Institute Lagrange of Paris

The LabEx Institut Lagrange de Paris (ILP) brings together theoretical physics, particle physics, astrophysics, cosmology, computer simulation and statistical analysis, and proposes to profoundly improve our understanding of the universe combining the knowledge and constraints of these different disciplines.

The last decade has been tremendously productive with major discoveries; ILP scientists have been key players in these results and some of them received major prizes. In this sense, the most notable examples are the release of the Planck space mission results, the announcement of the Higgs particle discovery at the LHC, the observation of a source accelerating galactic cosmic rays at energies never observed at the centre of the Galaxy with HESS data, or the detection of gravitational radiation. In 2012 the EUCLID space mission has been selected for an expected launch in 2020, and about thirty ILP members are involved in this mission, including the EUCLID Consortium Lead.

After international calls for applications, the ILP hired 23 graduate students (interns and fellows), 19 PhD students and 25 postdocs. ILP funding has been an opportunity to select more than 236 distinguished visitors, for a total of 125 months, and 6 Lagrange Awardees. Once created, the ILP generated strong international visibility with more than 350 applications for the postdoctoral fellowships per year.

ILP’s governance has been set with a kick-off meeting of the Steering Committee at the end of 2011. The initial project has been reorganized in summer 2012 in order to take into account the actual financial allocation and the inclusion of the ILP into the IDEX Sorbonne Universités. A meeting of the Steering Committee has been held in May 2014 to nominate Ben Wandelt Director elect of the ILP. In order to ensure its durability after 2019, the ILP has initiated in 2014 a partnership with the UPMC Foundation, created an individualized account and launched its first fundraising campaigns.