Michel Hénon Memoriam organized by Jérôme Perez and Roya Moyahaee, Uriel Frisch, Jacques Féjoz, Alain Chenciner, Jean-Michel Alimi

Michel Hénon was a French mathematician and astronomer born in 1931 in Paris. He spent his career initially at the Institute d'Astrophysique de Paris and then at the Observatoire de Nice.

In astronomy, Michel Hénon was a leading figure in the field of stellar dynamics, galactic dynamics, and the evolution of the rings of Saturn. In mathematics, he is known for the so-called Hénon maps and attractor, which is one of the most studied chaotic systems. In the late 1960s and early 70s, he worked on the star clusters and by using Monte Carlo methods, he developed numerical techniques to follow the dynamics of globular clusters. His probabilistic method proved to be much faster than usual N-body methods. He published a two volume book on restricted three-body problem.

He died on April 2013 in Nice.

A special tribute shall be made to Michel Hénon during the Gravasco program at the Institut Henri Poincare : A series of seminars, given by renowned scientists, will be held every Wednesday afternoons during the month of October 2013 on the works of Michel Hénon, Two exceptional days on 4th and 5th of December, dedicatted entirely to the life and the scientific works of Michel Hénon, shall close the Gravasco trimestre at IHP.