The Henri Poincaré Institute (or IHP for ''Institut Henri Poincaré'') is a mathematics research institute part of

Sorbonne University Sorbonne University () is a public research university located in Paris, France. The institution's legacy reaches back to the Middle Ages in 1257 when Sorbonne College was established by Robert de Sorbon as a constituent college of the Unive ...

, in association with the

Centre national de la recherche scientifique The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 eng ...

(CNRS). It is located in the 5th arrondissement of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, on the Sainte-Geneviève Hill.

History

Just after World War I, mathematicians

Émile Borel Félix Édouard Justin Émile Borel (; 7 January 1871 – 3 February 1956) was a French people, French mathematician and politician. As a mathematician, he was known for his founding work in the areas of measure theory and probability. Biograp ...

in France and

George Birkhoff George David Birkhoff (March21, 1884November12, 1944) was one of the top American mathematicians of his generation. He made valuable contributions to the theory of differential equations, dynamical systems, the four-color problem, the three-bo ...

in the United States persuaded French and American sponsors ( Edmond de Rothschild and the

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The foundation was created by Standard Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller (" ...

respectively)Rockefeller and the internationalization of mathematics between two World Wars exte imprimé: documents and studies for the social history of mathematics in the 20th century / Reinhard Siegmund-Schultze. - Basel; Boston; Berlin : Birkhäuser, cop. 2001. - 1 vol. (XIII-341 p.) : fig., ill., carte; 24 cm. - (Science networks historical studies; volume 25). - Bibliogr. p. 07318. Index. (rel.). - (rel.)] to fund the building of a centre for lectures and international exchanges in mathematics and theoretical physics. The Institute was inaugurated on 17 November 1928 and named after French mathematician

Henri Poincaré Jules Henri Poincaré (, ; ; 29 April 185417 July 1912) was a French mathematician, Theoretical physics, theoretical physicist, engineer, and philosophy of science, philosopher of science. He is often described as a polymath, and in mathemati ...

(1854–1912). The institute's objective has been to promote mathematical physics, and it soon became a meeting place for the French scientific community. In the 1990s, the IHP became a thematic institute modelled on Berkeley's Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI).

Organization

The IHP's governing board has about 35 members. There are no permanent researchers other than the director and the deputy director. From 2009 to 2017, the institute was headed by mathematician

Cédric Villani Cédric Patrice Thierry Villani (; born 5 October 1973) is a French politician and mathematician working primarily on partial differential equations, Riemannian geometry and mathematical physics. He was awarded the Fields Medal in 2010, and he ...

, Fields Medals laureate in 2010, as director. French cosmologist Jean-Philippe Uzan was his deputy director. Since 2018, Sylvie Benzoni has been the institute's director. Together with the

Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques The Institut des hautes études scientifiques (IHÉS; English: Institute of Advanced Scientific Studies) is a French research institute supporting advanced research in mathematics and theoretical physics (also with a small theoretical biology g ...

(IHES), the Centre International de Rencontres Mathématiques (CIRM) and the Centre International de Mathématiques Pures et Appliquées (CIMPA) it is a member of the Carmin LabEx (Laboratory of Excellence), which aims at facilitating exchanges between mathematicians by building infrastructures for pooling skills and information.

Scientific activities

As a venue for national and international mathematical exchanges, the Institute organizes "thematic quarters" (three-month programmes on specific topics), intensive short-time collaborations, PhD training courses, conferences and seminars in mathematics or related fields, such as physics, biology or computer science. Topics are selected by the IHP's Scientific Steering Committee. The IHP welcomes around 11,000 mathematicians each year. In 2013, the Institute launched the "Poincaré Chair", a research program designed to foster the international careers of young researchers. Numerous seminars or series of lectures take place at the IHP, such as the Bourbaki and Bourbaphy Seminars, the History of Mathematics Seminar, as well as some more specialised lectures in algebra, number theory, mathematical physics and elliptic curves. The institute also publishes four international scientific journals, the Annals of the Institut Henri Poincaré (''Journal of Theoretical and Mathematical Physics'', ''Probability and Statistics'', ''Non-Linear Analysis'', and ''Combinatorics, Physics and their Interactions'').

General public

The Institute co-organises and sponsors numerous, scientific and cultural events aimed at the general public (2011: Mathematics, a Beautiful Elsewhere at the Fondation Cartier; 2011: A tribute to Evariste Galois; 2012: Centenary of Henri Poincaré's Death...). It has close ties with the associations and societies for the promotion of mathematics housed in its premises.

Mathematical designs

The library of the Henri Poincaré Institute holds a collection of some 400 mathematical models and designs that come in different materials: glass, plastic, cardboard, wire, sewing thread on a rigid frame, and plaster. This collection, which started with a donation by Martin Shilling, has been enhanced over the years, notably by wooden models built between 1912 and 1914 by lecturer Joseph Caron of the

École Normale Supérieure École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...

Head of Institut Henri Poincaré

* 1928–1948:

*1949–1975:

Paul Montel Paul Antoine Aristide Montel (29 April 1876 – 22 January 1975) was a French mathematician. He was born in Nice, France and died in Paris, France. He researched mostly on holomorphic functions in complex analysis. Montel was a student of Émile ...

*1975–1984: Charles Pisot *1984–1985: Pierre Lelong *1986–1987: Bernard Teissier *1988–1989:

Jacques Stern Jacques Stern (born 21 August 1949) is a cryptographer, currently a professor at the École Normale Supérieure. He received the 2006 CNRS Gold medal. His notable work includes the cryptanalysis of numerous encryption and signature schemes, the ...

* 1990–1994: Pierre Grisvard * 1994–1995: Joseph Oesterlé * 1999–2008: Michel Broué * 2009–2017:

* 2018–present: Sylvie Benzoni

References

External links

IHP welcome
Institute homepage

(in French, 1993) {{DEFAULTSORT:Institut Henri Poincare Research institutes in France International research institutes for mathematics French National Centre for Scientific Research Research institutes established in 1928