History
The Mathematical Foundation Jacques Hadamard (FMJH) was created in 2010 by decree of the French Prime Minister with resources from an initial non-expendable capital endowment of 40 million euros as part of the Campus operation. Its objective is to lead a project of scientific excellence in the field of mathematics and its interactions. It thus contributes to the development and structuring of the scientific policies of its members in all matters relating to mathematics.
The FMJH also has the following missions:
- Develop structuring actions on the Paris-Saclay campus, particularly in terms of graduate, doctoral and postdoctoral training,
- Accelerate the development of interactions with the business world and other scientific disciplines, while encouraging the development of emerging multidisciplinary themes,
- Strengthen and coordinate international collaborative programs,
- Contribute to the irrigation of the national mathematical area.
Founded by the CNRS, the École polytechnique, the ENS Cachan, the IHÉS, the University Paris-Sud in early 2011, the FMJH was hosted by the Fondation de Coopération Scientifique Campus Paris-Saclay until 2017. It becomes a independant foundation in 2018, with an additional founder: the University Paris-Saclay.
FMJH today
Today, the FMJH puts in synergy 12 mathematical laboratories, those of the founding members and those of the associate members who have joined the foundation since 2013: AgroParisTech, CentraleSupélec, ENSIIE, ENSTA ParisTech, INRA, UEVE, UVSQ, ENSAE.
The FMJH thus benefits from the contributions of its founding members and associates, which are added to the means provided by the initial State endowment. A sponsorship program, the PGMO, initiated by EDF, brings in private funds.
The director of the FMJH is also the scientific director of the Mathematical Labex Hadamard (LMH), supported by IDEX Paris-Saclay. In addition to the members of the FMJH, this Labex brings together the Institut Mines Télécom, the CEA and Inria. Its scientific policy, coordinated with that of the FMJH, amplifies the support given to mathematics at interfaces with other disciplines.
The activity of the FMJH is conducted by a management team in constant contact with the laboratories of its members. A scientific council ensures the relevance of scientific choices and proposes new directions. A steering committee implements the major budgetary decisions taken by the Board of Directors.
Realisations
The Gaspard Monge Optimisation Program (PGMO) was jointly founded by EDF and FMJH in February 2012. In 2017, it has been renewed and its scientific field has been extended to the interactions between optimization and data science.
In 2016, the PGMO won the AEF prize for the best joint University-Business initiative in the Research and Innovation category. Its call for projects is open to research teams from all over the world. Its annual event, the PGMO Days, has become the main annual meeting of the optimization community in Europe. A seminar, thesis prizes, advanced courses that attract a large and varied audience (students, student-engineers, researchers from universities, schools and companies) complete the program. The FMJH plays a role in bringing people together by publishing internship and job offers. It invests heavily in an annual national event, the Forum Emploi Maths, organized by the Agence Math Entreprises (AMIES) and learned societies, by inviting companies to attend.
The FMJH and the LMH were the crucible where the mathematics training courses offered by the ComUE Université Paris-Saclay were born in 2015. The Paris-Saclay Master's degree in Mathematics and Applications is the result of an in-depth reorganization of the Master's level offer in the south of the Ile de France region, with a rationalization and the opening up of new courses in promising themes: Mathematics for Life Sciences, Optimization, Data Sciences, Mathematics of Artificial Intelligence. This training, backed by more than fifteen research units, reaches a flow of more than 400 graduates per year. The FMJH supports it through a scholarship program and a coordinating secretariat.
The Hadamard Doctoral School of Mathematics has the same scope as the "Mathematics and Applications" Master's degree. It covers a very broad thematic field, from the heart of the discipline to its industrial applications and its interfaces with other disciplines. With more than 300 doctoral students, it is one of the largest doctoral programs in mathematics in the world. The Labex Mathématique Hadamard supports it with operating credits and thesis grants. The flexibility of the labex allows the optimization of the use of means and guarantees the quality of the doctoral school's recruitment.
Why Mathematical Foundation Jacques Hadamard?
By taking the name of Jacques Hadamard, the foundation is placing itself under the aegis of a personality exceptional for his commitments and for the richness and depth of his scientific work. In addition, he was Professor in two of the emblematic establishments of the Paris-Saclay area: Ecole Centrale and Ecole Polytechnique.
MoreBiography of Jacques Hadamard
"I can dedicate my example to the parents who despair of their children's inability to overcome the first problems in arithmetic, because in arithmetic, even in the 7th grade, I was the last one or so".
An exceptional personality
A comforting message from the man who came first in both the Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole Normale competitions... By taking the name of Jacques Hadamard, the Fondation Mathématique du campus Paris-Saclay is placing itself under the aegis of a personality who is exceptional for his commitments and for the richness and depth of his scientific work.
The life of Jacques Hadamard (1865 - 1963) extends from the reign of Napoleon III to the presidency of General de Gaulle.
Through his personal life, Jacques Hadamard was involved, sometimes painfully, in the great events of his time, notably during the Dreyfus Affair, during the two World Wars during which he lost three sons and had to flee Nazism in the United States from 1940 to 1944.
These events are at the origin of Jacques Hadamard's political commitment and pacifist positions.
As a young man, Jacques Hadamard excelled in Latin and Greek, but it was to mathematics that he turned. He was first in both the Ecole Polytechnique and the Ecole Normale in 1884, and he opted for the latter. His teachers were Jules Tannery and Emile Picard. In 1892, Jacques Hadamard obtained his doctorate, with a thesis on the functions defined by Taylor's series, then received the Mathematical Sciences Prize for his work on whole functions. His proof, in 1896, of the prime number theorem makes it a figure of prime importance in the history of mathematics. Jacques Hadamard was elected professor at the Collège de France in 1909 and member of the Académie des Sciences in 1912.
A major influence
Jacques Hadamard's mathematical work is of exceptional depth and breadth. In particular, it has transformed the theory of functions, contributed to the creation of functional analysis and renewed the theory of partial differential equations. Its influence on the development of analysis in the twentieth century and on the French mathematicians who founded the Bourbaki group cannot be exaggerated.