Abstract
Jean-Philippe Bouchaud's work brings together statistical physics and the social sciences, to shed light on the nature of collective phenomena at play in systems made up of a very large number of variables, the consequences of which, in fields as varied as the economy and health, are also at the heart of public policy. For him, the onset of the great economic crisis of 2008 is a remarkable object of study, demonstrating that the economic system, through a complex interplay of loops, interactions and feedbacks, generates its own instability.
Phase transitions and changes in the state of matter, the collective flight of birds, avalanches and climate change are all phenomena characterized by sudden threshold or emergence effects. While these issues are at the root of the initial difficulty in modeling certain complex natural systems, it is now possible, thanks to the power of statistical physics models, to describe and analyze complex social phenomena, such as the behavior of economic players, business networks or financial markets.
In addition to the benefits that can be expected from a better understanding of catastrophic phenomena such as economic crises, the processes on which Jean-Philippe Bouchaud is working also concern less tangible phenomena that make up societies, such as the degree of trust or mistrust that characterizes them.
Since its creation in 2006, the Collège de France's annual Technological Innovation Liliane Bettencourt Chair has been supported by the Fondation Bettencourt Schueller.
