June 28-29, 2018

Pascal Massart and Lucien Birgé have had a great influence on the development of statistics in France and abroad. They have provided numerous important contributions in statistical and learning theories as well as the applications of these to real data. Lucien’s and Pascal’s distinguished mathematical skills as well as their deep and elegant insights in statistics have been a beautiful source of inspiration for many researchers in the area.

It is high time that we celebrate such a pair of researchers --- taking as an excuse Pascal’s 60th birthday! Meetings will be held the 28th of June at IHES with colleagues and friends they’ve exchanged ideas with, and the 29th of June in Orsay with younger scholars they have helped and encouraged in research work.

Day 1 at IHES

The talks will in particular put the scientific trajectory of the speakers in perspective: they will share the various influences they received, the nice people they met, and all sorts of memories and stories. The aim is to provide a living picture of the major transformations that occurred in the statistical world during Pascal's and Lucien's carreers.

Venue: IHES, Bures-sur-Yvette
(click here for details on how to reach IHES)

   9:00 - Opening by Gérard Biau (SFdS), Emmanuel Ullmo (IHES)
   9:00 - Welcome address by Lucien Birgé and Pascal Massart
   9:30 - Vladimir Koltchinskii (Georgia Tech)
10:10 - Jon Wellner (U. Washington)
10:50 - Break
11:20 - Oleg Lepski (Marseille)
12:00 - Lunch
14:30 - Piet Groeneboom (TU Delft) --- slides of the lecture
15:10 - Gábor Lugosi (UPF Barcelona)
15:50 - Break
16:30 - Iain Johnstone (Stanford)
17:10 - David Donoho (Stanford)

Day 2 in Orsay

There will be talks in the same spirit as on Day 1... but not only!

Venue: Institut de mathématique, Orsay
(building #307 of the Paris-Sud University, get off at the RER B station Orsay Ville and follow this map)

   8:58 - Welcome to the new Orsay mathematical institute, by Elisabeth Gassiat
   9:00 - Pascal telling anecdotes (les Pensées de Pascal ?)
   9:40 - Lucien showing pictures
10:50 - Break
11:20 - Andrew Barron (Yale)
12:15 - Gábor Tusnády (Budapest) --- abstract of the lecture
12:30 - Lunch
14:30 - Claire Lacour (Orsay)
15:10 - Yannick Baraud (Nice)
15:50 - Closing addresses

16:30 - Soccer game

Registration
You may still contact directly the organizers to get registered.

Organizers
A bunch of former PhD students and of Orsay colleagues of Pascal... who all work(ed) or interact(ed) with Lucien over the years: Sylvain Arlot, Yannick Baraud, Christophe Giraud, Gilles Stoltz

Sponsors


We acknowledge support from Investissement d'avenir, grant ANR-11-LABX-0056-LMH, LabEx LMH (math-STIC program).