Les Mouettes Savantes : mathématiques et informatique au service de l’écologie


Du 16 au 20 juin 2025, la deuxième édition des Mouettes Savantes a réuni 30 élèves de seconde issues de lycées de Brest, Rennes et du sud de Paris.  

Au programme de ce projet scientifique conçu et organisé par cinq chercheuses et enseignantes-chercheuses, dont Marie Etienne (ENSAI-CREST) : découverte de la recherche en mathématique au service des transitions environnementales, à la station biologique de l’Université de Rennes, en forêt de Paimpont.

Bilan carbone de l’IA générative, alimentation, évolution des températures, moustique tigre et pêche durable : les matinées ont été consacrées à des ateliers scientifiques mobilisant des compétences en mathématiques et informatique, appliquées à des enjeux environnementaux actuels. L’après-midi, place aux activités sportives, ludiques et culturelles au cœur de la forêt de Brocéliande.

Conclusion ? Un franc succès pour ce séjour dont l’objectif est de renforcer la présence des jeunes filles dans les filières et carrières scientifiques.

Marie Etienne a présenté le projet Les Mouettes Savantes lors des Journées Parité de la communauté mathématique 2025 qui se se sont tenues les 23 et 24 juin à l’Université de Rennes, campus Beaulieu.

Ouest France a couvert la dernière édition des Mouettes Savantes dans l’édition du 21 juin 2025.

En savoir plus sur le projet Les Mouettes Savantes

Welcome to the New Researchers Joining CREST in 2025


CREST is excited to welcome three new researchers who arrived in January 2025. Each brings unique expertise and a strong academic background, further strengthening our multidisciplinary research environment.

Jean-François Chassagneux

Position: Full Professor in Mathematics (ENSAE Paris)
Research Interests: : Mathematical finance & numerical probability: partial hedging and non-linear pricing, quantitative methods for transition risks and carbon markets, switching problems and reflected BSDEs, numerical methods for mean-field systems.
Previous Position: Full Professor in Applied Mathematics, Université Paris Cité & LPSM
Learn More: Jean-François Chassagneux’s personal webpage

Javier Gonzalez-Delgado

Position: Assistant Professor in Statistics (ENSAI)
Research Interests: Selective inference, hypothesis testing, clustering, and statistical methods for real-world problems in biology, particularly structural biology and genetics.
Previous Position: Postdoctoral researcher, Human Genetics, McGill University
Learn More: Javier Gonzalez-Delgado’s personal webpage

“After a period away from here, I am looking forward to reconnect with the French research community and develop new connections with scientists at CREST!”

Mohammadreza Mousavi Kalan

Position: Assistant Professor in Statistics (ENSAI)
Research Interests: Statistical machine learning, Transfer learning, Domain adaptation, Outlier detection, Optimization Theory, Distrusted Computing.
Previous Position: Postdoctoral researcher, Columbia University

“I am excited to join CREST as an Assistant Professor. CREST’s excellent research reputation makes it the perfect place to continue my academic journey. With renowned researchers at CREST, this opens up amazing opportunities for meaningful collaborations that will let me contribute to and grow with this vibrant community. I look forward to impactful research and close collaboration with such inspiring colleagues.”

We are delighted to welcome Jean-François, Javier, and Mohammadreza to the CREST. Their expertise and dedication to advancing research will undoubtedly contribute to the lab’s excellence. Stay tuned for updates on their research and collaborations!

2024 CREST Highlights


As 2024 draws to a close, CREST reflects on a year filled with groundbreaking research, prestigious awards, and impactful initiatives. Here’s a look back at our key achievements.

📊 Research Breakthroughs: 93 Articles Published

CREST published 93 articles so far, with 62% appearing in Q1 journals. These works reflect the breadth and depth of research conducted across CREST’s clusters. Here are some highlights:

Information Technology and Returns to Scale by Danial Lashkari, Arthur Bauer, and Jocely Boussard explores how technological advancements influence economies of scale, shedding light on contemporary production practices, in American Economic Review

Locus of Control and the Preference for Agency by Marco Caliendo, Deborah Cobb-Clark, Juliana Silva-Goncalves, and Arne Uhlendorff investigates how personal traits shape individuals’ economic decisions, providing a deeper understanding of agency in economic behavior, in European Economic Review.

Global Mobile Inventors by Dany Bahar, Prithwiraj Choudhury, Ernest Miguelez, and Sara Signorelli examines the migration patterns of innovative talent worldwide, offering new perspectives on innovation dynamics, in Journal of Development Economics.

Testing and Relaxing the Exclusion Restriction in the Control Function Approach by Xavier D’Haultfoeuille, Stefan Hordelein, and Yuya Sasaki provides advanced methodologies to enhance econometric analysis, in Journal of Econometrics.

Are Economists’ Preferences Psychologists’ Personality Traits? A Structural Approach by Tomas Jagelka bridges economics and psychology, exploring how personality traits influence economic preferences, in Journal of Political Economy.

Autoregressive Conditional Betas by Francisco Blasques, Christian Francq, and Sébastien Laurent provides innovative methods to measure financial risk, critical for investment strategies, in Journal of Econometrics.

Model-based vs. Agnostic Methods for the Prediction of Time-Varying Covariance Matrices by Jean-David Fermanian, Benjamin Poignard, and Panos Xidonas compares methodologies for improving financial predictions under uncertainty, in Annals of Operations Research.

Corporate Debt Value Under Transition Scenario Uncertainty by Theo Le Guedenal and Peter Tankov addresses the valuation of corporate debt amid environmental and regulatory changes, in Mathematical Finance.

Semiparametric Copula Models Applied to the Decomposition of Claim Amounts by Sébastien Farkas and Olivier Lopez develops new actuarial techniques to better understand insurance claims, in Scandinavian Actuarial Journal.

On the Chaotic Expansion for Counting Processes by Caroline Hillairet and Anthony Réveillac advances mathematical models with applications in finance and beyond, in Electronic Journal of Probability.

Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine and Perceived Intergenerational Mobility in Europe by Alexi Gugushvili and Patrick Präg examines how geopolitical shocks affect societal perceptions and mobility, in British Journal of Sociology.

The Total Effect of Social Origins on Educational Attainment: Meta-analysis of Sibling Correlations From 18 Countries by Lewis R. Anderson, Patrick Präg, Evelina T. Akimova, and Christiaan Monden provides a meta-analysis of sibling correlations, offering fresh insights into education and inequality, in Demography.

Context Matters When Evacuating Large Cities: Shifting the Focus from Individual Characteristics to Location and Social Vulnerability by Samuel Rufat, Emeline Comby, Serge Lhomme, and Victor Santoni shifts the focus from individual characteristics to social vulnerabilities during urban evacuations, in Environmental Science and Policy.

Gender Equality for Whom? The Changing College Education Gradients of the Division of Paid Work and Housework Among US Couples, 1968-2019 by Léa Pessin explores shifting dynamics in gendered divisions of labor among U.S. couples over the decades, in Social Forces.

The Augmented Social Scientist: Using Sequential Transfer Learning to Annotate Millions of Texts with Human-Level Accuracy by Salomé Do, Etienne Ollion, and Rubing Shen highlights how AI tools can assist in large-scale sociological research with human-level accuracy, in Sociological Methods and Research.

Investigating Swimming Technical Skills by a Double Partition Clustering of Multivariate Functional Data Allowing for Dimension Selection, by Antoine Bouvet, Salima El Kolei, Matthieu Marbac, in Annals of Applied Statistics.

Full-model estimation for non-parametric multivariate finite mixture models, by Marie Du Roy de Chaumaray, Matthieu Marbac, in Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series B: Statistical Methodology

Tail Inverse Regression: Dimension Reduction for Prediction of Extremes, by Anass Aghbalou, François Portier, Anne Sabourin, Chen Zhou, in Bernoulli.

Proxy-analysis of the genetics of cognitive decline in Parkinson’s disease through polygenic scores, by Johann Faouzi, Manuela Tan, Fanny Casse, Suzanne Lesage, Christelle Tesson, Alexis Brice, Graziella Mangone, Louise-Laure Mariani, Hirotaka Iwaki, Olivier Colliot, Lasse Pihlstrom, Jean-Christophe Corvol, in NPJ Parkinson’s Disease.

Benign Overfitting and Adaptive Nonparametric Regression, by Julien Chhor, Suzanne Sigalla, Alexandre Tsybakov, in Probability Theory and Related Fields.

🎯 Discover more CREST publications on our HAL webpage.

🌍 Impactful Events and Conferences

CREST actively participated in and hosted events that fostered collaboration and knowledge exchange:

📅 Join future events: Visit our calendar.

2024 brought two new chairs at CREST:

  • Cyclomob by Marion Leroutier highlights research into sustainable urban mobility, funded through a regional chair.
  • Impact Investing Chair by Olivier-David Zerbib to maximize the positive impact of the investment on the environment and society.

🏆 Awards and Recognitions

📚 Books and Projects

This year, CREST researchers authored several impactful books:

2024 was also marked by the second series of the Beyond  the PhD series, a series of videos dedicated to the PhD course. In 2024, we were able to explore the evolution of the PhD definition through students currently in different years of their studies in all CREST research clusters.

📣 Media and Outreach

CREST researchers were featured in:

  • 80+ media outlets, including Le Monde, Le Nouvel Obs, Les Échos, University World News, BBC News Brazil, France Culture, Libération, Le Cercles des Économistes, Médiapart, AOC…
  • 30+ op-eds and articles, shaping public discourse.

🎙️ Featured Interview: Pauline Rossi discusses economic inequalities in Le Cercle des Économistes. Listen here.

CREST celebrates a year of remarkable achievements and meaningful contributions to research, society, and global conversations. From groundbreaking publications to prestigious awards and impactful events, our community has continued to push boundaries and inspire innovation.

Looking ahead to 2025, we remain committed to fostering interdisciplinary research, addressing societal challenges, and nurturing a collaborative environment for researchers and students.

2024 CREST Highlights


As 2024 draws to a close, CREST reflects on a year filled with groundbreaking research, prestigious awards, and impactful initiatives. Here’s a look back at our key achievements.

📊 Research Breakthroughs: 93 Articles Published

CREST published 93 articles so far, with 62% appearing in Q1 journals. These works reflect the breadth and depth of research conducted across CREST’s clusters. Here are some highlights:

Information Technology and Returns to Scale by Danial Lashkari, Arthur Bauer, and Jocely Boussard explores how technological advancements influence economies of scale, shedding light on contemporary production practices, in American Economic Review

Locus of Control and the Preference for Agency by Marco Caliendo, Deborah Cobb-Clark, Juliana Silva-Goncalves, and Arne Uhlendorff investigates how personal traits shape individuals’ economic decisions, providing a deeper understanding of agency in economic behavior, in European Economic Review.

Global Mobile Inventors by Dany Bahar, Prithwiraj Choudhury, Ernest Miguelez, and Sara Signorelli examines the migration patterns of innovative talent worldwide, offering new perspectives on innovation dynamics, in Journal of Development Economics.

Testing and Relaxing the Exclusion Restriction in the Control Function Approach by Xavier D’Haultfoeuille, Stefan Hordelein, and Yuya Sasaki provides advanced methodologies to enhance econometric analysis, in Journal of Econometrics.

Are Economists’ Preferences Psychologists’ Personality Traits? A Structural Approach by Tomas Jagelka bridges economics and psychology, exploring how personality traits influence economic preferences, in Journal of Political Economy.

Autoregressive Conditional Betas by Francisco Blasques, Christian Francq, and Sébastien Laurent provides innovative methods to measure financial risk, critical for investment strategies, in Journal of Econometrics.

Model-based vs. Agnostic Methods for the Prediction of Time-Varying Covariance Matrices by Jean-David Fermanian, Benjamin Poignard, and Panos Xidonas compares methodologies for improving financial predictions under uncertainty, in Annals of Operations Research.

Corporate Debt Value Under Transition Scenario Uncertainty by Theo Le Guedenal and Peter Tankov addresses the valuation of corporate debt amid environmental and regulatory changes, in Mathematical Finance.

Semiparametric Copula Models Applied to the Decomposition of Claim Amounts by Sébastien Farkas and Olivier Lopez develops new actuarial techniques to better understand insurance claims, in Scandinavian Actuarial Journal.

On the Chaotic Expansion for Counting Processes by Caroline Hillairet and Anthony Réveillac advances mathematical models with applications in finance and beyond, in Electronic Journal of Probability.

Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine and Perceived Intergenerational Mobility in Europe by Alexi Gugushvili and Patrick Präg examines how geopolitical shocks affect societal perceptions and mobility, in British Journal of Sociology.

The Total Effect of Social Origins on Educational Attainment: Meta-analysis of Sibling Correlations From 18 Countries by Lewis R. Anderson, Patrick Präg, Evelina T. Akimova, and Christiaan Monden provides a meta-analysis of sibling correlations, offering fresh insights into education and inequality, in Demography.

Context Matters When Evacuating Large Cities: Shifting the Focus from Individual Characteristics to Location and Social Vulnerability by Samuel Rufat, Emeline Comby, Serge Lhomme, and Victor Santoni shifts the focus from individual characteristics to social vulnerabilities during urban evacuations, in Environmental Science and Policy.

Gender Equality for Whom? The Changing College Education Gradients of the Division of Paid Work and Housework Among US Couples, 1968-2019 by Léa Pessin explores shifting dynamics in gendered divisions of labor among U.S. couples over the decades, in Social Forces.

The Augmented Social Scientist: Using Sequential Transfer Learning to Annotate Millions of Texts with Human-Level Accuracy by Salomé Do, Etienne Ollion, and Rubing Shen highlights how AI tools can assist in large-scale sociological research with human-level accuracy, in Sociological Methods and Research.

Investigating Swimming Technical Skills by a Double Partition Clustering of Multivariate Functional Data Allowing for Dimension Selection, by Antoine Bouvet, Salima El Kolei, Matthieu Marbac, in Annals of Applied Statistics.

Full-model estimation for non-parametric multivariate finite mixture models, by Marie Du Roy de Chaumaray, Matthieu Marbac, in Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series B: Statistical Methodology

Tail Inverse Regression: Dimension Reduction for Prediction of Extremes, by Anass Aghbalou, François Portier, Anne Sabourin, Chen Zhou, in Bernoulli.

Proxy-analysis of the genetics of cognitive decline in Parkinson’s disease through polygenic scores, by Johann Faouzi, Manuela Tan, Fanny Casse, Suzanne Lesage, Christelle Tesson, Alexis Brice, Graziella Mangone, Louise-Laure Mariani, Hirotaka Iwaki, Olivier Colliot, Lasse Pihlstrom, Jean-Christophe Corvol, in NPJ Parkinson’s Disease.

Benign Overfitting and Adaptive Nonparametric Regression, by Julien Chhor, Suzanne Sigalla, Alexandre Tsybakov, in Probability Theory and Related Fields.

🎯 Discover more CREST publications on our HAL webpage.

🌍 Impactful Events and Conferences

CREST actively participated in and hosted events that fostered collaboration and knowledge exchange:

📅 Join future events: Visit our calendar.

2024 brought two new chairs at CREST:

  • Cyclomob by Marion Leroutier highlights research into sustainable urban mobility, funded through a regional chair.
  • Impact Investing Chair by Olivier-David Zerbib to maximize the positive impact of the investment on the environment and society.

🏆 Awards and Recognitions

📚 Books and Projects

This year, CREST researchers authored several impactful books:

2024 was also marked by the second series of the Beyond  the PhD series, a series of videos dedicated to the PhD course. In 2024, we were able to explore the evolution of the PhD definition through students currently in different years of their studies in all CREST research clusters.

📣 Media and Outreach

CREST researchers were featured in:

  • 80+ media outlets, including Le Monde, Le Nouvel Obs, Les Échos, University World News, BBC News Brazil, France Culture, Libération, Le Cercles des Économistes, Médiapart, AOC…
  • 30+ op-eds and articles, shaping public discourse.

🎙️ Featured Interview: Pauline Rossi discusses economic inequalities in Le Cercle des Économistes. Listen here.

CREST celebrates a year of remarkable achievements and meaningful contributions to research, society, and global conversations. From groundbreaking publications to prestigious awards and impactful events, our community has continued to push boundaries and inspire innovation.

Looking ahead to 2025, we remain committed to fostering interdisciplinary research, addressing societal challenges, and nurturing a collaborative environment for researchers and students.