100 Notable alumni of
Polytechnic School
Updated:
Polytechnic School is 86th in the world, 27th in Europe, and 3rd in France by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 100 notable alumni from Polytechnic School sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff. 3 individuals affiliated with Polytechnic School won Nobel Prizes in Physics.
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Bernard Arnault
- Occupations
- art collectorengineerbusinesspersonentrepreneur
- Biography
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Bernard Jean Étienne Arnault is a French businessman, investor and art collector. He is the founder, chairman and CEO of LVMH, the world's largest luxury goods company. Arnault is one of the richest individuals in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$199.7 billion as of September 2024, according to Forbes and US$208 billion according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
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Carlos Ghosn
- Occupations
- writerbusiness executiveengineerentrepreneur
- Biography
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Carlos Ghosn is a businessman and former automotive executive. He was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Michelin North America, chairman and CEO of Renault, chairman of AvtoVAZ, chairman and CEO of Nissan, and chairman of Mitsubishi Motors.
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Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
- Occupations
- statesperson
- Biography
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Valéry René Marie Georges Giscard d'Estaing, also known as simply Giscard or VGE, was a French politician who served as President of France from 1974 to 1981.
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Auguste Conde dracula
- Enrolled in Polytechnic School
- Studied in 1814-1816
- Occupations
- philosophermathematicianwritersociologist
- Biography
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Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier Comte was a French philosopher, mathematician and writer who formulated the doctrine of positivism. He is often regarded as the first philosopher of science in the modern sense of the term. Comte's ideas were also fundamental to the development of sociology, with him inventing the very term and treating the discipline as the crowning achievement of the sciences.
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Élisabeth Borne
- Enrolled in Polytechnic School
- Studied in 1981
- Occupations
- politicianengineerofficialingénieurs et cadres techniques d'entreprise
- Biography
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Élisabeth Borne is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from May 2022 to January 2024. A member of President Emmanuel Macron's party Renaissance, she is the second woman to hold the position of Prime Minister after Édith Cresson, who served from 1991 to 1992. Since December 2024, she has served as Minister of National Education, Higher Education and Research in the Bayrou government.
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Alfred Dreyfus
- Occupations
- army officermilitary personnel
- Biography
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Alfred Dreyfus was a French artillery officer of Alsatian origin and Jewish ethnicity and faith. In 1894, he fell victim to a judicial conspiracy that sparked a major political crisis during the Third Republic, known as the Dreyfus Affair (1894–1906), when he was wrongfully accused and convicted, due to antisemitism, of being a spy for the German Empire. Upon his arrest, he was sentenced to degradation and deported to the penal colony on Devil's Island to be imprisoned until his death. However, evidence emerged showing that Dreyfus was innocent and that the true culprit was a French army officer named Esterhazy. Gradual revelations indicated that the internal investigation conducted by the army was biased; Dreyfus was an ideal scapegoat because he was Jewish, and the army's high command was aware of his innocence but preferred to cover up the affair and leave him in the penal colony rather than lose face.
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Ferdinand Foch
- Occupations
- military personnelmilitary officer
- Biography
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Ferdinand Foch was a French general, Marshal of France and a member of the Académie Française and Académie des Sciences. He distinguished himself as Supreme Allied Commander on the Western Front during the First World War in 1918.
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Henri Poincaré
- Enrolled in Polytechnic School
- Studied in 1873
- Occupations
- engineerastronomeruniversity teacherphysicistwriter
- Biography
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Jules Henri Poincaré was a French mathematician, theoretical physicist, engineer, and philosopher of science. He is often described as a polymath, and in mathematics as "The Last Universalist", since he excelled in all fields of the discipline as it existed during his lifetime. He has further been called "the Gauss of modern mathematics". Due to his success in science, along with his influence and philosophy, he has been called "the philosopher par excellence of modern science."
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André-Marie Ampère
- Occupations
- inventorphysicistchemistphilosophermathematician
- Biography
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André-Marie Ampère was a French physicist and mathematician who was one of the founders of the science of classical electromagnetism, which he referred to as electrodynamics. He is also the inventor of numerous applications, such as the solenoid (a term coined by him) and the electrical telegraph. As an autodidact, Ampère was a member of the French Academy of Sciences and professor at the École polytechnique and the Collège de France.
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Jacques Attali
- Enrolled in Polytechnic School
- Studied in 1963-1965
- Occupations
- politicianwritereconomistbanker
- Biography
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Jacques José Mardoché Attali is a French economic and social theorist, writer, political adviser and senior civil servant.
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Henri Becquerel
- Enrolled in Polytechnic School
- Studied in 1872
- Occupations
- engineerchemistuniversity teacherphysicistnuclear physicist
- Biography
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Antoine Henri Becquerel was a French physicist who shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with Pierre and Marie Curie for his discovery of radioactivity. The SI unit of radioactivity, the becquerel (Bq), is named after him.
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Benoit Mandelbrot
- Enrolled in Polytechnic School
- 1945-1947 studied engineering
- Occupations
- economistscientistuniversity teachermathematicianwriter
- Biography
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Benoit B. Mandelbrot was a Polish-born French-American mathematician and polymath with broad interests in the practical sciences, especially regarding what he labeled as "the art of roughness" of physical phenomena and "the uncontrolled element in life". He referred to himself as a "fractalist" and is recognized for his contribution to the field of fractal geometry, which included coining the word "fractal", as well as developing a theory of "roughness and self-similarity" in nature.
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Patrick Drahi
- Occupations
- entrepreneur
- Biography
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Patrick Drahi is a French-Israeli billionaire magnate and investor with interests in media and telecoms. He is the founder and controlling shareholder of the European-based telecom group Altice. A former French citizen, he lives in Switzerland.
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Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Nathalie Geneviève Marie Kosciusko-Morizet, often referred to by her initials NKM, is an engineer and former politician.
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Albert François Lebrun
- Occupations
- engineerpoliticianentomologist
- Biography
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Albert François Lebrun was a French politician who served as President of France from 1932 to 1940. He was the last president of the Third Republic. He was a member of the centre-right Democratic Republican Alliance (ARD).
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Augustin-Louis Cauchy
- Occupations
- university teachermathematicianengineerphysicist
- Biography
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Baron Augustin-Louis Cauchy FRS FRSE was a French mathematician, engineer, and physicist. He was one of the first to rigorously state and prove the key theorems of calculus (thereby creating real analysis), pioneered the field complex analysis, and the study of permutation groups in abstract algebra. Cauchy also contributed to a number of topics in mathematical physics, notably continuum mechanics.
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Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac
- Occupations
- engineerphysicistboard memberchemistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac was a French chemist and physicist. He is known mostly for his discovery that water is made of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen by volume (with Alexander von Humboldt), for two laws related to gases, and for his work on alcohol–water mixtures, which led to the degrees Gay-Lussac used to measure alcoholic beverages in many countries.
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Joseph Joffre
- Occupations
- military personnel
- Biography
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Joseph Jacques Césaire Joffre OM, GCB was a French general who served as Commander-in-Chief of French forces on the Western Front from the start of World War I until the end of 1916. He is best known for regrouping the retreating allied armies to defeat the Germans at the strategically decisive First Battle of the Marne in September 1914.
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Jean-Marc Jancovici
- Years
- 1962-.. (age 63)
- Enrolled in Polytechnic School
- 1981-1984 graduated with diplôme d'ingénieur
- Occupations
- engineerlecturerbusiness executiveuniversity teacherteacher
- Biography
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Jean-Marc Jancovici is a French engineering consultant, energy and climate expert, professor, conference speaker, writer, and independent columnist. He is co-founder and associate at the Carbone 4 consultancy firm, and the founding president of the think-tank The Shift Project.
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Nicolas Carnot
- Occupations
- mathematicianmilitary engineerengineerphysicist
- Biography
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Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot was a French military engineer and physicist. A graduate of the École polytechnique, Carnot served as an officer in the Engineering Arm (le génie) of the French Army. He also pursued scientific studies and in June 1824 published an essay titled Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire. In that book, which would be his only publication, Carnot developed the first successful theory of the maximum efficiency of heat engines.
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Serge Dassault
- Occupations
- politicianbusinesspersonmilitary flight engineerpublisherentrepreneur
- Biography
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Serge Dassault was a French engineer, businessman and politician. He was the chairman and chief executive officer of Dassault Group, and a conservative politician. According to Forbes, Dassault's net worth was estimated in 2016 at US$15 billion.
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Tidjane Thiam
- Enrolled in Polytechnic School
- Studied in 1982-1984
- Occupations
- businesspersonchief executive officer
- Biography
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Tidjane Thiam is an Ivorian and French businessman, and the executive chairman of Freedom Acquisition Corp. He was the chief executive officer (CEO) of Swiss bank Credit Suisse from March 2015 to February 2020. He was the chief financial officer of British banking group Prudential from 2007 to 2009, and then its CEO until 2015. In 2019, Thiam became a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
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Henry de Lesquen
- Enrolled in Polytechnic School
- Studied in 1968-1971
- Occupations
- politicianradio directorofficial
- Biography
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Henry Bertrand Marie Armand de Lesquen du Plessis-Casso is a French politician. A retired official and former radio director, De Lesquen has been the president of the Carrefour de l'Horloge, a national-liberal think tank, since 1985. A blogger and YouTuber since the 2010s, he has participated in popularising the concept of "remigration" in France.
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Jules Brunet
- Occupations
- military personnelmilitary officer
- Biography
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Jules Brunet was a French military officer who served the Tokugawa shogunate during the Boshin War in Japan. Originally sent to Japan as a horse artillery instructor with the French military mission of 1867, he refused to leave the country after the shōgun was defeated, and played a leading role in the separatist Republic of Ezo and its fight against forces of the Meiji Restoration. After the rebellion's defeat, he returned to France, fought in the Franco-Prussian War, later reached the rank of general of division, and worked for the Ministry of War.
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Georges Sorel
- Occupations
- engineersociologistwritertrade unionistphilosopher
- Biography
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Georges Eugène Sorel was a French social thinker, political theorist, historian, and later journalist. He has inspired theories and movements grouped under the name of Sorelianism. His social and political philosophy owed much to his reading of Proudhon, Karl Marx, Giambattista Vico, Henri Bergson (whose lectures at the Collège de France he attended), and later William James. His notion of the power of myth in collective agency inspired socialists, anarchists, Marxists, and fascists. Together with his defense of violence, the power of myth is the contribution for which he is most often remembered.
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André Citroën
- Occupations
- entrepreneurindustrialistengineer
- Biography
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André-Gustave Citroën was a French industrialist and the founder of French automaker Citroën. He is also remembered for his application of double helical gears.
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Jean-Baptiste Djebbari
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Jean-Baptiste Djebbari is a French aircraft pilot and politician of La République En Marche! (LREM).
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Sadi Carnot
- Occupations
- civil engineerpoliticianengineerofficial
- Biography
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Marie François Sadi Carnot was a French statesman who served as President of France from 1887 until his assassination in 1894.
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François Arago
- Enrolled in Polytechnic School
- Studied in 1803
- Occupations
- biographerpoliticianwriterastronomerphysicist
- Biography
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Dominique François Jean Arago, known simply as François Arago ( French: [fʁɑ̃swa aʁaɡo]; Catalan: Francesc Aragó, IPA: [fɾənˈsɛsk əɾəˈɣo]; 26 February 1786 – 2 October 1853), was a French mathematician, physicist, astronomer, freemason, supporter of the Carbonari revolutionaries and politician.
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Frédéric Oudéa
- Enrolled in Polytechnic School
- Studied in 1981-1984
- Occupations
- banker
- Biography
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Frédéric Oudéa is a French businessmann who was CEO of Société Générale and as president of the European Banking Federation.
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Siméon Denis Poisson
- Occupations
- politicianphysicistastronomeruniversity teachermathematician
- Biography
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Baron Siméon Denis Poisson was a French mathematician and physicist who worked on statistics, complex analysis, partial differential equations, the calculus of variations, analytical mechanics, electricity and magnetism, thermodynamics, elasticity, and fluid mechanics. Moreover, he predicted the Arago spot in his attempt to disprove the wave theory of Augustin-Jean Fresnel.
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Alain Aspect
- Occupations
- quantum physicistresearcher
- Biography
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Alain Aspect is a French physicist noted for his experimental work on quantum entanglement.
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Gaspard Monge
- Occupations
- politicianphysicistchemistuniversity teachermathematician
- Biography
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Gaspard Monge, Comte de Péluse was a French mathematician, commonly presented as the inventor of descriptive geometry, (the mathematical basis of) technical drawing, and the father of differential geometry. During the French Revolution he served as the Minister of the Marine, and was involved in the reform of the French educational system, helping to found the École Polytechnique.
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Jean Tirole
- Occupations
- university teacherresearchereconomist
- Biography
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Jean Tirole is a French economist who is currently a professor of economics at Toulouse 1 Capitole University. He focuses on industrial organization, game theory, banking and finance, and psychology. In particular, he focuses on the regulation of economic activity in a way that does not hinder innovation while maintaining fair rules. Tirole's work is largely theoretical and explored in mathematical models, not empirical research.
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Prince Ferdinand Philippe, Duke of Orléans
- Occupations
- aristocratpoliticianmilitary officer
- Biography
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Prince Ferdinand Philippe, Duke of Orléans was the eldest son of King Louis Philippe I of France and Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily. He was born in exile in his mother's native Sicily while his parents were the Duke and Duchess of Orléans. Ferdinand Philippe was heir to the House of Orléans from birth. Following his father's succession as King of the French in 1830, he became the Prince Royal of France and Duke of Orléans. He died in 1842, never to succeed his father or see the collapse of the July Monarchy and subsequent exile of his family to the United Kingdom.
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Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry
- Occupations
- military engineermilitary flight engineer
- Biography
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Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry was a French Air Force lieutenant colonel, military air-weaponry engineer and the creator of the Nord SS.10/SS.11 missiles. Bastien-Thiry attempted to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle on 22 August 1962 in retaliation for de Gaulle's decision to accept Algerian independence. Bastien-Thiry was the last person to be executed by firing squad in France.
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Robert Nivelle
- Occupations
- military personnel
- Biography
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Robert Georges Nivelle was a French artillery general officer who served in the Boxer Rebellion and the First World War. In May 1916, he succeeded Philippe Pétain as commander of the French Second Army in the Battle of Verdun, leading counter-offensives that rolled back the German forces in late 1916. During these actions he and General Charles Mangin were accused of wasting French lives. He gives his name to the Nivelle Offensive.
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Augustin-Jean Fresnel
- Occupations
- engineerphysicistcivil engineer
- Biography
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Augustin-Jean Fresnel was a French civil engineer and physicist whose research in optics led to the almost unanimous acceptance of the wave theory of light, excluding any remnant of Newton's corpuscular theory, from the late 1830s until the end of the 19th century. He is perhaps better known for inventing the catadioptric (reflective/refractive) Fresnel lens and for pioneering the use of "stepped" lenses to extend the visibility of lighthouses, saving countless lives at sea. The simpler dioptric (purely refractive) stepped lens, first proposed by Count Buffon and independently reinvented by Fresnel, is used in screen magnifiers and in condenser lenses for overhead projectors.
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Patrick Pouyanné
- Enrolled in Polytechnic School
- In 1986 graduated with diplôme d'ingénieur
- Occupations
- engineerindustrialistbusinesspersonchief executive officer
- Biography
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Patrick Jean Pouyanné is a French engineer who has been serving as chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies since 2014.
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Frédéric Arnault
- Years
- 1994-.. (age 31)
- Enrolled in Polytechnic School
- Studied in 2014-2018
- Occupations
- businessperson
- Biography
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Frédéric Bernard Jean Étienne Arnault is a French businessman who has been the CEO of LVMH Watches since 2024.
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Pierre Schaeffer
- Enrolled in Polytechnic School
- Studied in 1929-1931
- Occupations
- engineermusic theoristphilosopherrecord producermusicologist
- Biography
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Pierre Henri Marie Schaeffer was a French composer, writer, broadcaster, engineer, musicologist, acoustician and founder of Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète (GRMC). His innovative work in both the sciences—particularly communications and acoustics—and the various arts of music, literature and radio presentation after the end of World War II, as well as his anti-nuclear activism and cultural criticism garnered him widespread recognition in his lifetime.
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Jean Borotra
- Occupations
- military officertennis player
- Biography
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Jean Laurent Robert Borotra was a French tennis champion. He was one of the "Four Musketeers" from his country who dominated tennis in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Borotra was imprisoned in Itter Castle during the latter years of World War II and subsequently fought in the Battle for Castle Itter.
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Jean-Marc Germain
- Occupations
- politicianofficial
- Biography
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Jean-Marc Germain is a French politician, member of the Socialist Party. He is the cabinet director of Martine Aubry in Socialist Party, and was elected to the European Parliament in 2024. Germain is also the husband of Anne Hidalgo, mayor of Paris.
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Bruno Mégret
- Occupations
- politicianofficial
- Biography
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Bruno Mégret is a French former nationalist politician. He was the leader of the Mouvement National Républicain political party, but retired in 2008 from all political action.
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Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber
- Occupations
- writerjournalistpolitician
- Biography
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Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, often referred to as JJSS, was a French journalist and politician. He co-founded L'Express in 1953 with Françoise Giroud, and then went on to become president of the Radical Party in 1971. He oversaw its transition to the center-right, the party being thereafter known as Parti radical valoisien. He tried to found in 1972 the Reforming Movement with Christian Democrat Jean Lecanuet, with whom he supported Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's conservative candidature to the 1974 presidential election.
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Urbain Le Verrier
- Occupations
- astronomerpoliticianmeteorologistwritermathematician
- Biography
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Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier was a French astronomer and mathematician who specialized in celestial mechanics and is best known for predicting the existence and position of Neptune using only mathematics.
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Trần Đại Nghĩa
- Occupations
- engineerpoliticianmilitary engineer
- Biography
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Trần Đại Nghĩa was a Vietnamese scientist, military engineer, and prominent figure in the defense industry of Vietnam. He was a major-general and an academician. He was awarded the Order of Ho Chi Minh and named a Hero of Labor. He was elected as an Academician to the former USSR Academy of Sciences.
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Roland Lescure
- Occupations
- politiciancadres de la fonction publiquecorporate administrative and commercial executiveeconomist
- Biography
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Roland Lescure is a French and Canadian banker and politician who has served as Minister Delegate for Industry in the governments of successive Prime Ministers Élisabeth Borne and Gabriel Attal since 2022.
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Louis-Eugène Cavaignac
- Occupations
- politicianmilitary officer
- Biography
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Louis-Eugène Cavaignac was a French general and politician who served as head of the executive power of France between June and December 1848, during the French Second Republic.
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Gérard Mourou
- Occupations
- physicistuniversity teacherresearcher
- Biography
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Gérard Albert Mourou is a French scientist and pioneer in the field of electrical engineering and lasers. He was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physics in 2018, along with Donna Strickland, for the invention of chirped pulse amplification, a technique later used to create ultrashort-pulse, very high-intensity (petawatt) laser pulses.
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Alexandre-Émile Béguyer de Chancourtois
- Enrolled in Polytechnic School
- Studied in 1838
- Occupations
- mineralogistacademicchemistgeologist
- Biography
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Alexandre-Émile Béguyer de Chancourtois was a French geologist and mineralogist who was the first to arrange the chemical elements in order of atomic weights, doing so in 1862. De Chancourtois only published his paper, but did not publish his actual graph with the irregular arrangement. Although his publication was significant, it was ignored by chemists as it was written in terms of geology. It was Dmitri Mendeleev's table published in 1869 that became most recognized. De Chancourtois was also a professor of mine surveying, and later geology at the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris. He also was the Inspector of Mines in Paris, and was widely responsible for implementing many mine safety regulations and laws during the time.
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Guillaume Faury
- Occupations
- managermilitary flight engineerchief executive officer
- Biography
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Guillaume Faury is a French engineer and businessman. He is the chief executive officer (CEO) at the aerospace corporation Airbus SE and chairman of its civil aircraft division, Airbus SAS.
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Petrache Poenaru
- Occupations
- engineerphysicistmathematician
- Biography
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Petrache Poenaru was a Romanian inventor.
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François Villeroy de Galhau
- Occupations
- businesspersoneconomistofficial
- Biography
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François Villeroy de Galhau is a French senior civil servant and banker who has served as Governor of the Bank of France and ex officio President of the French Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority since 2015.
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Maurice Allais
- Occupations
- economistresearcherengineerphysicist
- Biography
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Maurice Félix Charles Allais was a French physicist and economist, the 1988 winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences "for his pioneering contributions to the theory of markets and efficient utilization of resources", along with John Hicks (Value and Capital, 1939) and Paul Samuelson (The Foundations of Economic Analysis, 1947), to neoclassical synthesis. They formalize the self-regulation of markets, which Keynes refuted but reiterated some of Allais's ideas.
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Henry Louis Le Châtelier
- Enrolled in Polytechnic School
- Studied in 1869-1870
- Occupations
- engineerchemistprofessor
- Biography
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Henry Louis Le Chatelier was a French chemist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He devised Le Chatelier's principle, used by chemists and chemical engineers to predict the effect a changing condition has on a system in chemical equilibrium.
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Albert Jacquard
- Occupations
- philosophergeneticistbiologistessayist
- Biography
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Albert Jacquard was a French geneticist, popularizer of science and essayist.
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Gérard Araud
- Occupations
- diplomat
- Biography
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Gérard Araud is a retired French diplomat who served as Ambassador of France to the United States from 2014 to 2019. He previously served as Director General for Political and Security Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2006–2009) and France's permanent representative to the United Nations (2009–2014).
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Charles Hermite
- Enrolled in Polytechnic School
- Studied in 1841-1842
- Occupations
- university teachermathematiciansenior lecturerprofesseur des universités
- Biography
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Charles Hermite FRS FRSE MIAS (24 December 1822 – 14 January 1901) was a French mathematician who did research concerning number theory, quadratic forms, invariant theory, orthogonal polynomials, elliptic functions, and algebra.
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Salvador de Madariaga
- Occupations
- biographerpoliticianwriteropinion journalistpoet
- Biography
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Salvador de Madariaga y Rojo was a Spanish "eminent liberal", diplomat, writer, historian and pacifist who was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Nobel Peace Prize and awarded the Charlemagne Prize in 1973.
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Ion I. C. Brătianu
- Occupations
- politicianrailway engineerdiplomatcivil engineer
- Biography
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Ion Ionel Constantin Brătianu was a Romanian politician, leader of the National Liberal Party (PNL), Prime Minister of Romania for five terms, and Foreign Minister on several occasions; he was the eldest son of statesman and PNL leader Ion Brătianu, the brother of Vintilă and Dinu Brătianu, and the father of Gheorghe I. Brătianu. Ion I. C. Brătianu's political activities after World War I, including part of his third and fourth term, saw the unification of the Old Romanian Kingdom with Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia (see: Greater Romania). In 1923, he was elected an honorary member of the Romanian Academy.
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Claude-Louis Navier
- Occupations
- engineerphysicistengineer of the French Corps of Bridges and Roadseconomistmathematician
- Biography
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Claude-Louis Navier was a French Civil engineer, affiliated with the French government, and a physicist who specialized in continuum mechanics.
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Paul Bert
- Occupations
- zoologistpoliticianphysiciangovernorofficial
- Biography
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Paul Bert was a French zoologist, physiologist and politician. He is sometimes given the nickname "Father of Aviation Medicine".
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Jean-Bernard Lévy
- Occupations
- businesspersonengineer
- Biography
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Jean-Bernard Lévy is a French businessman, and was the CEO and chairman of EDF.
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Camille Jordan
- Occupations
- university teachermathematicianengineerprofessor
- Biography
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Marie Ennemond Camille Jordan was a French mathematician, known both for his foundational work in group theory and for his influential Cours d'analyse.
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Caroline Aigle
- Enrolled in Polytechnic School
- Studied in 1994-1997
- Occupations
- fighter pilottriathletemilitary flight engineerengineer
- Biography
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Commandant Caroline Aigle was a French aviator who achieved a historical first when at the age of 25, she became the first woman fighter pilot in the French Air Force. Her promising military career was cut short by death from cancer seven years later. She was posthumously awarded the Médaille de l'Aéronautique (Aeronautics Medal).
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Michel Virlogeux
- Enrolled in Polytechnic School
- Studied in 1965-1967
- Occupations
- university teacherexpertstructural engineercivil engineer
- Biography
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Michel Virlogeux is a French structural engineer and bridge specialist.
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Jean-Baptiste Biot
- Occupations
- astronomercivil engineerphysicistprofessormathematician
- Biography
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Jean-Baptiste Biot was a French physicist, astronomer, and mathematician who co-discovered the Biot–Savart law of magnetostatics with Félix Savart, established the reality of meteorites, made an early balloon flight, and studied the polarization of light.
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Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis
- Enrolled in Polytechnic School
- Studied in 1808-1810
- Occupations
- engineercivil engineeruniversity teacherphysicistmathematician
- Biography
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Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis was a French mathematician, mechanical engineer and scientist. He is best known for his work on the supplementary forces that are detected in a rotating frame of reference, leading to the Coriolis effect. He was the first to apply the term travail (translated as "work") for the transfer of energy by a force acting through a distance, and he prefixed the factor ½ to Leibniz's concept of vis viva, thus specifying today's kinetic energy.
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Guillaume Henri Dufour
- Occupations
- civil engineermilitary personnelpoliticiancartographerurban planner
- Biography
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Guillaume Henri Dufour was a Swiss military officer, structural engineer and topographer. He served under Napoleon I and held the Swiss office of General four times in his career, firstly in 1847 when he led the Swiss Confederation forces to victory against the Sonderbund. In 1864 Dufour presided over the First Geneva Convention which established the International Red Cross. He was founder and president (1838 to 1865) of the Swiss Federal Office of Topography.
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Paul Andreu
- Enrolled in Polytechnic School
- Studied in 1958-1961
- Occupations
- engineercivil engineerpainterwriterarchitect
- Biography
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Paul Andreu was a French architect, known for his designs of multiple airports such as Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, and multiple prestigious projects in China, including the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing.
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Louis Faidherbe
- Enrolled in Polytechnic School
- Studied in 1838-1840
- Occupations
- politiciancolonial administratormilitary officer
- Biography
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Louis Léon César Faidherbe was a French general and colonial administrator. He created the Senegalese Tirailleurs when he was governor of Senegal.
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Chakib Benmoussaa
- Enrolled in Polytechnic School
- Studied in 1976-1979
- Occupations
- engineerpoliticiandiplomat
- Biography
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Chakib Benmoussa is a Moroccan diplomat and politician. He previously served as the interior minister of Morocco and has been the lead negotiator for the Moroccan side in the Western Sahara conflict. Since December 2012, he is serving as the Moroccan ambassador to France. Between October 7, 2021 and November 12, 2024, he had served as the education and sports minister.
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Charles Koechlin
- Enrolled in Polytechnic School
- Studied in 1887
- Occupations
- writercomposermusicologistmusic educator
- Biography
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Charles-Louis-Eugène Koechlin, commonly known as Charles Koechlin, was a French composer, teacher and musicologist. Among his better known works is Les Heures persanes, a set of piano pieces based on the novel Vers Ispahan by Pierre Loti and The Seven Stars Symphony, a 7 movement symphony where each movement is themed around a different film star (all Silent era stars) who were popular at the time of the piece's writing (1933).
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Eugène Freyssinet
- Enrolled in Polytechnic School
- Studied in 1899-1902
- Occupations
- civil engineerengineerengineer of the French Corps of Bridges and Roadsstructural engineer
- Biography
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Eugène Freyssinet was a French structural and civil engineer. He was the major pioneer of prestressed concrete.
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Alfred Sauvy
- Occupations
- historianeconomistprofessordemographeranthropologist
- Biography
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Alfred Sauvy was a demographer, anthropologist and historian of the French economy. Sauvy coined the term Third World ("Tiers Monde") in reference to countries that were unaligned with either the Western bloc or the Eastern bloc during the Cold War.
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Antoine Compagnon
- Enrolled in Polytechnic School
- Studied in 1970-1973
- Occupations
- writerteacherliterary critic
- Biography
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Antoine Compagnon is a Professor of French Literature at Collège de France, Paris (2006–), and the Blanche W. Knopf Professor of French and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, New York City (1985–).
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Hervé Mariton
- Occupations
- cadres de la fonction publiqueGrands corps de l'Etatpolitician
- Biography
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Hervé Marie David Mariton is a French politician serving as Mayor of Crest since 1995. A member of The Republicans, he was elected to the National Assembly for the third constituency of Drôme from 1993 to 1997 and again from 2002 until 2017, with a brief interruption in 2007, when he was appointed Minister of the Overseas by President Jacques Chirac in the last weeks of his second term, replacing François Baroin, who became Minister of the Interior.
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Fulgence Bienvenüe
- Enrolled in Polytechnic School
- Studied in 1870-1872
- Occupations
- civil engineerarchitectengineerengineer of the French Corps of Bridges and Roads
- Biography
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Fulgence Bienvenüe was a French civil engineer, best known for his role in the construction of the Paris Métro, and has been called "Le Père du Métro" (Father of the Metro).
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Jacques De Peretti
- Occupations
- entrepreneurbusinessperson
- Biography
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Claude Bébéar is a French businessman. He is the former CEO of AXA.
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Benoît Paul Émile Clapeyron
- Enrolled in Polytechnic School
- Studied in 1815-1818
- Occupations
- engineerphysicistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Benoît Paul Émile Clapeyron was a French engineer and physicist, one of the founders of thermodynamics.
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Michel Chasles
- Enrolled in Polytechnic School
- Studied in 1812
- Occupations
- university teacherphysicistmathematicianhistorian of mathematicsgeometer
- Biography
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Michel Floréal Chasles was a French mathematician.
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Lionel Stoléru
- Occupations
- politicianeconomistengineerconductor
- Biography
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Lionel Guy Stoléru was a French politician and civil servant. He was also an orchestra founder and conductor.
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Louis Pouzin
- Enrolled in Polytechnic School
- Studied in 1950-1953
- Occupations
- computer scientistengineer
- Biography
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Louis Pouzin is a French computer scientist and Internet pioneer. He directed the development of the CYCLADES computer network in France the early 1970s, which implemented a novel design for packet communication. He was the first to implement the end-to-end principle in a wide-area network, which became fundamental to the design of the Internet.
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Pierre Guillaume Frédéric le Play
- Occupations
- politicianeconomistengineersociologist
- Biography
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Pierre Guillaume Frédéric le Play was a French engineer, sociologist and economist.
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André Turcat
- Occupations
- aircraft pilotpoliticiantest pilot
- Biography
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Major André Édouard Turcat was a French Air Force pilot and test pilot celebrated for flying the first prototype of Concorde for its maiden flight.
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Mirza Melkum Khan
- Occupations
- diplomatopinion journalist
- Biography
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Mirza Melkum Khan, also spelled as Melkum Khan, was an Iranian modernist writer, diplomat, and publicist. He is known for his social reform efforts, as well as for being the first Christian to adopt the title of 'Mirza' in Persian. He is considered one of the fathers of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution.
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Xavier Huillard
- Occupations
- engineerbusiness executive
- Biography
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Xavier Huillard is a French business executive, and the chairman and CEO of Vinci SA. He has been CEO since 2006, and chairman since 2010.
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Bertrand Meyer
- Occupations
- computer scientistengineer
- Biography
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Bertrand Meyer is a French academic, author, and consultant in the field of computer languages. He created the Eiffel programming language and the concept of design by contract.
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Fabienne Keller
- Enrolled in Polytechnic School
- Studied in 1982
- Occupations
- politicianbanker
- Biography
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Fabienne Keller is a French politician who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament since 2019. She was previously the mayor (UDF) of Strasbourg, France, from March 2001 to March 2008.
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Abdelouafi Laftit
- Enrolled in Polytechnic School
- Studied in 1989
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Abdelouafi Laftit is a Moroccan politician, currently serving as Minister of the Interior since 5 April 2017.
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Jean-Christophe Yoccoz
- Occupations
- university teacherchess playermathematician
- Biography
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Jean-Christophe Yoccoz was a French mathematician. He was awarded a Fields Medal in 1994, for his work on dynamical systems. Yoccoz died on 3 September 2016 at the age of 59.
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Paul Quilès
- Occupations
- engineerpolitician
- Biography
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Paul Quilès was a French Socialist politician.
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Antonin Baudry
- Occupations
- screenwriterfilm directorcomics artistdiplomat
- Biography
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Antonin Baudry also known by the writing pseudonym Abel Lanzac, is a French diplomat specializing in cultural affairs, comic book author, screenwriter, and film director.
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Paul Pierre Lévy
- Enrolled in Polytechnic School
- Studied in 1904-1906
- Occupations
- engineeruniversity teachermathematician
- Biography
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Paul Pierre Lévy was a French mathematician who was active especially in probability theory, introducing fundamental concepts such as local time, stable distributions and characteristic functions. Lévy processes, Lévy flights, Lévy measures, Lévy's constant, the Lévy distribution, the Lévy area, the Lévy arcsine law, and the fractal Lévy C curve are named after him.
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Jean-François Clervoy
- Occupations
- astronautmilitary flight engineerengineer
- Biography
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Jean-François André Clervoy is a French engineer and a CNES and ESA astronaut. He is a veteran of three NASA Space Shuttle missions.
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Patrick Kron
- Occupations
- engineerbusiness executive
- Biography
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Patrick Kron was the chairman and chief executive (Président-directeur général) of the French engineering conglomerate Alstom. Alstom is most well known for its TGV trains, and is headquartered at Saint-Ouen.
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Henry Darcy
- Occupations
- engineerspeleologistcivil engineerhydraulic engineerphysicist
- Biography
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Henry Philibert Gaspard Darcy was a French engineer who made several important contributions to hydraulics, including Darcy’s law for flow in porous media.
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Jean-Victor Poncelet
- Occupations
- engineerphysicistmilitary engineerprofessormathematician
- Biography
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Jean-Victor Poncelet was a French engineer and mathematician who served most notably as the Commanding General of the École Polytechnique. He is considered a reviver of projective geometry, and his work Traité des propriétés projectives des figures is considered the first definitive text on the subject since Gérard Desargues' work on it in the 17th century. He later wrote an introduction to it: Applications d'analyse et de géométrie.
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Ernest Malinowski
- Occupations
- engineer
- Biography
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Adam Stanisław Hipolit Ernest Nepomucen Malinowski was a Polish civil engineer best known for constructing the world's highest railway at the time, the Ferrovias Central, in the Peruvian Andes between 1871–1876. He participated in the Battle of Callao in 1866 and was also a corresponding member of the Polish Museum in Rapperswil Society in Switzerland.
