The 2017 Friends of IHES Gala was a great success

We are happy to share with you that this year’s Friends of IHES gala was a great success! Almost 180 participants joined our two special guests, Michael R. Douglas, President and Chairman of Friends of IHES, and Emmanuel Ullmo, the IHES Director, at the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse in New York.

The evening, whose theme was “Breaking Boundaries: The Adventure of Artificial Intelligence” was animated by exciting talks on a subject that is evolving at high speed, concerns all of us and whose potential to revolutionize our lives stirs interest and curiosity.

Our honored guest speakers, Yann LeCun, Director of AI at Facebook and Silver Professor at NYU, and Jennifer Tour Chayes, Technical Fellow and Managing Director of Microsoft Research New England, Microsoft Research New York City, and Microsoft Research Montreal, are some of the greatest masterminds in the field. Laetitia and Richard Garriott de Cayeux were masters of ceremonies and they hosted the gala.

I was blown away by the profound generosity and spirit in the room” – commented Michael R. Douglas. “Thanks to our auction donors and our great sponsors, this year we were able to raise more money than any previous gala in the Friends of IHES history.

Friends of IHES is profoundly grateful to all of our auction donors as well as to Simons Foundation for their ongoing support, our Exclusive Premier Sponsor, BNP Paribas, and our Gala Chairs Barbara Amonson & Vincent Della Pietra and Florence & David Faucon for their generous support of our mission. We are also grateful to our evening sponsors Bristol, Messier Maris & Associes, Wendel, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Check the gala web page to have a look at some of the pictures we took during the evening.