Abstract
The Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHÉS), is a research institute that is legally a private foundation in the public interest based in Bures-sur-Yvette, France, a small town in the south west of Paris near several major research institutions. It was created in the most improbable way as the project of a single man, Léon Motchane, an entrepreneur with a passion for mathematics. The support of the French government came only five years after its creation in 1958.
Its model was the Princeton-based Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), and Robert Oppenheimer, the then IAS director, contributed to the establishment of IHÉS in participating in its board.
From the first day, IHÉS has taken the risk of hiring young, and sometimes very young, scientists on its permanent professor positions in mathematics and physics. CNRS also helps the Institute by putting at his disposal some researchers.
Over the years, the IHÉS visiting programme has grown into a major component of its activities with over 200 scientists coming from more than 30 countries every year. This makes the Institute very international. The vision of the founder, that IHÉS must be a place where scientists are totally free of pursuing their work and exchange without boundary.
Its support is also very international with about ten countries contributing to its resources besides the French government. Some companies and foundations bring also some support on a regular basis. In the last ten years, the Institute succeeded in securing an endowment whose financial products now cover a significant part of its expenses.
In recent years IHÉS has developed several new activities with the perspective of opening new avenues, e.g. at the interface with biology and also with fundamental research motivated by problems of industrial origin.
About the Speakers
Jean-Pierre Bourguignon has directed the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHES) in France since 1994. He is also the Director of Research in the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and Professor at the École Polytechnique.
A differential geometer by training, Prof Bourguignon has since pursued his interest in mathematical aspects of theoretical physics, from Yang-Mills theory to general relativity.
He was President of the Société Mathématique de France from 1990 to 1992 and President of the European Mathematical Society from 1995 to 1998. A member of the scientific council of numerous institutions international, he is also editor of a number of eminent scientific journals. He is a Member of the Academia Europaea and received the Rayonnement Français prize in Mathematical Sciences and Physics in 1997.
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