And thirteen. The French school of mathematics has once again been rewarded with a Fields medal, a distinction awarded every four years since 1936, during the International Congress of Mathematicians, for progress in the discipline made by researchers of less than 40 years.
Hugo Duminil-Copin, 37 years old in August, was a student of the Ecole Normale Supérieure on rue d’Ulm, like ten other of his national predecessors, but the “conformism” stops there. Like only two others before him, he did not do his thesis in Paris, nor did he go through the CNRS. His master’s professor at the University of Orsay at the time, Wendelin Werner (Fields medal in 2006), suggested to him in 2008 that he pursue his thesis in Switzerland, at the University of Geneva, with the future Fields laureate of 2010, Stanislav Smirnov. “At the end of my thesis defense, a university official offered me a job! »remembers Hugo Duminil-Copin, who went through the formalities to be appointed in 2013 without a hitch. ), now crowned with eight Fields medals, and settled in the town of his adolescence, in Bures-sur-Yvette (Essonne). “We are delighted with this success, which validates our model, where our teachers enjoy great freedom, administrative assistance which relieves them and the possibility of working with many visitors for long stays”greets Emmanuel Ullmo, the director of IHES.
The coincidence of location makes the new winner smile, a probabilist who knew nothing about this prestigious establishment at the time. Just as he didn’t know, when he was taking his lessons, that Wendelin Werner had won the Fields medal. Or as he had remembered, two days before the test, that he had to pass the aggregation. “I was afraid of being the first normalien to miss this competition! »launches, not very convincing, Hugo Duminil-Copin, who, after intense revisions for the oral, will be classified second, a rank consistent with that of his elders.
That kind of throttle kick, or “slap” as he says, was a habit. Arrived from the suburbs at Lycée Louis-le-Grand, in Paris, in first, he is last in an elite class at the start of the year, before whipping to be first.
Rigor, intuition and curiosity
“Four probabilistic winners in five promotions, it will make people talk”says with a smile the one who chose this area of probability thanks to his teacher “exceptional” then, Jean-François Le Gall. “In fact, I prefer to say that I do physics-mathematics, rather than probabilities, because it reconciles two childhood passions, maths and physics, the first for rigor, the second for intuition and curiosity. to understand natural phenomena. »
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