He is the 13th Frenchman to obtain the equivalent of a “Nobel Prize in Mathematics”. Hugo Duminil-Copin won the Fields medal on Tuesday July 5, alongside three other winners. Permanent professor at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques de Paris-Saclay, he also works at the University of Geneva, as an associate researcher. On franceinfo, the 37-year-old scientist confides his desire to “make the most of mathematics”. Like his predecessor Cédric Villani, he wants to fight prejudices about maths.
franceinfo: How do you feel after obtaining the Holy Grail of mathematics?
Hugo Duminil-Copin: I was assailed by the feeling of responsibility vis-à-vis the general public. I find it very exciting to be able to represent an entire discipline. It’s a big challenge and I think Cédric Villani took it very high for years. I hope to be able to take over and try to highlight mathematics as much as possible to make people understand that it can be everyone’s hobby.
You have been rewarded for your work on probabilities applied to statistical physics. How do you respond when a non-specialist asks you what you do and what is it for?
I study what are called phase transitions, that is to say changes in behavior in matter. If I take water, if I pass it below zero degrees, it becomes ice. It is a phase transition. When a magnet is heated, it loses its magnetization at a certain temperature. But I study it mathematically, because there, you could say that I’m doing physics.
“I do mathematical caricatures. I’m good at producing new ideas. I’m not at all good at understanding how that idea can be applied, how it can be used.”
Hugo Duminil-Copinat franceinfo
So I couldn’t even tell you, sort of, how to use my own research. It’s up to someone else to find that.
Do you understand the more or less strong pressure that students, pupils in France have about maths?
I think that one of the big blockages we have in the teaching of mathematics is that error takes an unlikely place. You can’t make mistakes when you do math. If you make a mistake, it’s zero, one point, that’s all, when that’s not how you learn at all. A dancer, for example, will repeat the same gesture 1000 times before managing to do what she wants. It’s the same in math and research. I make mistakes everyday.
Hugo Duminil-Copin, winner of the Fields medal, responds to Jérémie Lanche
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