Subscribe
E-Paper
.jpg/dims/resize/740/optimize) |
| President Park Geun-hye presents a Fields medal to Artur Avila, a senior researcher with the National Center for Scientific Research based in Paris, during the opening ceremony of the International Congress of Mathematicians at COEX in southern Seoul, Aug. 13. / Yonhap |
Envoy discusses ‘French ingenuity,' elite education
.jpg/dims/resize/120/optimize) |
| French Ambassador Jerome Pasquier |
In France doors are open for math talent from all around the world and the open-door policy helped the country attain the highest levels of achievement in the field, according to Ambassador Jerome Pasquier.
"We are welcoming foreign researchers," the French envoy said in a recent interview with The Korea Times. "I hope that in the future we have another international mathematician, who came to France, win the award again," Pasquier said.
His remarks came a day after Artur Avila, a dual citizen of France and Brazil, was declared one of four Fields Medalists at the opening ceremony of the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) at COEX in southern Seoul.
Pasquier was thrilled to hear the results as the medal is sometimes referred to as "the Nobel Prize of mathematics" because it is the highest honor within the field.
Avila, now a senior researcher with the National Center for Scientific Research in Paris, a think tank better known by the French abbreviation CNRS, is a product of the French government's open-door policy for international mathematicians.
Born and raised in Brazil, the mathematician became a naturalized citizen of France as an adult.
Avila was honored for his "outstanding contributions to dynamical systems, analysis and other areas in many cases proving decisive results that solved long-standing open problems," according to the International Mathematical Union.
"I am proud of him," Pasquier said. "Almost every four year when the International Mathematical Union named the winners at the ICM, we, France, have always been in the list of the winning countries of the prestigious prize."
The three other winners were Iranian-born Maryam Mirzaknani, the first female Fields Medalist; Canadian-American Manjul Bhargava; and Martin Hairer from the United Kingdom.
On August 14, the Embassy of France threw a reception for the visiting French delegation. Hundreds of mathematicians from other countries were also invited to join the event, which marked the opening of the weeklong gathering of mathematicians from around the world. The ICM Seoul ended Thursday.
To date, 12 French mathematicians have won Fields Medals since Finnish mathematician Lars Ahlfors and American Jesse Douglass received the first medals in 1936.
In terms of the number of medalists, France is second only to the United States, which has produced 13.
Although France and the United States are neck and neck in this regard, mathematicians say France is the de facto champion, when it comes to the ratio of the medalists against the entire population. France has a population of nearly 50 million, whereas that of the United States is triple that figure.
Kimn Ha-jine, a professor emeritus at Ajou University in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, said France had led the mathematics field for a long time. Kimn was the first Korean who earned a doctorate in applied mathematics in France in 1980.
"France is a rule-setter in the area of math," Kimn said. "There is no doubt about that."
French Ambassador Pasquier said "French ingenuity" had played a role in his country's strong performance in math.
"Mathematics is science," Pasquier said, "But I think it is also a form of art because it needs creativity. French people are very good at creativity."
Competition
Why do the French lead the way in math? Does the answer lie in the French educational system?
Christoph Sorger, head of the CNRS-affiliated Institute for Mathematical Sciences, attributed the French success story to the availability of elite postsecondary education.
"We have a very precise system designed for mathematicians (after high school)," Sorger said. "We have a very high level of postsecondary school and the competition to enter it is very heavy.
"People aged from 18 to 20 go to the very difficult class and enter the ecole normale superieure (ENS) a couple of years later. All French field medalists are alumni of ENS. They study six or seven years there before they become professors or researchers."
These unique French higher education institutions are separate from the public university system. They train elite professors, researchers and public administrators.
Sorger also pointed out that mathematicians are highly respected in France and they have a strong professional network.
The ICM Seoul, meanwhile, has raised a difficult question in Korea.
Why has no Korean ever won a Fields Medal, despite Korea's outstanding performance on the mathematics section of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's Program for International Student Assessment?
Korean mathematicians are searching their souls for an answer. Professor Kimn offered one possible explanation.
Korean students are trained to solve problems so they can earn high scores on the university entrance examination, he said. "They never learn to think independently or search for solutions that are not part of the examination."
Educators need to encourage Korean students to think about why math is important, how it works, and how it can be applied in the real world, Kimn said.
The mathematician said Korea could learn a lesson from France in this area.
"French educators place a high priority on logic," he said. "Not on training their students to solve problems."
