Person: Werner (2), Wendelin
Wendelin Werner is a German-born French mathematician known for his work on random processes. He was awarded a Fields Medal in 2006
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- They settled in France and Wendelin was brought up there.
- Benjamin Werner, an outstanding researcher in computer science, was, of course, also brought up in France.
- Wendelin took French nationality at the age of nine.
- After leaving the Lycée Franco-Allemand, it was to the Lycée Hoche, close to the Palace of Versailles, that Werner went to prepare for his university studies.
- In 1993 Werner was appointed as a permanent researcher at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) just before he defended his thesis on planar Brownian Motion for which he was awarded his doctorate.
- Werner's remarkable mathematical contributions have led to him receiving many highly prestigious prizes.
- In 1999 Werner was awarded the Doisteau-Émile Blutet prize from the Academy of Sciences in Paris and was honoured with an invitation to give the Cours Peccot at the Collège de France.
- Also in 2006 Werner received the most prestigious award that a mathematician can receive, namely a Fields Medal.
- In an interview after being awarded the Fields Medal, Werner was asked if he could explain, in simple terms, one of the problems he worked on.
- In 2001 Werner was invited to deliver the Second Rollo Davidson Lecture in Churchill College, Cambridge.
- In April 2005 Werner delivered the 4th Thomas Wolff Memorial Lectures in Mathematics at the California Institute of Technology.
- Werner has been invited to give several other named lectures, in addition to those mentioned above, such as the Mark Kac seminar in Utrecht, the James and Marylin Simons lectures at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Levy lecture in Barcelona, and the Goran Gustafsson lectures in Stockholm.
- Werner's work, together with his collaborators such as Greg Lawler, Oded Schramm and Stas Smirnov, involves applications of Probablity and Conformal Mapping Theory to fundamental issues in Statistical Physics ...
- Namely, mathematicians such as Werner are not only providing rigorous proofs of already existing claims in the Physics literature, but beyond that are providing quite new conceptual understanding of basic phenomena - in this case, a direct geometric picture of the intrinsically random structure of physical systems at their critical points (at least in two dimensions).
- Yet a third source of pleasure concerns the collaborative nature of much of Werner's work.
- But the highly interactive style, of which Werner, together with Lawler, Schramm and his other collaborators, is a leading exemplar, appeals to many of us as simultaneously good for the soul while leading to work stronger than the sum of its parts.
- Of course Werner has continued to receive honours following the award of the Fields Medal.
- We must not end this biography without mentioning that Werner has had a, perhaps surprising, life outside mathematics as an actor playing a role in the 1982 film La Passante du Sans-Souci Ⓣ(The Passerby).
- The letter criticises policies of Sarkozy's government which have, in Werner's opinion, led to a breakdown in trust between government and researchers.
Born 23 September 1968, Cologne, Germany.
View full biography at MacTutor
Tags relevant for this person:
Prize Fields Medal, Origin Germany
Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0! 
- Github:
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- non-Github:
- @J-J-O'Connor
- @E-F-Robertson
References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
