Cédric Villani
Cédric Patrice Thierry Villani (French: [se.dʁik pa.tʁis tje.ʁi vi.la.ni]; born 5 October 1973) is a French politician and mathematician working primarily on partial differential equations, Riemannian geometry and mathematical physics. He was awarded the Fields Medal in 2010, and he was the director of Sorbonne University's Institut Henri Poincaré from 2009 to 2017. As of September 2022, he is a professor at Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques.
Cédric Villani | |
|---|---|
Villani in 2015 | |
| Member of the National Assembly for Essonne's 5th constituency | |
| In office 21 June 2017 – 21 June 2022 | |
| Preceded by | Maud Olivier |
| Succeeded by | Paul Midy |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 5 October 1973 Brive-la-Gaillarde, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Alma mater | École Normale Supérieure Paris Dauphine University |
| Known for | Boltzmann equation Kinetic theory Landau damping Transportation theory Otto–Villani theorem |
| Awards | EMS Prize (2008) Fermat Prize (2009) Henri Poincaré Prize (2009) Fields Medal (2010) Joseph L. Doob Prize (2014) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions | Institut Henri Poincaré, Sorbonne University University of Lyon Institut Camille-Jordan |
| Thesis | Contribution à l'étude mathématique des équations de Boltzmann et de Landau en théorie cinétique des gaz et des plasmas (1998) |
| Doctoral advisor | Pierre-Louis Lions |
| Doctoral students | Alessio Figalli Clément Mouhot |
| Website | cedricvillani |
| Political party | Ecology Generation (2020–present) |
| Other political affiliations | Ecology Democracy Solidarity (2020) LREM (2017–2020) |
Villani has given two lectures at the Royal Institution, the first titled 'Birth of a Theorem'. The English translation of his book Théorème vivant (Living Theorem) has the same title. In the book he describes the links between his research on kinetic theory and the one of the mathematician Carlo Cercignani: Villani, in fact, proved the so-called Cercignani's conjecture.
His second lecture at the Royal Institution is titled 'The Extraordinary Theorems of John Nash'.
Villani was elected as the deputy for Essonne's 5th constituency in the National Assembly, the lower house of the French Parliament, during the 2017 legislative election. He was elected as a member of La République En Marche! (LREM), but in May 2020 left the party to form a new party, Ecology, Democracy, Solidarity (EDS). Following the dissolution of EDS, Villani joined Ecology Generation, and ran for re-election under the banner of the NUPES. He was elected Vice President of the French Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Scientific and Technological Choices in July 2017.
He lost his seat in the 2022 French legislative election to La Republique En Marche! candidate Paul Midy by 19 votes.