UREM-ULB :
Unité de Recherche sur l’Enseignement des Mathématiques

Lu dans les Notices

Opinion :
International Summer School for Students by
Etienne Ghys and Sergei Tabachnikov

Extrait :
 The main idea of the school is simple : to invite bright
students of mathematics from across the world and to have
them learn from—and actively interact with—leading international
mathematicians. The instructors were selected by the
following criteria : they should present contemporary research
in their areas and should be able to communicate in a nottoo-
technical way ; and they should share their excitement and
be willing to spend time with the students during the breaks
and after classes.

To quote from the interview with one of
the lecturers, Don Zagier, describing his “random’’ path to
research mathematics early on his career :
…in college, even, nobody told me what the interesting
things are that point to research. It was
only in graduate school that I finally found out
what modern mathematics is about.

(This interview, along with the videos of the lectures, is
available at the website of the school
 http://math.jacobsuniversity.de/summerschool/index.php).