Nicole El Karoui, winner of the 2025 Academy of Sciences medal

The October 28, 2025, theAcademy of Sciences awarded the Medal of section “Applications of mathematics” unto Nicole El Karoui, professor emeritus at Sorbonne University. This prestigious distinction recognizes an exceptional career, marked by a decisive contribution to the birth and development of financial mathematics, a field where scientific rigor meets the concrete challenges of the economic world.

A life devoted to random phenomena and their applications

Specialist in stochastic differential equations, Nicole El Karoui is passionate about the study of random phenomena evolving over time, first in their theoretical dimensions, then in their practical applications to physics, economics and finance.
In the 1980s, she discovered the world of financial modeling by chance, which was then in full bloom with the creation of MATIF and MONEP. It is the beginning of an intellectual and scientific adventure that will permanently transform the way we think and manage risk.

With the creation, in 1990, of Master Probability and Finance at Pierre and Marie Curie University (now Sorbonne University) in partnership with École Polytechnique, she contributes to the training of several generations of “quants”, experts in quantitative finance whose stochastic modeling skills are now essential to major global financial institutions.

‍
The “Master El Karoui” quickly became an international reference, recognized by the Wall Street Journal as one of the best courses in the discipline. From its ranks have emerged hundreds of alumni who are now heads of risk management, quantitative research and financial innovation departments in the largest banks and investment funds.

Co-founder of the Risk Foundation and Director of the Financial Risks Chair

For theLouis Bachelier Institute, Nicole El Karoui is Director of the Financial Risks Chair and co-founder of the Risk Foundation, created in 2007 alongsideAndré Lévy-Lang And of Jean Berthon.

‍
Born from the desire to federate academic research around the management of economic, financial and climate risks, the Risk Foundation has established itself as an essential player in bringing together science, public decision and the business world.

“With the explosion of computer capabilities in the early 2000s, the volume of futures markets grew considerably, giving rise to a new field of university research: financial mathematics. Faced with this rapid development, it became essential to federate these initiatives. This is how the Risk Foundation was born.”
— Nicole El Karoui

Even today, the Risk Foundation perpetuates this spirit of openness and innovation, by supporting interdisciplinary research chairs and by exploring new fields of analysis around risks climate, technological and systemic.

Born in Nancy into a family of engineers and teachers, Nicole El Karoui established herself as an exceptional mathematician very early on. In the 1960s, when there were still very few women in scientific fields, she joined the École Normale Supérieure de Sèvres and specialized in probability — a branch that she helped to bring to the forefront of contemporary applications.

His work and teaching have not only shaped the modern finance, but also contributed to the opening of unprecedented career opportunities for math students. Even today, the graduates of the master's degree she founded are among the most sought-after profiles of major international financial institutions.

Throughout her career, Nicole El Karoui has been able to combine academic excellence, intellectual curiosity and a sense of social responsibility, recalling that science should inform the decision, not serve it blindly.
She continues to defend an ethical and humanist approach to finance:

“Mathematical models should not be tools for speculation, but instruments for understanding and controlling risks.”

A medal for an exceptional career

By honoring Nicole El Karoui, the Académie des Sciences is celebrating much more than a career: it pays tribute to a woman of conviction, to an outstanding teacher, and to a scientist who knew how to make mathematics communicate with reality.
His medal marks a career that has deeply marked French research, but also the entire international quantitative finance community.

‍

‍

Credits: Vincent NGUYEN Photography