious intuition.

Prizes

• Invited speaker ICM 2018

Research thematics

Andrea Seppi

I work in geometry and topology, and I am always amazed by the deep connections to many other areas of mathematics

Research thematics

Sylvia Serfaty

I like the intellectual stimulation, and the fact that my job as a mathematician doesn’t repeat itself. One is always pushed further, confronting one’s own limitations, trying to get better and renew oneself, learning new things and moving forward to explore new territories.

Prizes

• Plenary speaker ICM 2018
• Poincaré Prize 2012
• EMS Prize 2004
• Member of European Academy of Sciences & of American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Research thematics

Jérémie Szeftel

Having the freedom to pick among infinitely many fascinating problems, and exploring the beauty of mathematics while trying to solve them: there is no better job in the world!

Prizes

• ERC Advanced Grants 2023
• Clay Research Award 2023
• Bôcher Prize 2023
• Invited speaker ICM 2014

Research thematics

Michel Talagrand

In some sense, i could be proud of the things that were the hardest to do, but it is not the case. The first result I proved which really had an impact was on Gaussian processes. This sort of miraculous result, which proves the equivalence of two very different ways to look at some objects that are in fact the same, when it was done it was such a miracle result that I said :”the miracle will not stop there. Let us dream, in the same direction, what could be the structure of other related objects”.

Prizes

• Abel Prize 2024
• Shaw Prize 2019

Research thematics

Romain Tessera

Prizes

• CNRS Bronze Medal 2013

Bertrand Toën

Mathematics are fascinating, profound, full of mysteries and challenging. However, what I like the most is their simplicity in their daily practice: a piece of paper, a pen, a cup of coffee and maybe a couple of friends to exchange ideas with are enough to start doing math.

Prizes

• CNRS Silver Medal 2023

Research thematics

Fabio Toninelli

They say that science and, in particular, mathematics, cross national borders and create bridges between different cultures and individuals. This is not just rhetoric: it is something I personally experience every day, when I communicate with my collaborators who, for the most part, live hundreds of miles away from here. Mathematics gives me the feeling of belonging to a community that shares a certain vision of the world and of humanity

Prizes

• Invited speaker ICM 2018
• Plenary speaker International Congress on Mathematical Physics 2018

Research thematics

Emmanuel Trélat

I am eternally in admiration of the power of mathematics to solve so many different problems… There is never a dull moment in our profession. And what fun it is !

Prizes

• Invited speaker ICM 2018

Research thematics

Joris van der Hoeven

Fundamental problems in mathematics and computer science have a captivating character: once you get caught up in the game, it lures you in, and the deeper you dig, the richer and more fascinating it becomes. Moreover, thanks to the CNRS, I have a lot of freedom. I just need a few more lives to solve all the problems that interest me.

Prizes

• Invited speaker ICM 2018
• Karp Prize 2018

Research thematics

Eric Vernier

I am above all attracted by the creative, contemplative and very free side of problem solving.

Research thematics

Claire Voisin

International contacts or exchanges are very influential on my research, but the much smaller community of friends, colleagues and students I meet weekly at a seminar is also important. There is a feeling of being part of a much friendly and diverse group.

Prizes

• BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards 2024
• Crafoord Prize 2024
• Shaw Prize 2017
• CNRS 2016 gold medal
• Member of the French Académie des sciences, Academia Europaea

Research thematics

Irène Waldspurger

My goal is to contribute to the theoretical understanding of algorithms which are widely used in practice. I am notably interested in understanding why these algorithms sometimes work perfectly while classical theoretical analysis tells us they should fail.

Prizes

• CNRS bronze medal 2020

Research thematics

Yilin Wang

Doing mathematics is a humbling activity. We are constantly confronted with our ignorance but also amazed by the new territory of math we discover day by day. This might be one of the rare professions where one can remain a child driven purely by curiosity, stay in awe of the gems we collect while wandering, and run to friends to share the excitement of finding any beautiful thing in our eyes.

Prizes

• ERC Starting Grant 2023
• Prix New Frontiers Maryam Mirzakhani 2022

Research thematics

Benjamin Wesolowski

One of my professors probably determined my vocation during an algorithmic cryptology course where he was astonished, in a joking tone, that we pay him a salary to solve such entertaining problems!

Prizes

• ERC Starting Grant 2023

Research thematics

Cong Xue

I came from China to France to study Mathematics because I was attracted by the French algebraic geometry school. Now I am working on the Langlands program for function fields.

Research thematics

Susanna Zimmermann

I love discussing and doing mathematics. It is creative work, and many research ideas only come up when I’m getting to let my mind wander. Mathematics appears everywhere in everyone’s lives, hidden or not, it is utterly important to keep investing into it.

Prizes

• ERC Starting Grants 2022
• CNRS Bronze Medal 2020

Research thematics

Anton Zorich

My scientific interests are often implicitly influenced by physics, I consider mathematics and physics as a whole. I never hesitate to start studying an interesting phenomenon through concrete examples or through computer experiments. When some understanding is already achieved, I feel much more confident in searching a rigorous justification of a predicted answer. I usually work in collaboration and feel myself extremely lucky because my colleagues are my friends and my friends are mostly my colleagues.

Prizes

• ERC Advanced Grants 2023
• Coauthor of a talk at ICM 2022
• Chern Professor 2019
• Invited speaker ICM 2006
• Member of the Institute of Universities of France
• Decerf Prize (shared with other editors of Diagonals) 2004

Research thematics