Longtime Courant professor Gérard Ben Arous will intermittently lead the school as it expands to encompass NYU’s Center for Data Science and the Tandon School of Engineering’s computer science degree, in an effort to bolster the university’s science and technology programming.
In the memo announcing Ben Arous’ appointment, President Linda Mills said that the Courant Institute — set to be renamed the Courant Institute for Computing, Mathematics and Data Science — is “developing exciting and important plans” slated for announcement this month. Ben Arous assumed his position at the start of August after former dean Russ Caflisch stepped down.
“Gérard has been a strong advocate for the direction that Courant will be moving, together with CDS and CSE,” Mills wrote, in tandem with Provost Georgina Dopico and Tandon dean Juan de Pablo. “We very much welcome and appreciate his taking on this critical role.”
From 2011 to 2016, Ben Arous served as director of the Courant Institute and Vice Provost for Science and Engineering Development. In 2020, he was awarded a Silver Professorship — the “most prestigious professorship” NYU offers its faculty — for “exemplary commitment to undergraduate education.”
Ben Arous — whose research focuses on probability theory and its applications across industries — has supervised 20 Ph.D. theses and 14 postdoctoral fellows. He has received several awards for his research and is an elected member of the International Statistical Institute, also having spoken at the European Congress of Mathematics and the International Congress of Mathematics.
In February, de Pablo said the university is looking to combine the hands-on work in Tandon’s computer science degree with the theoretical computer science foundation offered at NYU’s College of Arts and Sciences. He reaffirmed the plans at a board of trustees meeting in June and announced that the updated Courant Institute would also house NYU’s data science program. The inaugural consolidated Ph.D. program for computer science is slated to start Fall 2026.
“These initiatives, coupled with the success of current students and faculty, are positioning NYU to be a future leader in the science and technology sphere,” a recap of the meeting read.
Ben Arous began teaching at universities in France after earning a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from University Paris 7 in 1978, a Master of Science in Statistics from Paris-Sud University in 1979, another Masters of Science — again in Mathematics — in 1980 and and a Ph.D. in Mathematics from University Paris 7 the following year. In 2001, he co-founded the The Bernoulli Center for Fundamental Studies, a mathematical research institute in Switzerland where he taught until 2007.
Mills said she will establish a search committee for Ben Arous’ successor this fall.
Contact Leena Ahmed at [email protected].