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Directeur de recherche émérite au CNRS et secrétaire perpétuel de l'Académie des sciences depuis 2019, Étienne Ghys a fortement contribué à développer la diffusion des mathématiques en France. Livres grand public, films à utiliser en classe par les enseignants, livre audio dédié aux malvoyants, pilotage de l'Année des mathématiques, site web, conférences, passage dans les médias… Le chercheur varie autant les supports que les publics et les sujets. Fervent défenseur de l'utilisation…

Portrait de Penka Georgieva, médaille de bronze du CNRS 2022, professeure à Sorbonne Université, spécialiste internationale de la géométrie symplectique et tout particulièrement des invariants de Gromov-Witten. Depuis son doctorat obtenu en 2011, Penka Georgieva travaille à bâtir une théorie complète des invariants de Gromov-Witten réels. Les invariants de Gromov-Witten permettent de compter le nombre de courbes répondant à des critères prédéfinis dans les variétés symplectiques. Ils…

Portrait de Sepideh Mirrahimi, médaille de bronze 2022, directrice de recherche au CNRS à l'Institut montpelliérain Alexander Grothendieck, spécialiste en modélisation mathématique pour la biologie. Docteure en mathématiques appliquées à la biologie de l'université Pierre et Marie Curie à Paris, Sepideh Mirrahimi est recrutée en 2012, après un postdoctorat à l'École polytechnique à Palaiseau, comme chargée de recherche CNRS à l'Institut de mathématiques de Toulouse puis devient…

Le "Cool Boole School Game" est un jeu sérieux d'évaluation et d'apprentissage de la cognition logique. Il propose un nouveau mode d'évaluation et d'apprentissage de la cognition en logique mathématique des enfants, qui cible l'acquisition des connecteurs booléens ET, OU, NON et leurs combinaisons : lois de double négation ou de Morgan. Développer un mode ludique et interactif d'évaluation du raisonnement logique par le jeu, mais qui ne passe pas par le langage, permet de déterminer si des…

Portrait de Vincenzo De Risi, médaille de bronze du CNRS 2022, chargé de recherche au laboratoire Sciences philosophie histoire (SPHERE), spécialiste de l'histoire de la philosophie et des sciences, et de Kant, Euclide et Leibniz Rattaché à un laboratoire français et détenteur d'une double nationalité italienne et allemande, Vincenzo De Risi incarne la réussite d'une recherche européenne s'affranchissant des frontières. Il tisse des liens entre l'histoire de la philosophie et…

Portrait de Gabriel Peyré, lauréat de la médaille d'argent du CNRS 2021, directeur de recherche en intelligence artificielle au Département de mathématiques et applications de l'École normale supérieure et spécialiste en science des données. " Je travaille sur la théorie du transport optimal et ses applications à l'imagerie et l'apprentissage machine. Formulé par le mathématicien Gaspard Monge au XVIIIe siècle, le transport optimal cherche le moyen le plus économique pour…

There is a branch of mathematics capable of modelling epidemics: finding the point of origin, studying the spread according to the characteristics of the virus, but also thinking of ways to limit the spread in very specific situations. For instance, mathematicians are working on models to adapt a school's timetable, optimise the layout of hospital beds and even study the places most affected by contamination. More importantly, the study of epidemics could create new ways for mathematicians to…

A piano capable of playing a Chopin ballade by itself? This now possible! Discover the instrument used by scientists from the Science and Technology of Music and Sound laboratory (STMS), capable of reproducing a piece note for note by mimicking the pianist's intentions. Using this instrument, they are trying to unravel the mysteries of musical interpretation through the Cosmos project, funded by the ERC.

Portrait de Anna Erschler, lauréate de la Médaille d'Argent 2020 du CNRS, chercheuse en mathématiques au Département de mathématiques et applications à l'ENS Paris, spécialisée dans la théorie géométrique des groupes et marches aléatoires.

The Youtube channel Zeste de science explores all aspects of scientific research, proving that even the most complicated scientific facts can be explained in less than 5 minutes, and that even the most seemingly trivial events of everyday life, if thoroughly studied, can contribute to the biggest technological advances. Episode 25: Can we predict the behaviour of a crowd evacuating a room? To understand this phenomenon, scientists have created mathematical…

Nearly one out of every four Netflix online video is viewed on a mobile phone. But even in this case, broadcasting comes in high definition. Delivering 4K images despite low telephone bit rate throughput (100KB/s) is the feat that Netflix was able to achieve thanks to researchers at the LS2N (Laboratoire des Sciences du Numérique/digital sciences laboratory) in Nantes. After interviewing numerous users of the American platform, the scientists developed an algorithm that allowed them to…

From the research lab... to the game room! A team of robotics scientists has developed powerful algorithms that secure drone flights so well that anyone can fly them without risking a crash. The tech startup Drone Interactive tapped into the basic science led at the GIPSA-Lab in the French Alps where researchers and engineers are working hard on creating the future of flying robots.

Portrait de Ludovic Métivier, lauréat de la Médaille de Bronze 2019 du CNRS. Chercheur en mathématiques appliquées au laboratoire Jean Kuntzmann (DR11) et en charge, avec les géophysiciens de l'Institut des sciences de la Terre, du projet SEISCOPE autour de l'imagerie sismique haute résolution du sous-sol.

Portrait de Claire Mathieu, lauréate de la Médaille d'Argent 2019 du CNRS. Directrice de recherche en informatique au CNRS au sein de l'Institut de recherche en informatique fondamentale (DR01), spécialiste des algorithmes.

The Youtube channel Zeste de science explores all aspects of scientific research, proving that even the most complicated scientific facts can be explained in less than 5 minutes, and that even the most seemingly trivial events of everyday life, if thoroughly studied, can contribute to the biggest technological advances. Episode 8: You are in the mood to tile your bathroom with pentagonal tiles? Sure, why not, but how do you do it? The question may seem silly, but has…

The Youtube channel Zeste de science explores all aspects of scientific research, proving that even the most complicated scientific facts can be explained in less than 5 minutes, and that even the most seemingly trivial events of everyday life, if thoroughly studied, can contribute to the biggest technological advances. Episode 13: The surface of the Earth is divided into several tectonic plates of different sizes that slowly age and sink under one another. Scientists…

Portrait de Lin Chen, lauréat de la Médaille de Bronze 2018 du CNRS. Enseignant-chercheur en informatique, spécialisé en algorithmique et réseaux, dans l'équipe Graphes, algorithmes et combinatoire du Laboratoire de Recherche en Informatique - LRI (DR04).

Portrait de Maks Ovsjanickov lauréat de la Médaille de Bronze 2018 du CNRS. Chercheur en informatique au sein de l'équipe STREAM du laboratoire d'Informatique de l'École polytechnique, spécialisé dans le traitement numérique de la géométrie (DR04).

For amputees, controlling a robotic prosthesis is far from a perfect solution. It can take months of training before they can perform basic day-to-day operations. In France, a team of researchers, engineers and medical doctors are developing a more natural method for controlling such a prosthesis using a phenomenon known as phantom limb sensation.

A l'occasion de la remise de la médaille de l'innovation 2018 du CNRS, retour sur le parcours de Daniel Le Berre, enseignant chercheur en informatique. Ses travaux de recherche portent sur le domaine de l'intelligence artificielle et il s'intéresse en particulier à la conception et à l'évaluation d'algorithmes pour l'inférence et la prise de décision. Il est également passionné de génie logiciel, qu'il enseigne aux étudiants de l'université d'Artois. Daniel Le Berre mobilise les deux facettes…

Portrait de Pierre Comon lauréat de la Médaille d'Argent 2018 du CNRS. Directeur de recherche au sein du GIPSA-Lab (Délégation Alpes), il est spécialiste en conception d'outils théoriques et en développement d'algorithmes pour extraire des informations cachées dans des données. En 2013, il obtient une bourse ERC Advanced Grant pour le projet DECODA consacré au développement de méthodes tensorielles pour la science des données, et leurs applications à la santé et l'environnement.

Portrait Anne-Laure Dalibard lauréate de la Médaille de Bronze 2018 du CNRS. Enseignante-chercheuse en mathématiques, spécialiste des phénomènes multi-échelles en océanographie et plus généralement en mécanique des fluides, au Laboratoire Jacques-Louis Lions. Elle bénéficie depuis 2015 d'une bourse ERC Starting Grant pour le projet BLOC qui a pour but d'analyser différents types de couches limites intervenant dans l'analyse des courants océaniques.

At the Institut Henri Poincaré, the exhibition "Esthétopies, variétés d'espaces sensibles" (esthetopies, varieties of sensitive spaces) has the ambitious goal of sharing the fascinating beauty of non-Euclidian geometry with the general public. This project originated from the initiative of Pierre Berger, a former student of Decorative Arts, now a mathematician specialising in three-dimension spaces. Inspired as much by Man Ray's writings as by the work of William Thurston, he designed a…

On the occasion of the 2017 CNRS innovation medal award ceremony, this film is a look back on Raphaèle Herbin's career, a mathematician specialized in the numerical analysis of partial differential equations who heads the Marseille Mathematics Institute (a joint research unit between CNRS/École centrale de Marseille/University of Aix-Marseille). The research she conducted with her colleagues on the theoretical analysis of finite volume methods and computerized simulation of compressible flow…

Qui sait que le GPS de nos voitures est conçu à partir d'algorithmes complexes basés sur le comportement et le déplacement des fourmis ? Les systèmes d'optimisation animale sont, en effet, de nouveaux modèles pour résoudre des problèmes de probabilité mathématique.

As a 2016 CNRS Innovation Medal laureate, Ali Zolghadri looks back on his career. At age 53, Zolghadri is an automation specialist internationally renowned for his research on the theory of complex dynamic systems. His work led him to develop innovative diagnosis and surveillance methods for aerospace technologies. He has also been granted 14 patents, one of which has been implemented on the A350 Airbus aircraft flying since January 2015.

The 2016 CNRS Gold Medal was awarded to the mathematician Claire Voisin. This distinction came as recognition for her major contributions to Complex Algebraic Geometry. Famous for her original and multifarious research, she won numerous rewards and has achieved exceptional international credit. In this portrait, Claire Voisin takes a look back on her career and enthuses over the endless questions raised by mathematics. As a CNRS researcher for more than thirty years and rewarded on many…

In an effort to alleviate the ever mounting traffic jam congestion in large cities, a team of researchers developed the "Grenoble Traffic Lab", an experimental traffic management system. Federica Garin, an automation engineer, shows how this system operates, as it is installed by Grenoble's Southern bypass road. There is a dual objective. First, the motorway traffic flow is measured with a network of sensors along the bypass road and second, traffic is regulated by using variable display road…

As a specialist in image analysis and processing, the 61 year-old mathematician Jean-Michel Morel would never have reckoned when starting his research career that it would change the life of industrialists and the public at large. Since then, his powerful image denoising algorithms (to filter out disturbances, aka noise) have improved the miniaturisation of video cameras in cell phones, especially those produced by the DxO Labs Company. Additionally, in partnership with the CNES, his research…

As a 2014 CNRS gold medallist, Gérard Berry, who is a computer scientist and professor at the Collège de France describes the Antescofo software which was developed in a partnership with INRIA. This software is based on ESTEREL language, also known as a "synchronous and reactive" language, which is used to steer aircraft among other things. The properties of this synchronous programming language that Berry invented are used by Antescofo to adjust itself and accompany a musician in real-time.

Stéphane Mallat, mathematician and professor at the École Normale Supérieure de Paris, winner of the 2013 CNRS innovation medal, looks back on his research. He is one of the pioneers who introduced orthogonal wavelet bases and parsimonious representations. This theory has been applied in many scientific and industrial fields. In particular, he introduced wavelet image representation and compression algorithms, which led to the international JPEG-2000 standard. Stéphane Mallat subsequently…

Alan Turing was a mathematician, cryptographer, pioneer of the informatics, of the artificial intelligence and of the morphogenesis in biology. At the occasion of the century of his birth, this film presents this exceptional man, recounting his life, his work and his influence.

At the occasion of the bicentenary of Evariste Galois ' s birth, this film evokes the life and the work of one of the greatest mathematics genius, whose theory has revolutionized modern mathematics and physics. Born in 1811, he died at the age of 21 following a duel. He discovered the world of mathematics at the age of 16 and his papers were refused by the French Académie des Sciences. His theory started to be recognized and understood only 30 years later.

Wilfried Thuiller, a researcher in ecology and biostatistics, is interested in the impact of the climatic changes on species. After a presentation of the laboratory and of the botanical garden of the Alpine resort Joseph Fourier (France), he evokes one of his work devices: the mathematical modelizations or statistics.

Laurent Bordes presents his laboratory located in Pau and his teams. They study fundamental mathematics but also its applications to different fields. In particular, manufacturers are asking for their help in solving problems. Mathematics is not so abstract...

Antoine Spire interviews Monique Combescure, a CNRS senior researcher. Specialist in theorical physics at the Institute for Nuclear physics of Lyon, she manages the European Research Network “Mathematics and quantum physics”.

A portrait of Daniel Bonn, a physicist at the Laboratoire de physique statistique of the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris. Statistical physics uses mathematical methods based on statistics, and its models can be applied to very different fields. So, for example, he seeks to explain the phenomena of quicksands and landslides on the basis of laboratory experiments. He studies the phenomenon of water's adhesion to the leaves on trees. Lastly, Bonn seeks to understand certain kinds of noise so as…

Michel Burnier, a sociologist, interviews twenty scientists from various disciplines about the future of science and culture. The number 12 of this series is dedicated to Jean-Pierre Luminet, an astrophysicist, a CNRS senior researcher, and also a writer and a poet.

The CNRS awarded its 2004 Gold Medal to one of the greatest mathematicians of our time, Alain Connes, a professor at the Collège de France and the Institut des hautes études scientifiques (IHES). Throughout his career, Alain Connes has been interested in the solution of the mathematical problems raised by quantum physics and the theory of relativity. In particular, he revolutionized the theory of operator algebras and created a new branch of mathematics, non-commutative geometry. His work has…

In 2000, the mathematician Jacques Tits resigned his Chair in group theory at the Collège de France. On this occasion, the Collège and the Institut des hautes études scientifiques organized two days of lectures in his honor, on May 3 and 4, 2000. Ten well-known mathematicians testify to the contributions of Jacques Tits and explain the significance of his theory of buildings.

In March 1989 a Bourbaki seminar was held at the Institut Henri Poincaré in Paris. Bourbaki is the name of a group of French mathematicians founded shortly after the Second World War. The first of its famous seminars was held in 1948. Work was published jointly by the mathematicians in the group, who chose to sign it with the name of a fictitious person, Bourbaki. Henri Cartan and three other mathematicians (Pierre Cartier, Etienne Ghys, and Jean-Louis Verdier) review the history of the…

Pierre Pica, as a linguist specializing in comparative syntax, has been working for many years on Munduruku, the indigenous language spoken in the State of Pará in Brazil, and is studying phrases related to numeracy in this language. He made observations on different counting methods: In Sai Cinza in 2001, finger and toe counting and seed counting by an old man and the paje; In Aldeia Jardini / Kaburua in 2002, the village chief David Karo; in Missao Cururu in 2003, an approximate…

Jean Brette, head of the Mathematics department at the Palais de la découverte, invites a class to the mathematics lecture hall and summarizes the history of the number pi. Today computers can calculate pi to billions of decimals.

A summary of a day of lectures in conjunction with an "Open Day" event organized by the IHES (Institut des hautes études scientifiques in Bures-sur-Yvette) at the Centre Georges Pompidou on September 18, 2000. Highly varied aspects of mathematics are addressed by eight experts. Stacked oranges and correction codes, by Denis Auroux. Morley's marvelous theorem, by Alain Connes. Under the street lies symmetry, by Etienne Ghys. The genome and mathematics, by Alessandra Carbone. …

A report from the 23rd International Congress of Mathematicians, held August 18-27 1998 in Berlin.Four Fields medals were awarded, to Richard E. Borcherds and Timothy Gowers (Cambridge University), Maxim Kontsevich (IHES, Bures-sur-Yvette), and Curtis T. McMullen (Harvard University). Interviews with the mathematicians provide an overview of the current state of mathematical research, addressing the relations between mathematics and physics, the Moscow school of mathematics, etc.

Does the universe have frontiers ? Is it finite or infinite ? Two French astrophysicists, Marc Lachièze-Ray and Jean-Pierre Luminet, try to resolve this enigma and present their theory. Light, which propagate through the universe, enabled us to visualize the properties of space and the scientists already know cosmic optical illusions, which, for instance give birth to ghost images of galaxies. If space has a folded-in topology, light can go round through space several times et give ghost…

Interviews of Henri Cartan and his wife Nicole (the daughter of the physicist Pierre Weiss), by Jean-Pierre Serre and Isabelle Broué.

A man-made satellite streaks across the starry sky. At his window, a writer contemplates the meaning of this new celestial dancer in the timeless ballet of the universe. He mentions it to a mathematician friend, who tells an exciting story of knowledge assembled through the ages up to the present time.

Report concerning the inauguration of the Henri Poincaré Institute (France) after its renovation, in 1994. This Institute is dedicated to the research in mathematics and theorical physics.

What are mathematics and mathematicians in France today, and how are they doing? Interviews with nine mathematicians at the annual meeting of the Société Mathématique de France, held on January 24th, 1987, at the Ecole des Mines in Paris.