Pierre Audin led many lives. First, of course, there was his life as "his father's son": the fight to secure recognition that the French state had murdered Maurice Audin in Algeria, just after Pierre was born. His ties to Algeria—he had acquired Algerian citizenship—remained important to him, as reflected in the creation of the Audin Prize and the project for a Palais des sciences modelled on the Palais de la découverte.
And then there was mathematics. Pierre began as a teacher but soon started looking for ways to "think outside the box". In 1989, the launch of MATh.en.JEANS with his friend and "mentor" Pierre Duchet (1949‒2018) was a landmark event: trusting in students' intelligence and, via mathematicians they met regularly, giving them genuine research problems to explore, then taking part in lively, exhilarating conferences…
Pierre Audin then changed careers, leaving teaching to become a science communicator at the Palais de la découverte. The connection between these two approaches always fascinated him. MATh.en.JEANS took over the Palais's "mathematical recreations" in a condensed, hour-long format—far less substantial, but capable of giving both the general public and students a taste of research.
