Handbook: Prizes awarded by the EMS

5.5 Paul Lévy Prize in Probability Theory

Background

The Prize was established in 2023 by EMS, École Polytechnique, the Foundation of École Polytechnique, and the Paul Lévy family, with financial support from BNP Paribas. The Prize is to honour the memory of Paul Lévy, a great French mathematician, Professor at École Polytechnique for almost 40 years, from 1920 to 1959 whose work largely shaped modern probability theory.

Principal guidelines

The Prize is 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.

Description of the award

The Prize comprises a certificate, a medal provided by the École Polytechnique and a cash prize of €20,000 provided by the Principal Sponsor BNP Paribas through the Foundation of École Polytechnique. The Foundation of École Polytechnique commits to finding other sources of funds should the initial donor wish to discontinue their involvement.

Prize Organizing Committee

The Prize is managed by the Organizing Committee appointed by the Founding Bodies (EMS, École Polytechnique, Foundation of École Polytechnique, Paul Lévy’s family) and the Principal Sponsor (BNP Paribas). The Prize Organizing Committee currently consists of

  • Konstantin Khanin, University of Toronto Mississauga, chair and the Paul Lévy family representative
  • Vladimir V. Piterbarg, NatWest Markets and Imperial College London, EMS representative
  • Jacques Vigner, BNP Paribas representative; a designated delegate is Jean-Jacques Rabeyrin (for the avoidance of doubt there is one representative/vote from BNPP)
  • Huyên Pham, École Polytechnique, École Polytechnique representative
  • Marie Caillat, Foundation of École Polytechnique, Foundation of École Polytechnique representative
Prize Selection Committee selection guidelines

The Prize Organizing Committee appoints the chair who proposes 3–6 further members to which the Organizing Committee will agree unanimously. The name of the chair of the Selection Committee will be made public before the nomination but the rest of the Selection Committee will be made public only after the award has been given.

Nominations for the award

Nominations have to be submitted to the chair of the Selection Committee via means to be clearly explained in the published announcement such as an email address or a web link. Any nomination should contain the name and affiliation of candidate, as well as a description of the work that qualifies the candidate for the award, including references to the candidate's important publications. Nominations are confidential, and must not be disclosed to the candidate. Self-nominations are strongly discouraged. The Selection Committee is free to consider mathematicians not nominated.

Award presentation

The Prize, envisaged to be awarded once every two years, is presented to the winner(s) at either the ECM or an alternative prestigious event associated with the EMS such as one of the Bernoulli Society conferences or events.