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. Theoretical methods of analysis, developed in the statistical physics of disordered systems, are indeed able to provide results and understanding beyond the state of the art existing in mathematics, computer science or statistics.

Congratulations Lenka!