Living in a changing world: robustness vs. performance - Olivier Hamant

Each year, first-year engineering students are invited to participate in a series of lectures given by experts and renowned figures from the scientific and academic world. These lectures enable them to continually broaden their scientific and cultural knowledge.

Olivier Hamant
30 September 2025 - 3:30 to 5:00 pm
Cauchy Hall

Habiter le monde fluctuant : robustesse vs. performance (Living in a changing world: robustness vs. performance)

Olivier Hamant is a biologist, researcher at INRAE, at the École normale supérieure de Lyon, author, and lecturer. He has published around a hundred scientific articles on biophysics and plant development. This research topic also raises the question of the robustness of living organisms from a new angle. Drawing on this fundamental research, and in his role as director of the Michel Serres Institute, he contributes to several projects in the fields of art, science, and education around the existential challenges of the Anthropocene. The question of the robustness of living organisms in particular fuels reflection on the lessons to be learned from living organisms in order to inhabit the Earth.

Habiter le monde fluctuant : robustesse vs. performance (Living in a changing world: robustness vs. performance)

Agriculture, smart cities... Paradoxically, the age of optimization, performance, and control is making our world increasingly volatile: mega-fires, security drift, globalized warfare. By drawing inspiration from living beings, we could learn another way of inhabiting the Earth. While modern human societies have emphasized efficiency and effectiveness in the service of individual comfort, life is built more on vulnerabilities, slowness, inconsistencies... that is, underperformance, in the service of group resilience. A counter-program?