Claire
Voisin (Professor at Collège de France, member of the
Académie des Sciences, Paris, recipient of CNRS Gold medal
2016):``... I would not say that I chose math as a career; I got
interested, so I started, then I continued and it was a sort of
addiction. I never really 'thought' of doing this, it's like
this was simply obvious and also the easiest way. How can I say;
once I started seriously doing maths, there was no alternative. I
got used to it, I had to do this. Since I started, I never wanted to
do something different. I would even say I find it more and more
interesting over time...
The fact is that my family did
not care so much, because I come from a very large family: I have
eight sisters and three brothers. My parents were very happy if we
were independent and earned money. I left my family's home when I
was 17, I got a scholarship and, starting from this point, I
never had to ask money from my parents. I should say that when I
was a child I had some contacts with maths, especially geometry, but
my parents did not care so much about our future careers; if I
had been a teacher in high school they would have been happy.
...What is hard are the moments when you lack inspiration to formulate
new ideas, new problems. Also sometimes it happened that I did
some research which was unsuccessful. It is important to be able to stop
something which does not work, not to spend too much time and
energy on an idea that you drive by force. You need to change. I
always found travelling very useful for this, because if you are alone
you tend to stay stuck on a subject, while if you travel you
get some distance and you can try something new, a new subject,
your mind has a new drive, a new energy.
...I had excellent
working conditions, because I had no teaching, I could teach
only when I wanted to, and in high level courses. I had a CNRS
position, so I was able to work at home, no time and energy
wasted in public transportation. Life was made very easy by my CNRS
position; and you know the French system of child care, so I had no
excuse for not working full-time. I should mention that what made
my life so very easy is that my husband is also a
mathematician, so not only the every day schedule is much softer, but
we understood both that we needed time for us. At the weekends,
I used to work in the morning and he in the afternoon. That
was nice, we both agreed that we should do things this way.
...I
like very much the moment I start a new research, I like
very much the moment I have something in my mind: sometimes it
is barely an idea, sometimes it's just the beginning of
something. But there is this quality of the dream, and the fact
that your mind works alone, you do not need to force it.
I also
like to give talks; this is a bit different, but I like it very much. I
have to challenge myself to discuss, because I am what in
French we call ’introvertie’. There is a lot of introversion
in our work, because we are contemplating something. But there
is also a part of our work that is different, discussing,
giving talks, attending conferences, which is also nice. Still, for
me, the very nice part of my job is when I work on something new by
myself.
The bad part....there is some bad part, some
suffering, when you are trying to do something which is
difficult. There are some moments when you spend much energy,
and moments in which the dynamics of research is a little
lost. You don’t feel you are inside of mathematics. But I am afraid this
is especially bad for my family....''
This is a short extract from an interview with Claire by the EWM. For the full interview (worth reading!), please see
http://europeanwomeninmaths.org/…/newsletters/675/newslette…
Voisin (Professor at Collège de France, member of the
Académie des Sciences, Paris, recipient of CNRS Gold medal
2016):``... I would not say that I chose math as a career; I got
interested, so I started, then I continued and it was a sort of
addiction. I never really 'thought' of doing this, it's like
this was simply obvious and also the easiest way. How can I say;
once I started seriously doing maths, there was no alternative. I
got used to it, I had to do this. Since I started, I never wanted to
do something different. I would even say I find it more and more
interesting over time...
The fact is that my family did
not care so much, because I come from a very large family: I have
eight sisters and three brothers. My parents were very happy if we
were independent and earned money. I left my family's home when I
was 17, I got a scholarship and, starting from this point, I
never had to ask money from my parents. I should say that when I
was a child I had some contacts with maths, especially geometry, but
my parents did not care so much about our future careers; if I
had been a teacher in high school they would have been happy.
...What is hard are the moments when you lack inspiration to formulate
new ideas, new problems. Also sometimes it happened that I did
some research which was unsuccessful. It is important to be able to stop
something which does not work, not to spend too much time and
energy on an idea that you drive by force. You need to change. I
always found travelling very useful for this, because if you are alone
you tend to stay stuck on a subject, while if you travel you
get some distance and you can try something new, a new subject,
your mind has a new drive, a new energy.
...I had excellent
working conditions, because I had no teaching, I could teach
only when I wanted to, and in high level courses. I had a CNRS
position, so I was able to work at home, no time and energy
wasted in public transportation. Life was made very easy by my CNRS
position; and you know the French system of child care, so I had no
excuse for not working full-time. I should mention that what made
my life so very easy is that my husband is also a
mathematician, so not only the every day schedule is much softer, but
we understood both that we needed time for us. At the weekends,
I used to work in the morning and he in the afternoon. That
was nice, we both agreed that we should do things this way.
...I
like very much the moment I start a new research, I like
very much the moment I have something in my mind: sometimes it
is barely an idea, sometimes it's just the beginning of
something. But there is this quality of the dream, and the fact
that your mind works alone, you do not need to force it.
I also
like to give talks; this is a bit different, but I like it very much. I
have to challenge myself to discuss, because I am what in
French we call ’introvertie’. There is a lot of introversion
in our work, because we are contemplating something. But there
is also a part of our work that is different, discussing,
giving talks, attending conferences, which is also nice. Still, for
me, the very nice part of my job is when I work on something new by
myself.
The bad part....there is some bad part, some
suffering, when you are trying to do something which is
difficult. There are some moments when you spend much energy,
and moments in which the dynamics of research is a little
lost. You don’t feel you are inside of mathematics. But I am afraid this
is especially bad for my family....''
This is a short extract from an interview with Claire by the EWM. For the full interview (worth reading!), please see
http://europeanwomeninmaths.org/…/newsletters/675/newslette…
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