Fields Medal winner Cédric Villani: “Mathematics is an adventure”

Professor Cédric Villani, a Fields Medal winner and mathematician. PHOTO | COURTESY |  

What you need to know:

  • Researchers are not solitary beings that work on their own. Even Einstein was inspired by the great German work in physics and his professor colleagues
  • Look for collaborators against whom you can bounce your ideas back and forth
  • His signature style of wearing a three-piece suit, velvet cravat, brooch and pocket watch and his long hair makes him look more like a musician or artist than a mathematician

Professor Cédric Villani, 41, is a French mathematician who focuses on the theory of partial differential equations and mathematical physics. In 2010 he was awarded the prestigious Fields Medal, often described as the ‘Nobel Prize for Mathematics’, for his work on optimal transport and kinetic theory. He is also a winner of the Fermat and Henri Poincaré prizes.

After attending the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, Villani studied at the École normale supérieure in Paris from 1992 to 1996, and was later appointed an assistant professor in the same school.

He received his doctorate at Paris Dauphine University in 1998 and became professor at the École normale supérieure de Lyon in 2000. He is now professor at Lyon University and has been Director of Institut Henri Poincaré in Paris since 2009.

When the breakthrough came there was no mistaking it. “I leapt in joy,” he said.

His signature style of wearing a three-piece suit, velvet cravat, brooch and pocket watch and his long hair makes him look more like a musician or artist than a mathematician.

Seven steps

Villiani, who believes mathematics is an adventure, had his audience spellbound as he told participants at the first ever gathering of science in Africa, the Next Einstein Forum, how he came up with some of his breakthrough ideas. Here, in summary form are his seven steps to a breakthrough:

Documentation: One has to research what exists out there in relation to the idea they want to investigate.

Perspiration: You have to persist. Keep at it. The path to a discovery involves many steps and missteps.

Limitations: Know the limits that will impact on your work such as time. It can be frustrating, though.

Conducive environment: A researcher needs to work in an environment that enables their work.

Collaborators: Look for collaborators against whom you can bounce your ideas back and forth. Researchers are not solitary beings that work on their own. Even Einstein was inspired by the great German work in physics and his professor colleagues,” he says.

Inspiration: Love what you do. Find inspiration in other people’s work. Research for the sake of maths is beautiful art, its poetry.

Luck: When he was working on theory that won him the Fields Medal, he worked late into the night and finally gave up and went to sleep. When he woke up, he had ideas in his head about moving different equations around. When the breakthrough came there was no mistaking it. “I leapt in joy,” he said.
Villani says he doesn’t do research for awards but it is great to be recognised. The breakthrough in his career came courtesy of a Benin mathematician. “It’s funny, there is a perception in the West that Africa is in need of our help, but in fact my career was helped initially by a mathematician from Benin, who teaches in Atlanta,” he said.