Madhur Anand, ecologist, modeler and poet

Madhur Anand is at home at MAK'IT. The institute for advanced studies comes to reason with the work of this researcher from the University of Guelph in Canada, who has specialized for over 25 years in the modeling of complex systems. She, who brings together environmental sciences, mathematics and the humanities, is no stranger to the subject: " Practicing multidisciplinarity isn't just a matter of spending time together. Each discipline has its own language, and we have to think of translations to get from one to the other, with interpreters, because we can't learn all the disciplinary languages ".

Ambitious about bringing the arts and sciences into dialogue, the researcher goes even further: "Translation is essential in literature, and the sciences must draw inspiration from it! " Madhur Anand has made this the central theme of her first novel, "To Place a Rabbit", just published this spring by Knopf Canada (Penguin Random House Canada). The story's main protagonist is a scientist who befriends a novelist and offers to translate her latest book, published only in French translation, into the original language - a language that the author herself can neither read nor understand. And with good reason: the author has lost the original manuscript of her book. The translation process leads the scientist to gradually lose control of the course of events...

Tipping point

When asked about her dual vocation as author and scientist, Madhur Anand explains how the creative dimension imposed itself on her right from the start of her academic career.

" During the last year of my thesis, I was unable to write, the blank page syndrome. When I managed to get some words down, a poem came out. Since then, I've never stopped writing poetry, and now novels too ", says the woman who hasn't found an explanation for her literary turn: " I didn't see it coming. It was a turning point in my career.

Tipping points is precisely the materialization of this articulation between her life as an artist and as a researcher. In her models, she is interested in the ecological thresholds that can cause an ecosystem to tip over into a new state, but also in the social tipping points that could engage society in a response to ecological and climatic crises.

" In my models, I try to examine the positive and negative feedbacks between environmental systems and human dynamics. Most models don't make this link. The idea is simple: environmental changes can trigger social changes, on an individual or societal scale, and vice-versa. The aim of these models is to understand how best to respond to crises. This theme was the subject of a MAK'IT seminar on May 23, and a workshop on July 7, 2025.

Madhur Anand's presence in Montpellier this spring is also an astonishing coincidence, since the city is the setting for her new novel, imagined a few years ago during a quick visit to the Hérault city. " I never imagined I'd be in Montpellier at the time of my book's release ," says the astonished Anand, who held book signings at the Comédie du livre in May 2025.