Call for nominations of candidates for the Paul Lévy Prize 2026 in Probability Theory

Background

The Paul Lévy Prize in Probability Theory is a prize established recently by the European Mathematical Society, Ecole Polytechnique, the Foundation of Ecole Polytechnique, and the Paul Lévy family, with financial support from BNP Paribas. It was first awarded in 2024 to Jeremy Quastel at the 9th European Congress of Mathematicians. The Prize is to honour the memory of Paul Lévy, a great French mathematician, professor at Ecole Polytechnique for almost 40 years, from 1920 to 1959. Paul Lévy's work largely shaped modern probability theory which plays an increasingly crucial role in mathematics, physics, financial mathematics, and many other fields. Paul Lévy introduced such fundamental concepts as local time, stable distributions and characteristic functions. He made fundamental contributions in the theory of stable and infinitely divisible laws, the theory of Brownian motion, Lévy flights, and many others.

Principal guidelines

The Prize is to be awarded to a scientist who has made outstanding contributions to Probability Theory and its Applications, broadly defined. The Prize is envisaged to be an individual award but in exceptional cases the Selection Committee may award the Prize to a group of up to three scientists. The Selection Committee for the 2026 Prize will be chaired by Martin Hairer.

Nominations for the award

Nominations for the Prize should be submitted electronically to the EMS Office ems-office@helsinki.fi not later than August 31st, 2025. Any nomination should contain the name and affiliation of the candidate, as well as a description of the work that qualifies the candidate for the award, including references to the candidate’s important publications. The nominator should also provide a citation of about 100 words that can be read at the award date. Nominations are confidential, and must not be disclosed to the candidate. Nominations can be made by anyone but self-nominations are strongly discouraged.

Description of the award

The award comprises a commemorative medal, a certificate, and a cash prize of €20,000.

Award presentation

The 2026 Paul Lévy Prize will be presented at the Bernoulli Society’s 45th Conference on Stochastic Processes and their Applications (SPA) in Ithaca, USA, in June 15–19, 2026. The recipient(s) will be invited to present their work at the Conference.

Prize fund

BNP Paribas, the Principal Sponsor, has generously agreed to sponsor the Paul Lévy Prize through the Foundation of Ecole Polytechnique.