Bernard Lapeyre was distinguished as “chevalier dans l’ordre des Palmes Académiques”. He retired in December 2022.
Bernard Lapeyre has devoted most of his career to the development of applied mathematics at the Ecole des Ponts. Since his arrival at the School in 1985 at CERMA (the very young laboratory of applied mathematics created 3 years earlier by Nicolas Bouleau), Bernard Lapeyre has been involved in the development of mathematics teaching, particularly financial mathematics. His course on financial models, proposed in 1987, was published in a book that had a strong international impact and was translated into many languages: “Introduction to stochastic calculus applied to finance”, co-authored with Damien Lamberton. After the merging of the two mathematics laboratories of the Ecole in 1995, Bernard Lapeyre took over the direction of the newly created laboratory (CERMICS) in 1996, and contributed in a fundamental way to its development. With Renaud Keriven and Claude Le Bris, he structured the teaching of applied mathematics at Ecole des Ponts by creating in 2000 the “Modeling, Programming, Simulation” curriculum, which remain today the three pillars of the teaching department “Applied mathematics and Computer Science” of Ecole des Ponts. Bernard Lapeyre has also actively developed the interactions between Ecole des Ponts and former University of Marne-la-Vallée (now Université Gustave Eiffel), notably through his involvement in the joint INRIA project teams Mathfi and Mathrisk. He has been very actively involved in doctoral training, directing the doctoral studies department at École des Ponts and then at Université Paris Est until 2014. More recently, Bernard Lapeyre co-directed the Laboratoire d’Excellence Bezout, which federates mathematics laboratories in eastern Paris.
As Bernard Lapeyre retires, we can see the importance of the legacy of his constant commitment to the School, both in teaching, in the development of doctoral studies, and in academic research and partnerships.