Raphael Cerf became known through his results 
on Probability theory. Using a large deviation principle in the proper
topology, Raphael Cerf has established a Wulff 
construction for the supercritical percolation model in three
dimensions. This reslut is a very major advance 
in the subject, and provides the right formulation for the geometry of
the problem. Raphael Cerf has been able to 
carry out this program using a correct mixture of combinatorial arguments,
geometric ideas and probabilistic tools. 

In addition to this research, Raphael Cerf 
has made original contributions in genetic algorithms. He has solved a
central problem in bootstrap percolation and 
extended to three dimensions the metastable behavior of the stochastic
Ising model in the limit of low temperatures.