Mathematician Ofer Zeitouni, Professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science and at the NYU Courant Institute, awarded the 2026 Paul Lévy Prize in Probability Theory

Ofer Zeitouni, Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the Weizmann Institute of Science and global distinguished professor in the Courant Institute at New York University was awarded the Paul Lévy Prize during the 45th Conference on Stochastic Processes and their Applications, being held in Ithaca, New York, from June 14 to 20. Created jointly by the European Mathematical Society, École Polytechnique, the Fondation de l'École polytechnique and Paul Lévy’s family, with the support of BNP Paribas, this prize is designed to reward outstanding contributions in the field of probability theory and its applications.

Chaired by Martin Hairer, winner of the Fields Medal in 2014, and made up of eminent mathematicians, the Paul Lévy Prize Selection Committee has chosen to honour Ofer Zeitouni.

A specialist in probability theory, Ofer Zeitouni is Professor of Mathematics at the Weizmann Institute of Science and at the Courant Institute (New York University). A native of Israel, he studied at the Technion, where he completed his PhD in Electrical Engineering in 1986 under the direction of Moshe Zakai. He did his postdoc at Brown University and at MIT. He joined the Technion in 1989 as senior lecturer, and was promoted to associate professor in 1991, and to full professor in 1997. Since 2007, he is a professor at the Weizmann Institute. Since 2013, he is also a global distinguished professor at the Courant Institute. From 2002 to 2012, he also taught at the University of Minnesota’s School of Mathematics.

His research focuses on large deviations theory, the spectral theory of random matrices, motion in random media, and extremes of logarithmically correlated fields. He is also interested in filtering theory and its engineering applications. After having developed a description of extremes in Gaussian logarithmically correlated fields, his current recent research interests are in extensions to non-Gaussian fields, with motivation from cover time questions, random matrices, random polymers and number theory.

A Fellow of the American Mathematical Society and of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, Ofer Zeitouni is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the US National Academy of Sciences, and the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

"Paul Lévy was one of the founding fathers of the theory of stochastic processes and had a deep understanding of their fine properties. I am deeply honoured and humbled to be awarded a prize named after him." says Ofer Zeitouni.

A prize created in honour of French mathematician Paul Lévy

A great French mathematician and professor at École Polytechnique from 1920 to 1959, Paul Lévy largely shaped modern probability theory, introducing fundamental concepts such as local time, stable distributions and characteristic functions. To honour his memory, the European Mathematical Society, École Polytechnique, the Fondation de l'École polytechnique and Paul Lévy's family created an international prize in probability theory in 2024.

Supported by BNP Paribas and awarded every two years, the Paul Lévy Prize is intended to reward a mathematician who has made outstanding contributions in the field of probability theory and its applications, broadly defined. The prize is open to scientists of any age from all over the world who have published work in international journals in the field of probability.