Paul Deheuvels passed away on 30 January 2026 at the age of 77. He was ISI elected member since 1978. He leaves behind an important body of work in the fields of extreme values, empirical processes, and functional estimation.
Immediately after completing his doctoral thesis, at the age of 26, he was appointed to a full professor position at Pierre and Marie Curie University - Paris VI (now Sorbonne University), where he spent his entire career. He founded in 1982 the Laboratory of Theoretical and Applied Statistics (LSTA), which he headed until 2013. There, he supervised around 100 theses.
A corresponding member of the French Academy of Sciences in 1994 and then a full member from 2000 onwards, he was for a long time the only statistician there.
An excellent teacher and brilliant lecturer, his handwriting was legendary. As an evaluator and research director, his objectivity and fierce defense of his students, regardless of their background, were consistent as long as they were "good.".
Paul Deheuvels was not just a theorist. As a scientific advisor for TotalEnergies and Sanofi (a pharmaceutical company) for 20 years, he exercised significant influence, knowing how to move from the abstract to the operational. With his imposing stature, he was an accomplished mountaineer.
He is survived by his wife, four daughters, and twelve grandchildren.
