Press release

Renowned Hungarian mathematician to join ERC Scientific Council

18 December 2024

Today, the European Commission has appointed a new member of the governing body of the European Research Council (ERC), the Scientific Council. Mathematician András Stipsicz will assume his duties on 1 April 2025. Professor Stipsicz is Director of HUN-REN Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics in Budapest, Hungary, and a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Ekaterina Zaharieva, Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, said:

‘The European Research Council embodies Europe’s pursuit of scientific excellence. Professor András Stipsicz’s expertise and leadership will strengthen the ERC mission to advance frontier research across our continent. I welcome his appointment and wish him all the success in his new role.’

President of the European Research Council, Prof. Maria Leptin, said:

'We very much look forward to working with Professor András Stipsicz, who will join our Scientific Council this spring. He brings valuable expertise and already has experience from the ERC as evaluation panel member. Thanks to the identification committee the quality of the members of our governing body is ensured.'

Biography

Prof. András Stipsicz graduated from Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest and received his PhD from Rutgers University. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Irvine. He spent several semesters at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute Berkeley, Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton University, Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in Bonn, and the Mittag-Leffler Institute in Stockholm. He was awarded ERC Advanced Grants in 2012 and 2024.

Prof. Stipsicz is an expert in low-dimensional topology, a particular branch of topology focusing on dimensions of four or lower. Topology as a discipline is concerned with the properties of a geometric object that are preserved under continuous deformations, such as stretching or bending.

About the ERC

The ERC, set up by the European Union in 2007, is the premier European funding organisation for excellent frontier research. It funds creative researchers of any nationality and age, to run projects based across Europe. The ERC offers four core grant schemes: Starting Grants, Consolidator Grants, Advanced Grants and Synergy Grants. With its additional Proof of Concept Grant scheme, the ERC helps grantees to bridge the gap between their pioneering research and early phases of its commercialisation. The ERC is led by an independent governing body, the Scientific Council. Maria Leptin has been the President of the ERC since November 2021. The overall ERC budget from 2021 to 2027 is more than €16. billion, as part of the Horizon Europe programme, under the responsibility of Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, Ekaterina Zaharieva.