CNRS senior scientist (directeur de recherche CNRS)

Institut Élie Cartan de Lorraine, Université de Lorraine, Nancy, France

News:

• As part of the research project LOUCCOUM (for Large Objects Under Combinatorial Constraints and Outside Uniform Models), funded by the ANR (French National Research Agency), we are organizing a research school at CIRM in June 2026 (8th-12th). The main lecturers are Jean-François Marckert (Bordeaux), Sumit Mukherjee (Columbia) and Fiona Skerman (Uppsala). Registrations are closed because accomodation in CIRM has reached full capacity, but it's still possible to register to attend the classes and have meals in CIRM. If you're interested in this option, please send me an email.
• With other former students of Philippe Biane, we are organizing a conference for his 2^6th birthday. It will take place in Paris, from Oct. 19th to 23rd, 2026. More information here.

Some research topics:

• Random permutations, patterns and permutons (see a picture of the Brownian separable permuton);
• Meanders and meandric systems;
• Central limit theorems for sums of weakly dependent variables: I have recently introduced a new tool, weighted dependency graphs, to obtain this kind of results;
• Deviation probabilities, speed of convergence for combinatorial random variables, via mod-Gaussian convergence;
• Algebraic combinatorics, and in particular combinatorics in the symmetric group algebra and its representations (Young diagrams, factorizations in symmetric groups and associated graphs embedded in surfaces, Jucys-Murphy elements) ;
• Symmetric functions, including Jack polynomials, and their connection with map enumeration;

Short CV:

• 2023-now: CNRS senior scientist (directeur de recherche) in IECL, Nancy.
• 2020-2023: CNRS junior scientist (chargé de recherche) in IECL, Nancy. Habilitation thesis (HDR) defended in Sepember, 2021.
• 2013-2020: Assistant professor of Pure Mathematics at the University of Zurich.
• 2013: Cours Peccot in College de France.
• 2009-2013: CNRS junior scientist (chargé de recherche) in LaBRI (University Bordeaux 1).
• 2006-2009: PhD candidate in LIGM (University Paris-Est Marne-La-Vallée).

You can also have a look at my detailed CV (version of May 2024, in French).

Contact:

firstname "dot" lastname "at" univ-lorraine "dot" fr

Valentin Féray, office 514

Institut Élie Cartan de Lorraine

Université de Lorraine, Site de Nancy

Boîte postale 70239

F-54506 Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy