4 December 2025

3:25 PM – 5:00 PM

Amphi Grand Kursaal

Grégory Ninot

Grégory Ninot completed a full double degree in sports science and health psychology. Appointed Senior Lecturer at the University of Montpellier in 1999, then Professor in 2008, he has directed several research laboratories bringing together the health sciences and the humanities. For example, he took part in an INSERM collective report published in 2019 on the benefits of physical activity and sport for health. Since 2021, he has been deputy director of the Desbrest Institute of Epidemiology and Public Health (University of Montpellier, INSERM, INRIA). He has been a research fellow at the Montpellier Cancer Institute since 2018. In 2021, he founded and chairs the Non-Pharmacological Intervention Society, which focuses on the international development of research in non-drug interventions.

Where are the limits of intelligence and the intelligence of limits?

Does intelligence come up against insurmountable barriers, or is it just a perpetual movement of expansion and transcendence? This round table discussion explores the boundaries of knowledge and human, animal, and collective capabilities. Mathematician Cédric Villani explores the limits of understanding in mathematics, that universal language that sometimes stumbles upon the unprovable. Professor Grégory Ninot analyzes the limits of the body, between performance, resilience, and vulnerability. Ethologist Ludovic Dickel reveals how animal intelligence is constantly pushing back the boundaries we have imposed on it. Finally, astrophysicist Alain Riazuelo invites us to go beyond our cognitive abilities to “think the infinite.” Understanding our limits also means learning to overcome, transform, or accept them.