Project acronym: IHÉS Euro-programme 2
Project full title: European Visitors Programme at the Institut des Hautes Études
Scientifiques to Conduct Advanced Research in Mathematics, Theoretical Physics and other
theoretical sciences
Contract no.: RITA-CT-2004-505493
Transnational Access
1.
Project objectives and summary
The objective of the project is to enhance research in the mathematical sciences through visits of selected
European scientists to the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHÉS), representing 160 visitor-months of
transnational access during the 4 years of the contract. The IHÉS know-how in hosting visitors will help
researchers conduct their personal advanced research projects in Mathematics, Theoretical Physics, theoretical
Molecular Biology and related topics in an environment conducive to interdisciplinarity. The Institute commits
itself to providing researchers supported by the contract, later called “EC-fellows”, besides the coverage of their
travel and local expenses, full access to the facilities (office, computers, library, printers, etc.) day and night and
the week around. Supported scientists will organize seminars and special sessions in coordination with the
permanent scientific staff.
The IHÉS mission is to facilitate by all means developments of fundamental research through interactions
between its (small but very selective) permanent staff and internationally selected visitors, among which the ECfellows. Its structure of a non-for-profit foundation makes it an exception in the French research landscape, and
gives the Institute real independence.
During their stays at IHÉS, EC-fellows will be granted complete freedom in selecting the research they want to
pursue while exposed to the interdisciplinary atmosphere of the Institute, and the contacts with top scientists
coming from all over the world.
It is the Institute’s duty to make it easy for EC-fellows to take advantage of the variety of topics represented, in
particular in areas which have been identified for the coming years as particulary hot for interactions between
mathematicians and other scientists. Over the years IHÉS has developed tools to facilitate strong interactions
between visitors and the permanent staff whatever their specialities are (Theoretical Physics, Mathematics and
theoretical aspects of other sciences, typically molecular Biology) in the form of multiple exchanges, selected
contacts, and combined research projects. One of the constant objectives of the Institute is to make these
interactions happen at the highest possible level. These exchanges are more critical than ever for the
development of the scientific research because of the risk of overspecialisation and the temptation, under the
pressure of programmes and short term returns, of aiming only at technical improvements when the best
scientists should be more ambitious and look for more radical breakthroughs. Privileged interactions are
organized with physicists, e.g. in string theory, statistical mechanics and gravitation, but also with biologists, e.g.
in theoretical aspects of the genome structure and its role in producing proteins. For that purpose, based on its
successful accumulated experience, IHÉS will organize or co-organize several scientific events in the coming
years, and permanent professors of IHÉS will continue setting working groups meeting once a week during
several months to study specific topics in depth. Besides the daily regular interaction between visitors and
permanent professors, here are some major scientific events to be held in 2004/2005 (this list is non exhaustive,
especially for 2005 because some events are still in the planning stage):
- Two seminars in Physics or/and Mathematics and Biology are organized each week in the average by
permanent professors, visitors present at IHÉS or external scientists (title, date and name of speaker are
available on the IHÉS web site as soon as confirmed);
- Working group led by Professor Laurent Lafforgue (mathemacian) that meets once a week during 2.5
hours from February to March 2004 to work on "Comparaison entre espaces de modules formels de
Drinfeld et espaces de Lubin-Tate, d'après Faltings" ("Comparison between Drinfeld's formal moduli
spaces and Lubin-Tate's spaces, according to Faltings");
- Working group of Professor Nikita Nekrassov (physicist) meeting once a week during 2.5 hours in the
winter and spring of 2004 on the latest developments of M-theory;
- A high level pre-conference workshop from June 14 to 27, 2004, a satellite event to "Strings 2004",
conference organized in Paris from June 28 to July 3, 2004;
- A one week international conference organized in October 2004 on the work of René Thom, a
permanent professor at IHÉS who passed away in 2002. Speakers will talk about different aspects of
1
-
-
René Thom's far-reaching contributions both from a historical point of view and its manifold
consequences in many different areas of the sciences and philosophy;
The "Troisièmes Entretiens de Bures" to be held in late November or beginning of December 2004.
This is the 3rd conference of the kind that will be organized by Misha Gromov's team at IHÉS. The main
topic of this conference is “Artificial Evolution”, a key subject at the interface between mathematics
and molecular biology;
A 3 month session in the beginning of 2005 by Professor Joel Leibowitz on "Statistical Mechanics out
of Equilibrium".
In the other two years of the contract, IHÉS commits itself to organizing a similar number of scientific events of
various formats, and focusing on different subjects, several of them having a multidisciplinary content.
IHÉS is committed to help visitors in general, and EC-fellows in particular to make the articles they write while
at the Institute, and more generally their work, known. The prepublication server of the Institute is the instrument
for immediate dissemination, journals being the next stage. In the last five years visitors wrote in average more
than one article as a result of their stays.
A part of the engineering of interactions developed by the Institute over the years has a material component that
IHÉS puts at the disposal of EC-fellows :
- Indeed, to favour both solitary concentration of visitors and collaborative work, 50 individual offices
are reserved for visitors, each of them furnished and fully equipped with the necessary computer
equipment providing access to a fast network and a variety of software and modern documentation
tools.
- The IHÉS library puts an important number of journals and books (around 6000 books and 115
journals) at the disposal of users. IHÉS has paid subscriptions to scientific databases and electronic
journals (Zentralblatt Math, MathSciNet, CiteSeer, Eram, www.aps.org, www.iop.org, www.aip.org,
www.numdam.org....) in order that users can have access to them from their computer during their visit.
Users can request articles, books and journals from the librarian, who takes care of getting them from
the nearby library at the Orsay Campus of the Université Paris-Sud, one of the best in Europe in the
mathematical sciences.
- Complete lodging facilities are granted to visitors and their families: the Résidence de l'Ormaille offers
52 apartments divided in 19 houses (of 4, 5, 6 rooms) and 18 studios, all of them fully furnished. ECfellows will take their lunches at the Institute’s cafeteria for lunches, whose format is set to maximize
professional interaction.
The mission of IHÉS’ scientific staff includes the personal support of visitors, and among them EC-fellows,
specifically to help them
- in getting acquainted with the tools put at their disposal,
- in accessing scientific institutions of the vicinity (the University Paris-Sud, the Saclay Center of the
« Commissariat de l’Énergie Atomique », the CNRS-campus of Gif-sur-Yvette), or those of the broader
Paris area,
- in overcoming administrative burdens (e.g. problems connected to visas, or access to schooling for their
children and/or relatives),
- or in helping them getting medical care when needed.
The location of IHÉS in the Bois-Marie estate, close to many important scientific institutions, is only half an
hour by train from downtown Paris. Therefore, EC-fellows participating in the IHÉS programme may easily
contribute to and participate in the thriving scientific life of the area if their research commands to.
On the basis of past experience, fruitful stays, in particular for first time visitors to the Institute, suppose at least
a month of residence. IHÉS commits itself to receive around 40 visitor-months each year of the programme,
corresponding to approximately 25 EC-fellows who will stay an average of 7 weeks, a length estimated over the
years as the most efficient for in depth exchanges.
IHÉS is committed to present annual reports on achievements, results and impact of the work conducted by
visitors, along with those of its permanent staff. Each visitor will report on his or her stay shortly upon leaving
the Institute. Special attention will be paid to interactions between subfields within the mathematical sciences,
and with other disciplines, in order to assess the multidisciplinary dimension of the scientific activities at the
Institute.
2
The selection of EC-fellows is the responsibility of the Comité Scientifique, which, besides the Director and
Permanent professors, contains an equal number of outside scientists nominated for 3 years. A majority of the
members are non-French, and this balance will be kept in the future.
The IHÉS activity is monitored every four years by an international evaluation panel, in which non French
scientists are the majority, and this programme will also be under the scrutiny of this panel.
2.
3.
4.
Project website: http://www.ihes.fr/
Start date: 1 June 2004
Duration: 48 months
List of participants
The following legal entities are participants to the contract:
Partic.
Role*
Partic.
no.
Participant name
Participant
short name
Country
Date enter
project
Date exit
project
CR
01
Institut des Hautes Études
Scientifiques
IHÉS
FR
2004
2007
*CO = Coordinator
CR = Contractor
5.
Access modalities
Conditions for application
Each applicant to the IHES Euro-Programme 2 has to be affiliated to an institution located in a Member State or
Associated State (except France) and has to hold a PhD either in Mathematics or in Theoretical Physics
Selection
The applicants are selected twice a year by a Selection Panel composed of IHÉS members and external
members, all international experts in their field
Deadlines for applications
December, 1 for the Winter session of the Scientific Committee
May, 1 for the Spring session of the Scientific Committee
Documents to be provided
Application form;
Curriculum vitae, publications list, description of the project research to be led at IHÉS;
Two or three recommendation letters (to be sent directly by the referees to the Institute).
How to apply
- Submit your application preferably on line or upload the application form(Rtf) or (Tex) and send your
complete file:
per regular mail:
European Programme
IHÉS, 35 route de Chartres,
F-91440 Bures-sur-Yvette,France
or by fax (+33 1 60 92 66 69).
- Contact : info-ep@ihes.fr
3
6.
Achievements
Six contributions in different areas are singled out, actually all of them are, in a way or another, at the interface
between Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. This manifold interface has a long tradition, especially at the
Institute. It develops in several directions: the mathematical process of quantization (work by Alberto
CATTANEO and by Piotr HAJAC), or mathematical structures relevant for quantum construction (work by
Herbert GANGL), and the deep geometrical content of string theories and theories connected with it, such as Mand Z-theories, on the one hand; the statistical analysis of systems, and their transition to chaos, which was the
main theme of the period "Statistical Mechanics out of Equilibrium" for which three contributions have been
singled out (Raffaele ESPOSITO, Pedro GARRIDO and Rosana MARRA).
From January to April 2005, IHÉS hosted a special programme on "Statistical Mechanics out of Equilibrium"
that brought together people with many different backgrounds: probabilists, specialists of dynamical systems and
of turbulence. The impact of the scientific activities conducted at this occasion could be felt much further than at
Bures-sur-Yvette since about 30 seminars were given by participants to the special programme in France, usually
in Paris, but also in Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Rouen, as well as some neighbouring European countries. At the
same time were held at IHÉS about two dozen seminars by French and European mathematicians and physicists.
This generated a lot of interaction between participants to the programme and French, as well as other European,
colleagues.
4