Professor Maria J. Esteban

Honorary Doctorate of Science (Hon. DSc)

Graduation Ceremony: Friday 21 June 2019

Professor Maria J. Esteban was born in the Basque Country, Spain in 1956 and studied Mathematics at the University of Bilbao. After receiving her MSc in 1978, Professor Esteban joined the graduate programme at University Paris VI, and in 1981 received her PhD, under the supervision of Pierre-Louis Lions. Since then she has held several positions at CNRS (Centre National de Recherche Scientifique) and is now Director of Research,”classe exceptionnelle”. 

Currently, Professor Esteban is the President of the International Council for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (2005-2019) and President of the Programme Committee for the next European Congress of Mathematics (8ECM, 2020). Previously she was president of the SMAI, the French Society for Applied and Industrial Mathematics, (2006-2009), Chair of the Applied Mathematics Committee of the European Mathematical Society (EMS) (2012-2013). She participated in the coordination of the Forward Look on “Mathematics and Industry”, funded by the European Science Foundation (2008-2012) and in the creation of the EU-MATHS-IN foundation.

Professor Esteban is a member of several editorial boards including Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Annales de l'Institut Henri Poincaré C (Non Linear Analysis) and a member of many evaluation and prize committees, including the Abel Prize Committee in 2014 and 2015, which is regarded as the Nobel Prize for Mathematics and the EMS Prizes Committee in 2012.

Professor Esteban was made Knight of the French Order of Merit in 2012. She is a member of the Basque Academy of Sciences and Letters, the European Academy of Sciences, and has received honorary degrees at the universities of the Basque Country and Valencia.

Read the full laureation for Professor Maria J. Esteban.