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The IHES at Forty ihes-changes.qxp 2/2/99 12:41 PM Page 329 The IHÉS at Forty Allyn Jackson ot far outside Paris, in a small village, Montel, Motchane eventually received, at age fifty- along a busy road, there is a gate lead- four, a doctorate in mathematics. ing into a park. The sound of the traf- In 1949 through his brother, who was an engi- fic dissipates as one follows the foot- neer in New Jersey, Motchane met the physicist path. The trees are abundant enough to Robert Oppenheimer, then director of the Institute Ngive the impression that one is simply walking for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton. It was through a serene wood, which has a slight incline around this time that Motchane conceived his idea that amplifies the rustle of the breeze through the of establishing in France an institute akin to the treetops. But soon one reaches a small parking IAS. Until his death in 1967, Oppenheimer re- lot, and beyond it a summer house that has been mained an important advisor to Motchane as the fitted with windows and turned into a library. Next IHÉS developed. Motchane’s original plan was to to the summer house there is a nondescript two- establish an institute dedicated to fundamental story building, and down a lawn of trimmed grass, research in three areas: mathematics, theoretical a low one-story building. This is no ordinary park. physics, and the methodology of human sciences It is the Bois-Marie, grounds of one of the world’s (the latter area never really took root at the IHÉS). leading research institutes in mathematics, the In- The institute was to be an entirely private enter- stitut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHÉS). prise, supported through donations from French Now forty years old, the IHÉS has spent nearly companies, and the researchers would have com- its entire lifetime in the Bois-Marie, in the Paris sub- plete freedom in choosing whatever directions urb of Bures-sur-Yvette. A special event was held they wanted to pursue. Motchane’s vision was last October to celebrate four decades of research highly unusual in France, where the government at the IHÉS. Over this period, the institute has pro- was the dominant force in the economy, in higher vided mathematicians with an idyllic, and in many education, and in support of scientific research. ways ideal, setting for research. The story of the Unfortunately, the goodwill of industry did not IHÉS, as befits its French heritage, is a story with last long. Some of the corporate sponsors pressed Motchane for more say in the directions pursued a little of everything—romance, madness, tragedy, by IHÉS researchers, and when he held fast to his as well as triumphal intellectual achievements. It original concept of unfettered research, they with- is also the story of a small, hardy institute that has drew their support. By the late 1960s industrial survived, despite perpetual financial uncertain- support had diminished considerably, but the IHÉS ties, to become home to an illustrious permanent was able to secure funding from the French gov- faculty and a major visiting center for researchers ernment, which became, and remains today, the from all over the world. major source of support. As this shift in funding The Founding of the IHÉS sources took place, the financial situation of the IHÉS remained precarious and did not stabilize The IHÉS was founded in 1958 by Léon Motchane. until the early 1970s. It was Motchane’s business He was born in St. Petersburg in 1900 to Swiss par- savvy, as well as his detailed understanding of the ents. After the Russian revolution, Motchane moved French system, that helped the IHÉS survive. For to Switzerland with his family. He had studied example, in 1962 he purchased at a very favorable mathematics and physics in Russia and served for price the Bois-Marie, which had come under state a time as a physics assistant in Lausanne. However, ownership after World War II. Later on, when the he had to give up his studies to earn money for his state laid plans for a new highway that would cut family and went into banking and insurance. He set- across an edge of the Bois-Marie, it recompensated tled in France in 1924. After World War II he con- the IHÉS for the loss. This recompensation was tinued to work in industry, but maintained an in- larger than the price Motchane had paid for the terest in scholarly work and published a few papers. whole property. Encouraged by the French mathematician Paul Prior to the purchase of the Bois-Marie, the IHÉS Allyn Jackson is senior writer and deputy editor of the No- occupied a couple of offices in the Fondation Thiers tices. Her e-mail address is [email protected]. in Paris, where Motchane and the IHÉS secretary, All photographs for this article were provided courtesy of Annie Rolland, worked. Despite the meager the IHÉS. facilities, the IHÉS succeeded brilliantly in its first MARCH 1999 NOTICES OF THE AMS 329 ihes-changes.qxp 2/2/99 12:41 PM Page 330 two appointments in IHÉS since 1964, Kuiper understood that in-depth mathematics: Jean discussion of research matters was the best way Dieudonné and Alexan- to make decisions about whom to invite. These dis- dre Grothendieck. The cussions, says Ruelle, “were more interesting and two worked at their effective than a case-by-case discussion of indi- homes and presented vidual applications, with the usual guesswork of seminars in a room lent how to read between the lines of letters of rec- by the Fondation Thiers ommendation.” Still, there was dissatisfaction over or at one of the univer- Kuiper’s lack of attention to physics and his in- sities nearby. Even at ability to penetrate the workings of the French bu- this time the IHÉS man- reaucracy. The two directors who came after Kuiper aged to attract as visi- are both French: Marcel Berger, who served from tors some of the top 1985 until 1994, and the present director, Jean- mathematicians of the Pierre Bourguignon. Interestingly, the three direc- day, including Michael tors succeeding Motchane all worked in differen- Atiyah, S. S. Chern, tial geometry, an area that fell somewhat out of Friedrich Hirzebruch, fashion as the world of French mathematics came and André Weil. In 1960 to be dominated by Grothendieck and Bourbaki. the IHÉS launched its Bust of IHÉS founder Léon Motchane, The Early Golden Years installed during the IHÉS 40th now famous series of blue-covered books, Les The creation of the IHÉS took place at a time when anniversary celebration in October the Bourbakists were exerting a deep influence on 1998. Publications de l’IHÉS. The series emphasizes mathematics, particularly in France. Dieudonné long articles of fundamental character and has was one of the founding fathers of Bourbaki, and carried some of the most important work to issue Grothendieck was one of its members. Many other from the institute. Dieudonné was the original ed- Bourbaki members, such as Claude Chevalley, Jean- itor of the series, and since 1979 Jacques Tits has Pierre Serre, and Armand Borel, attended Grothen- been the editor in chief. dieck’s seminars at the IHÉS. And in 1971 Pierre Cartier, another Bourbakist, began his long asso- Over the years, Motchane came increasingly to ciation with the IHÉS as a visitor. Thus, as Cartier depend upon Rolland, and she wielded consider- puts it, in the first ten years of the IHÉS, “the Bour- able influence. Upon his retirement in 1970, baki spirit was there, if not the institution of Bour- Motchane divorced his wife and married Rolland. baki.” Still devoted to the IHÉS, he maintained an in- The Bourbaki spirit was also reflected in what volvement in administrative and financial matters is arguably the most famous work to be published even after his successor, the Dutch mathemati- in the IHÉS blue series, the collection of six volumes cian Nicolaas Kuiper, had taken over as director. that make up Éléments de Géométrie Algébrique, Motchane died in 1990, and a few years later Rol- written by Grothendieck in collaboration with land committed suicide by throwing herself into Dieudonné. According to Cartier, there was an ex- the Seine River. One observer saw a link between plicit agreement between Grothendieck and Bour- Rolland’s tragic death and the IHÉS, saying that she baki that the books by Bourbaki on commutative never got over her loss of influence at the institute. algebra would leave off exactly where EGA began. She is not the only secretary who was deeply af- All told, Grothendieck was the sole author or a fected by her time at the IHÉS. Kuiper’s secretary, coauthor on some thirty volumes in the IHÉS blue Nicole Gaume, was ousted after Kuiper’s retire- series, most of which ran over 150 pages. He also ment, and she took her revenge by writing a novel wrote Séminaire de Géométrie Algébrique, which about the IHÉS. Entitled Dis-moi qui tu aimes (je te ran twelve volumes, ten of which were published dirai qui tu hais) (Tell me whom you love (I’ll tell by Springer-Verlag. EGA and SGA total approxi- you whom you hate)), and written under the nom mately 10,000 pages, and the rest of his works run de plume Margot Bruyère, the book was ostensi- a couple of thousand more. There was a sense of bly a murder mystery, but in fact attempted a a revolution under way as Grothendieck, through thinly veiled exposé of life at the institute. his writings and his lectures at the IHÉS, trans- It was Kuiper who persuaded scientific soci- formed the landscape of a wide swath of mathe- eties from other countries to contribute funds to matics.
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