The Institut Henri Poincaré (IHP) celebrated its ninetieth anniversary in November 2018, under the auspices of the institutions and partners that support its development and outreach projects. The IHP team and that of its endowment fund chose to wear on that occasion a colorful lavaliere, reminiscent of the famous IHP former director and the graphical charter of the institute.
The year 2018 saw a wide variety of scientific events at IHP. In particular, the three thematic trimesters held in 2018 were very successful. The program on model theory attracted most of the researchers in the field from all over the world, the numerous participants being accommodated in a most professional manner by our staff. Both the trimesters on quantum systems and on cosmology gathered participants with very different backgrounds, involving mathematics and/or physics, theory, experimental and/or numerical approaches. Beside these long, thematic programs, numerous groups stayed and worked at IHP within the «Research in Paris» program. I express my gratitude to the program organizers for their hard work and to all participants for their involvement in making IHP such a lively and productive house, which is the very reason of its existence.
One of the crucial stakes for the institute is to enhance the outreach of these scientific activities through short documentaries, interviews and popularization articles. Regarding the latter we have been working in partnership with a website supported by the CNRS, Images des mathématiques. This work has been undertaken by Adrien Rossille, our new science communication officer since January 2019. The year 2019 will also see the release of our platform carmin.tv, a joint initiative with our partners in the 'Excellence Laboratory' CARMIN (CIMPA, CIRM, IHÉS, IHP). The French government has indeed agreed to continue CARMIN for five more years starting 2020, after its positive assessment by an international jury. Carmin.tv will gather all of the audio-visual production of the four partners on a shared web platform in order to enhance its visibility and reach a wider audience.
The organizers of scientific programs at IHP are warmly encouraged to offer public lectures, and also workshops towards companies whenever the theme is relevant for industrial applications. In this respect we had last year at least one public lecture per trimester, and the year 2019 has started successfully. The trimester on the Mathematics of imaging has indeed included three public lectures and three math-industry days, in cooperation with Amies (Agency for Interaction of Mathematics with Business and Society).
Regarding outreach, several remarkable exhibitions have been designed at IHP in 2018 in collaboration with external experts, and presented to the general public over several months. The most informed public has been able to see two historical exhibitions in our library. The first one was entitled 'Fourier, from the French Revolution to the digital revolution'. It has been successful enough to be shown in various ways in other cities, in particular in Grenoble to celebrate Joseph Fourier, famous there as a prefect. Another mathematician was celebrated in the library, through an exhibition entitled 'Gaston Darboux, the depth of surfaces'. This one was the counterpart of an exhibition more designed for the layman and that can be seen during the whole academic year 2018-2019 at the Musée des arts et métiers in Paris. Entitled 'Maths under the surface', it has been visited by hundreds of high-school students with their class, accompanied by a trained science communicator. Moreover, dozens of teachers have had the opportunity to visit the exhibition with its scientific curator. IHP has also been involved in the design of another exhibition, entitled 'As by chance' and currently displayed at the House of mathematics and computer science in Lyon.
The documentary film that was announced last year will be released soon. Entitled 'Man Ray and the mystery of mathematics' and directed by Quentin Lazzarotto, audio-visual officer at IHP, this film is an invitation to dream and meet mysterious models. These have been kept at the Institute for the last ninety years, and entered the surrealist world by mere coincidence. Mathematics, photography, painting and literature are intertwined in this fascinating film, which will also include a few facetious moments. The support of our partners has been as crucial for this film to be realized as for the exhibitions to be produced.
A sixth season of the film club called 'Convergent Universe - Science, fiction, society' has started at the theatre Le Grand Action. On the last Tuesday of each month, IHP offers a dialog between scientists and the society in a friendly atmosphere. A glimpse of the program will convince you about the diversity of themes that are dealt with after the screening of movies, documentaries, or even series of short films, which will be a novelty this year. Those who cannot participate physically in the film club have the opportunity to watch the debate afterwards on the YouTube channel of IHP.
The house of mathematics and theoretical physics thus redoubles imagination while expanding its premises to be ever more welcoming and promote the production and transfer of scientific knowledge.
The refurbishment of the Perrin building will offer multiple spaces and rooms suitable for scientific interaction. This will undoubtedly improve the service offered to the national scientific community, who is used to drop by and work at IHP, a central and inspiring place. Thanks to this new building the Institute will be able to accommodate according to the best international standards even more scientific events, selected by its Scientific Advisory Board as being at the cutting edge of international research in mathematics, theoretical physics and their interactions with other fields.
Among the numerous projects of the new house of mathematics, the museography of the permanent exhibition in the Perrin building is being elaborated thanks to the commitment of many people with diverse backgrounds, including researchers, teachers, science communicators and engineers. Some museums and partner companies are also very much involved in the museographic project. We warmly acknowledge their support and thank all the people who share their ideas and give their time to contribute to the quality and the originality that will be necessary to ensure the success of the project.
Our museum's main attraction will be the 'room of Alice', where visitors will be able to experience HoloMath, an innovative way of exploring the world of mathematics based on augmented reality technology. This is an original idea by Cédric Villani. The first, exciting scenario that is being developed is about the notion of Brownian motion. Several other scenarios are in preparation on various topical themes. For these too the support of our partners is crucial.
The underlying idea in the museum, which will also offer rooms for temporary exhibitions and workshops, is to get the visiting researchers to interact with the general public and the students. The aim is to encourage those who produce new knowledge to popularize the scientific culture themselves.
The house of mathematics and theoretical physics thus faces many challenges. The whole staff of IHP and its endowment fund is committed together with Rémi Monasson, deputy director since March 2018, and myself to achieving the ambition of our renewed Institute.
Sylvie Benzoni, March 2019.
