Presentation

THE INSTITUT HENRI POINCARÉ : TODAY AS YESTERDAY, A TOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND PHYSICS

The Institut Henri Poincaré (IHP), founded in 1928, is one of the oldest and most active international bodies dedicated to mathematics and theoretical physics. It is located on the Pierre and Marie Curie campus, in the fifth arrondissement of Paris: a place full of history that is also associated with the first steps of atomic physics, the discovery of radioactivity and the birth of the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS).

The choice of the name of Henri Poincaré (1854-1912) owes nothing to chance: the Institute continues the tradition of diversity and universalism for which Poincaré was an emblem. He was famous for his brilliant intuition bridges that he built between phenomena of different mathematical and physical sciences, and his versatile talents as a theorist, engineer and philosopher. From the beginning the IHP was interested in the theoretical aspects as well as in the applications, playing a pioneering role in mathematical applications in statistics, biology and computer science; a policy which is still more relevant than ever.

The IHP’s supervisors are the CNRS and the University Pierre and Marie Curie (UPMC). It also maintains close links with the University Paris-Sud and many other institutions. Local collectivities (the City of Paris, the Ile-de-France) are closely associated with its actions.

The IHP is the privileged place where the excellence and the dynamism of French mathematics are embodied, under the double sign of hospitality and sharing. Every year, this "House of Mathematics and Theoretical Physics" hosts hundreds of visiting scientists, from the entire planet, and thousands of visitors who come to share their scientific expertise.

The Institute serves multiple functions : first of all, as a place for national and international scientific exchange, it hosts quarterly thematic programs, high level doctoral courses and countless conferences and seminars; it makes offices and logistic facilities available to its guests and visitors, as well as a high quality library.

It is a gathering place where all mathematicians are welcome to organize conferences and seminars, to make an appointment to discuss or to work. It is used as the mathematical French embassy for the press and the public, and works in close partnership with associations and societies for the promotion of mathematics; no fewer than nine of these institutions are housed at the IHP.

The richness of the scientific life of Paris, and the constant exchanges with the whole of France, a country of exceptional mathematical tradition, as well as with the rest of the world, maintain an internationally unequaled mathematical abundance in the IHP.

The IHP finally has editorial responsibilities through its own international scientific journals, the Annals of the Institute Henri Poincaré. After welcoming, after Albert Einstein, all the biggest names in theoretical physics, these records are now publishing articles in high-level mathematical physics, probability and nonlinear analysis.