27/09/2021

IMPA researcher Hubert Lacoin will give a lecture at ICM 2022.

With the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) 2022 almost a year away , the excitement for the magic of numbers to take over the streets of St. Petersburg (Russia), where the event will be held, is already enormous. And IMPA will be well represented at the world's leading mathematics event. Researcher Hubert Lacoin from the institute has been announced as one of the speakers in the "Probability" section of the congress, which takes place between July 6th and 14th of next year. An affiliated member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC) and winner of the Annales Prize from the Henri Poincaré Institute in 2012, Lacoin studies the connections between probability theory and statistical mechanics.

“I was honored by the committee's choice and grateful to the Brazilian Mathematical Society for proposing my name. Being invited to this conference is an important recognition. The feeling was similar to receiving a good grade on an important exam when I was a student. And it reminded me that I am fortunate to work at an institution that provides excellent conditions for developing research,” the mathematician celebrated.

Lacoin had already participated in the 2018 edition of the ICM, chaired and organized by the director-general of IMPA, Marcelo Viana, in Rio de Janeiro , and was impressed by the size of the event. “It’s much larger than the usual mathematicians’ conferences that gather between 30 and 50 people. And there are speeches by politicians, press presence, something that is a bit outside our daily routine. Besides being an event for mathematicians to meet, it also serves to promote the discipline to the external public,” he recalls.

In his lecture, he will address mixing times for one-dimensional systems, a topic he has been studying extensively in recent years. "The purpose of this research is to understand how long a physical system needs to reach equilibrium from an atypical configuration," explains the researcher, who has been conducting studies on the topic in collaboration with colleagues from other universities.

Expectations for the event are high, says Lacoin. “I hope the health situation allows it to be in person, as that’s the best way to enjoy the lectures. I also hope to be able to clearly present my work.” The researcher is also excited to return to St. Petersburg. “I took a trip 15 years ago, planning to visit the Hermitage Museum in particular, the largest art museum in the world. I found it a stunning city, but when it came time to visit the museum on the last day of the trip, we discovered it was closed due to a holiday. I haven’t been able to go back since then, but I hope to be able to visit this time before or after the conference,” he says.

The "Probability" section will also feature a lecture by Patrícia Gonçalves, a researcher from the University of Lisbon who holds a doctorate from IMPA. The event website also lists the plenary lectures, special lectures, and guest speakers for the next edition.

Another highlight of the program is the second World Meeting of Women in Mathematics (WM)² , which will bring together mathematicians from around the world on the eve of the official opening of ICM 2022, on July 5. Organized by the Committee for Women in Mathematics of the International Mathematical Union (IMU), the event will feature lectures by distinguished mathematicians, a poster session, panel discussions on the gender gap in mathematics, and the launch of the visual exhibition “МАТЕМАТИКА, Through a Land of Mathematics”, which highlights women mathematicians from across Russia.

Registration for (WM)² has not yet opened, but you can already indicate your interest in participating by pre-registering on the ICM website, or by applying for one of the scholarship options in your personal event account. Information about the program is available on (WM)² .

Held in Rio de Janeiro in 2018, the latest edition of the ICM brought together more than 3,000 participants from 114 countries. The opening ceremony included the awarding of the Fields Medal, the most prestigious distinction in the field, to mathematicians Caucher Birkar, Alessio Figalli, Peter Scholze, and Ashkay Venkatesh. Participants from five continents experienced a nine-day mathematical immersion at the Riocentro convention center. The scientific marathon featured 21 plenary presentations, 910 lectures, 435 short communications, and 475 posters. The event also served as the stage for the awarding of gold medals to the 570 young winners of the Brazilian Mathematics Olympiad for Public Schools (OBMEP).