Abstract
The usefulness of basic research is sometimes challenged. It is often tempting to look only at practical solutions to well posed problems. There are many historical examples showing that such an approach is too narrow, and in some cases plainly counterproductive.
Actually, in the last 20 to 30 years, there have been many examples of short-circuits between esoteric-looking research and unexpected applications with far-reaching societal and economic consequences.
The speaker will present some theoretical concepts who have historically been very influential on a number of human activities. His focus will be on examples taken from the mathematical field, as it has been the domain in which he has been active: from the foundations of Mechanics to the practical implications of General Relativity, from the introduction of quaternions to their use in Robotics, from random walks to Google, from wavelets to image analysis and processing.
About the speaker
Prof Jean-Pierre Bourguignon was the Director of the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHÉS) from 1994 till 2013. He was also the first ERC Panel Chair in Mathematics, for Starting Grants.
A mathematician by training, Prof Bourguignon spent his whole career as a fellow of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). He held a Professor position at École Polytechnique from 1986 to 2012. He was the President of the Société Mathématique de France from 1990 to 1992 and the President of the European Mathematical Society from 1995 to 1998. He is a former member of the Board of the EuroScience organisation (2002-2006) and has served on EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF) committees since 2004.
Prof Bourguignon received the Prix Paul Langevin in 1987 and the Prix du Rayonnement Français in Mathematical Sciences and Physics from the Académie des Sciences de Paris in 1997. He is a foreign member of the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences. In 2005, he was elected honorary member of the London Mathematical Society and has been the secretary of the mathematics section of the Academia Europaea. In 2008, he was made Doctor Honoris Causa of Keio University, Japan, and, in 2011, Doctor Honoris Causa of Nankai University, China. In 2016 he was elected honorary member of the Deutsche Mathematiker Vereinigung.
Prof Jean-Pierre Bourguignon has been the President of the European Research Council (ERC) since January 2014.
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