Hugo Parlier, currently a professor in the mathematics department at the University of Fribourg, is a mathematician whose career is a perfect illustration of the synergy between academic research and science outreach.

A graduate of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, where he obtained his doctorate in 2004, Hugo Parlier broadened his experience through several postdoctoral stays in Madrid, Toronto and Geneva. His career then took him to the University of Luxembourg (2017-2025), before his recent moving to Fribourg. His research focuses on a variety of areas, including geometry, topology and combinatorics.

What sets Hugo Parlier apart is his ongoing commitment to making mathematics accessible to the general public. In particular, he is a co-creator of Mathema, an interactive book for iPad that gave rise to puzzles called Quadratis, available on iOS.

His involvement in science outreach has been demonstrated through several large-scale projects: The Simplicity of Complexity and Recreate: shapes from the collective Imagination, which were presented at the Dubai World Expo in 2021-2022; The Sound of Data, as part of Esch2022, European Capital of Culture; the exhibition Shapes : Patterns in Art and Science at the EPFL Pavillons, a collaborative project exploring the links between art and science.

To find out more about his work and his vision of mathematics, you can listen to his interview in the Mäin Element podcast, a collaboration between the Lëtzebuerger Journal and the Fonds National de la Recherche (FNR).

What does it mean to be a mathematician? How do mathematicians work? What is intuition? Where do their ideas take them? What is a researcher’s day like? These and many other questions were put to fourteen researchers working in different areas of mathematics in interviews that make up the web documentary “Paroles de déchiffreurs”. A physicist, an astronomer and a historian of mathematics also contributed their answers.

Sprinkled with doubts, joys, failures, questions, desires… the stories of these researchers reveal a world little known to the general public. They all demonstrate a great passion for their work and show how, without their great capacity for work and concentration, they would not have got to where they are today: on the frontier of the latest mathematical discoveries. (imagesdesmaths, 2024)

Between 2011 and 2012, an exhibition of photographs entitled Les Déchiffreurs toured the Hauts-de-France region. This exhibition, created by the IHÉS in collaboration with photographers Anne Papillault and Jean-François Dars, has evolved into a more ambitious project running until 2018-2019.

The project has evolved to include interviews with mathematicians and physicists, giving rise to a web documentary. Directed by Michaël Mensier from the University of Lille’s Audiovisual Department, the project aims to raise awareness of fundamental research in mathematics and physics among the general public and students.

Although the pandemic interrupted the completion of four interviews, the project represents an important testimony to the history of contemporary mathematics.

The web documentary is available at the following address: https://parolesdedechiffreurs.univ-lille.fr/.

References

1. Valerio Vassallo. 2024. Web-documentaire « Paroles de déchiffreurs ». Images des Mathématiques. https://images.math.cnrs.fr/billets/web-documentaire-paroles-de-dechiffreurs/