Pierre-Michel Menger is a sociologist, professor at the College de France. It analyzed the careers of university teacher-researchers and CNRS researchers between 1984 and 2014, to compare the trajectories between disciplines and identify specificities in those of mathematicians, undoubtedly at the origin of the international success of the France. On the occasion of the Fields medals ceremony, Tuesday July 5, which again includes a French winner, Hugo Duminil-Copin, he returns to his main conclusions.
What explains the French success in the elite of mathematics, in particular the Fields medals?
It looks like a well-oiled mechanism as the paths of the winners are similar. Most of them were born in teaching environments or close to teaching, which provides good equipment for understanding school functioning, but also advantages in terms of extracurricular activities, whether scientific (math club, Olympiads, etc.). ), musical or sports. These children develop a taste for play mixed with competition and a capacity for concentration in effort.
In addition, almost all of them were students at the Ecole Normale Supérieure on rue d’Ulm, with the sole exception of Artur Avila, a Franco-Brazilian trained in Brazil, and Alexander Grothendieck who was not a student but an auditor at the ENS. Then, the courses continue to resemble each other with theses in the best universities of Paris and its region for the majority of the Fields medalists, in which high-level mathematicians will play the role of mentor. Finally, almost all went through the CNRS after their thesis, which is a boost for their career, because it leaves them more time to devote themselves to research. All in all, we have a very powerful mechanism for success here.
What also distinguishes this discipline from others, apart from the characteristics of this elite?
It is the one that recruits lecturers and the youngest professors. Over the period studied, between 1985 and 2014, the average age of a new lecturer in pure mathematics or applied mathematics is the lowest of all the disciplines at about 32 years old, when it is over 34 years old in neuroscience, cell biology or physiology and almost 44 years in science education. For professors, this is also the case, with an average age of recruitment of 39 years, against 44 years in neuroscience and 51 years in education science. Only the so-called “aggregation” disciplines, law, management, etc., provide faster access to the professorship, with a particular mechanism. At the CNRS too, the youngest researchers recruited are mathematicians (under 30 on average, compared to 33.8 in biology).
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