Frank Merle (born 22 November 1962, in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fran ...

) is a French mathematician, specializing in

partial differential equations In mathematics, a partial differential equation (PDE) is an equation which imposes relations between the various partial derivatives of a multivariable function. The function is often thought of as an "unknown" to be solved for, similarly to ...

and mathematical physics.

Education and career

After graduation from the

École normale supérieure École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education sca ...

(ENS), Merle received in 1987 his Ph.D. from the University of Paris VI under

Henri Berestycki Henri Berestycki (born 25 March 1951, in Paris) is a French mathematician who obtained his PhD from Université Paris VI – Université Pierre et Marie Curie in 1975. His Dissertation was titled ''Contributions à l'étude des problèmes elliptiq ...

with thesis ''Contributions a l'etude de certaines equations aux derivees partielles non lineaires de la physique mathematique''. He became a researcher for

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,63 ...

at ENS. In 1989/90 he was an assistant professor at the

Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences The Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences (commonly known as Courant or CIMS) is the mathematics research school of New York University (NYU), and is among the most prestigious mathematics schools and mathematical sciences research cente ...

of the University of New York. Since 1991 Merle has been a professor at the

University of Cergy-Pontoise Cergy-Pontoise University (French: ''Université de Cergy-Pontoise'') was a French university, located in Cergy-Pontoise, France. On 1 January 2020, the university merged with the International School of Information Processing Sciences (EISTI) an ...

. From 1998 to 2003 he was a member of the

Institut Universitaire de France The Institut Universitaire de France (IUF, Academic Institute of France), is a service of the French Ministry of Higher Education that distinguishes each year a small number of university professors for their research excellence, as evidenced by t ...

. In the fall of 1996, the fall of 2001, and the academic year 2003–2004 he was a visiting scholar at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...

. He was a visiting professor at Stanford University,

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and wa ...

, the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

, the

Mathematical Sciences Research Institute The Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute (SLMath), formerly the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI), is an independent nonprofit mathematical research institution on the University of California campus in Berkeley, Califo ...

(MSRI) at Berkeley, Leiden University, and the

University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

Mathematical research

Merle does research on

partial differential equation In mathematics, a partial differential equation (PDE) is an equation which imposes relations between the various partial derivatives of a multivariable function. The function is often thought of as an "unknown" to be solved for, similarly to ...

s (PDEs) and mathematical physics, notably dispersive nonlinear PDEs such as the

nonlinear Schrödinger equation In theoretical physics, the (one-dimensional) nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLSE) is a nonlinear variation of the Schrödinger equation. It is a classical field equation whose principal applications are to the propagation of light in nonlin ...

and the Korteweg–De Vries equation, and the study of such PDE solutions which over time break down or diverge (blow up). Such research earned him in 2005 the Bôcher Prize which he earned again in 2023.

Selected publications

* with Yvan Martel: * with Y. Martel: * with Pierre Raphäel:

Awards and honors

* 1997 : Prix de l'Institut Poincaré en Physique théorique * 1998 :

Invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians This is a list of International Congresses of Mathematicians Plenary and Invited Speakers. Being invited to talk at an International Congress of Mathematicians has been called "the equivalent, in this community, of an induction to a hall of fame." ...

in Berlin; lecture entitled ''Blow-up phenomena for critical nonlinear Schrödinger and Zakharov equations'' * 2000 : Prix Charles-Louis de Saulse de Freycinet de l'Académie des Sciences de Paris * 2005 : Médaille d'argent du CNRS * 2005 : Bôcher Memorial Prize * 2014 : Plenary speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Seoul; lecture entitled ''Asymptotics for critical nonlinear dispersive equations'' * 2018 :

Prix Ampère Prix was an American power pop band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1975 by Tommy Hoehn and Jon Tiven. The group ended up primarily as a studio project. Its recordings were produced by Tiven along with former Big Star member Chris Bell, wh ...

awarded by

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at th ...

* 2023 : Bôcher Memorial Prize, jointly to Merle, Raphaël, Rodnianski, and Szeftel * 2023 :

Clay Research Award __NOTOC__ The Clay Research Award is an annual award given by the Oxford-based Clay Mathematics Institute to mathematicians to recognize their achievement in mathematical research. The following mathematicians have received the award: {, class=" ...

Clay Research Award 2023
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Merle, Frank 1962 births Living people PDE theorists 20th-century French mathematicians 21st-century French mathematicians École Normale Supérieure alumni University of Paris alumni Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars Scientists from Marseille Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences faculty