We are pleased to learn that Lenka Zdeborovà, CNRS researcher at IPhT, has just been awarded the Irène Joliot-Curie "Young Woman Scientist" prize for the year 2018. The Irène Joliot-Curie Awards are intended to promote women's place in research and technology in France. They are awarded by the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation and Airbus with the support of the Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Technology. Lenka is interested in applications of methods developed in statistical physics, such as advanced mean-field methods, replica method and message passing algorithms, for problems in machine learning and artificial intelligence, signal processing, inference and optimization. In other words: what are the problems that can be solved effectively using a computer? If this question is traditionally addressed in the fields related to informatics, she approaches it from the point of view of statistical physics.

  After having delivered for several years a course on quantum field theory at the Master program ¨High Energy Physics¨ at the Ecole Polytechnique, Francois Gelis's lecture notes have been published by Cambridge University Press in a volume entitled Quantum Field Theory: from basics to modern topics.  

General relativity has just celebrated its centenary and the early detection of gravitational waves by LIGO and Virgo has confirmed Einstein's prediction that accelerated masses can produce an oscillation of space-time spreading at the speed of light.

In this review Marc Barthelemy describes how statistical physics helps understand some of the key aspects of cities. Modelling the structure and evolution of cities became critical because policy makers need robust theories and new paradigms for mitigating problems arising with their growth. Fortunately, the increased data available about urban systems opens the possibility of constructing a quantitative ‘science of cities’ with the aim of identifying and modelling essential phenomena. Statistical physics plays a major role in this effort by bringing tools and concepts able to bridge theory and empirical results.

Organizing commitee: Brando Bellazzini, John Joseph Carrasco and Filippo Vernizzi