Professor Luc Vinet Appointed Director of the CRM
Montreal, August 29, 2013 - Dr. Geneviève Tanguay, Vice-Rector (research, creation and innovation) at the Université de Montréal, and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Centre de recherches mathématiques (CRM), announced the appointment of Professor Luc Vinet as Director of the CRM. This nomination took effect on July 20, 2013. Dr. Vinet succeeds Professor François Lalonde who headed the CRM from 2004 to 2008 and from 2011 to 2013.
A distinguished mathematical physicist, Luc Vinet has dedicated a significant part of his career to the organization, and development of research.
Luc Vinet obtained a first doctorate in theoretical physics at the Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie in 1979 and a second one at the Université de Montréal in 1980. He was subsequently a postdoctoral fellow at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and he returned to Montreal in 1982 as University Research Fellow of the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). In 1992, he was appointed full professor at the Université de Montréal.
His scientific work focuses generally on the exact solution of physical models through the study of symmetries and their description in terms of algebraic structures. He has achieved major advances in gauge theory, algebraic combinatorics, supersymmetry, superintegrability, special function theory and quantum transport.
Luc Vinet has already been Director of the Centre de recherches mathématiques from 1993 to 1999. Under his leadership, the CRM funding doubled. He established the Réseau québécois de calcul de haute performance (RQCHP), as well as the Network for Computing and Mathematical Modeling (ncm2) and the Laboratoire universitaire Bell (LUB). He was one of the founding directors of the national network of centres of excellence MITACS.
In 1999, he became Vice-Principal (Academic) and Provost at McGill University. He returned to the Université de Montréal in 2005 as its Rector until 2010. Luc Vinet has received numerous distinctions. In particular, he was awarded the prestigious Prix Armand-Frappier by the Quebec government in 2009. He was also the recipient in 2012 of the CAP-CRM Prize for his research in theoretical and mathematical physics. He is presently Aisenstadt Professor of Physics at the Université de Montréal.
As Director of the CRM, Luc Vinet will be responsible for all the operations of the institute and in particular, for its scientific programming.
The Centre de recherches mathématiques is a world-renowned institute in the mathematical sciences. Created in 1968 at the Université de Montréal, the CRM brings together all the stakeholders in mathematical research at Québec universities as well as at some other Canadian universities. The CRM organizes events attended by researchers and students from all horizons. The CRM covers the entire range of mathematical sciences: pure, applied, industrial or interdisciplinary. The CRM is also the instigator of the international year “Mathematics of Planet Earth 2013” that has received the patronage of UNESCO.
We are pleased to welcome Professor Vinet as Director of the CRM. We wish him the greatest success in his functions.
We also wish to take this opportunity to warmly thank outgoing Director François Lalonde, who has succeeded remarkably in furthering the CRM’s development.
Source: Vice-rectorat à la recherche, à la création et à l'innovation de l'Université de Montréal and Centre de recherches mathématiques.