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The 2016 Hubert Curien Memorial Lecture

Event Details:

  • Date: Tuesday 13th Dec 2016
  • Time: Lecture begins at 18:30     |     Pre-lecture Reception at 18:00;
  • Venue: The Cyprus Institute - Events Room, 1st floor Seminar Room, Novel Technologies Building, Athalassa Campus
  • Speaker: Prof. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, President of the European Research Council (ERC)

When Fundamental Discoveries Meet Our Daily Lives

Prof. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon
President of the European Research Council (ERC)

Tuesday
13 December 2016, 18:30
Novel Technologies Laboratory
The Cyprus Institute


Pre-lecture Reception at 18:00


Abstract
Prof. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon will present some theoretical concepts which have historically been very influential on a number of human activities. His focus will be on examples taken from the field of mathematics, as it has been the domain in which he has been active: from the foundations of Mechanics to the practical implications of General Relativity, from the introduction of quaternions to their use in Robotics, from random walks to Google, from wavelets to image analysis and processing. He will also use two examples coming from Physics and Biology: graphene and gene editing.

The usefulness of basic research is sometimes challenged. It is often tempting to look only at practical solutions to well posed problems. There are many historical examples showing that such an approach is too narrow, and in some cases plainly counterproductive. Actually, in the last 20 to 30 years, there have been many examples of short-circuits between esoteric-looking research and unexpected applications with far-reaching societal and economic consequences.
The key lessons to be learned are the vanity of dressing up a wall between basic and applied research and the need to leave room for researchers to pursue their ideas freely and to develop conditions to encourage them to take a long enough perspective.

About the speaker
Prof. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon is the President of the European Research Council (ERC) since 2014. He is a graduate from École Polytechnique in France, and holds a PhD in Mathematical Sciences from University Paris 7. His research concerns Global Differential Geometry and mathematical aspects of Theoretical Physics.

He was awarded the Paul Langevin Prize by the Académie des Sciences de Paris in 1987. He is a member of the Academia Europaea, a foreign member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences, and an honorary member of the London Mathematical Society. He holds honorary doctorate degrees from Keio University, Japan, and Nankai University, China.



The Hubert Curien Memorial Lectures
The Cyprus Institute founded the Hubert Curien Memorial Lectures Series, in honor of the late Prof. Hubert Curien (1924-2005), a Trustee of CREF and founding Chair of its International Council. Prof. Hubert Curien, a physicist, is regarded as one of the most influential scientists and science policy makers of the 20th century. After an involvement in the French resistance at the end of World War II, Hubert Curien graduated from the École Normale Supérieure. His scientific work was devoted to crystallography and he became an Assistant Professor at Paris University at the age of 27 and Professor five years later. He worked at CNRS as the Head of Physical Sciences Division and soon after as Director General. He served as Minister for Research (in several governments under the presidency of F. Mitterrand), but he never stopped teaching during all those years. He assumed a number of leading positions within European Science: President of the European Science Foundation, President of the European Space Agency, President of the Academia Europaea, President of CERN Council, as well as in France, where he had been President of Académié des Sciences de France and in numerous science boards. He was highly respected for his devotion to science, his openness and his generosity to people. His contribution in the planning and realization of The Cyprus Institute was pivotal and profound.


Previous Hubert Curien Memorial Lectures
2015 Prof. Daniel Cohen, Professor of Economics at the École Normale Supérieure, at the Université de Paris-I and at the École d'économie de Paris, France
2014 Carlo Rubbia, Nobel Prize in Physics, Scientific Director IASS Potsdam, Former Director General of CERN
2012-2013 Edouard Brézin, former President of the French Academy of Sciences, Chairman of Board of Trustees of The Cyprus Institute, and Herwig Schopper, former Director General of CERN, Emeritus Trustee of The Cyprus Institute
2011 Anastasios P. Leventis, Director of the Leventis Group International Companies and Chairman of the A.G. Leventis Foundation
2010 Richard N. Cooper, Professor of International Economics, Harvard University, USA
2009 Apostolos P. Georgopoulos, Professor of Neuroscience, Neurology and Psychiatry, University of Minnesota, USA
2008 Paul Crutzen (on his behalf Jos Lelieveld), Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Emeritus Director of the Atmospheric Chemistry Division of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany, and Professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography of the University of California at San Diego, USA
2007 Harold Varmus, Nobel Prize in Medicine, Lewis Thomas University Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, USA
2006 José Mariano Gago, Minister of Science and Higher Education, Portugal

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