Laure Saint-Raymond, a mathematician, focuses on problems in fluid mechanics.
After completing her dissertation under the supervision of François Golse on the kinetic theory of gases and plasmas, she was hired in 2000 as a research fellow at the CNRS. Appointed professor in 2002, she held positions successively at Pierre and Marie Curie University, then at the École Normale Supérieure (ENS) in Paris from 2006 to 2016, at the École Normale Supérieure (ENS) in Lyon from 2016 to 2021, and finally at the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques, before joining the Collège de France in 2026.
Her contributions, recognized by several international awards, focus on deriving effective models—that is, simplified models that, at a given scale, allow for the identification of dominant physical phenomena. In particular, she has made fundamental contributions to Hilbert’s sixth problem concerning the axiomatization of mechanics, one of the 23 problems proposed by David Hilbert at the 1900 International Congress of Mathematicians.
A member of the French Academy of Sciences since 2013, Laure Saint-Raymond regularly participates in think tanks, particularly those focused on the dissemination of knowledge. In this capacity, she led a broad consultation between 2023 and 2026 on the French education system and the changes needed for it to address contemporary challenges. From 2021 to 2024, she also directed the Institute of Mathematics of Planet Earth (IMPT), an interdisciplinary scientific research group that promotes the development of mathematics in relation to major environmental challenges.
Photo: Laure Saint-Raymond © Christophe Peus