100 Notable alumni of
Polytechnic School

Updated:

EduRank

Polytechnic School is 87th 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.

  1. Bernard Arnault

    Bernard Arnault
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1949-.. (age 75)
    Occupations
    businesspersonengineerart collector
    Biography

    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 the richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$218 billion as of 10 February 2024, according to Forbes.

  2. Carlos Ghosn

    Carlos Ghosn
    Born in
    Brazil Flag Brazil
    Years
    1954-.. (age 70)
    Occupations
    entrepreneurwriterbusiness executiveengineerinternational forum participant
    Biography

    Carlos Ghosn is a businessman and former automotive executive, widely known for having dramatically fled house arrest in 2019 in Japan, while awaiting trial on financial impropriety charges related to his tenure at Nissan.

  3. Valéry Giscard d'Estaing

    Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
    Born in
    Germany Flag Germany
    Years
    1926-2020 (aged 94)
    Occupations
    statesperson
    Biography

    Valéry René Marie Georges Giscard d'Estaing, also known as Giscard or VGE, was a French politician who served as President of France from 1974 to 1981.

  4. Auguste Comte

    Auguste Comte
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1798-1857 (aged 59)
    Enrolled in Polytechnic School
    Studied in 1814-1816
    Occupations
    writermathematicianphilosophersociologist
    Biography

    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.

  5. Élisabeth Borne

    Élisabeth Borne
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1961-.. (age 63)
    Enrolled in Polytechnic School
    Studied in 1981
    Occupations
    politicianengineerofficial
    Biography

    Élisabeth Borne is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 2022 to 2024. She is a member of President Emmanuel Macron's party Renaissance. Borne is the second woman to hold the position of Prime Minister after Édith Cresson, who served from 1991 to 1992.

  6. Alfred Dreyfus

    Alfred Dreyfus
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1859-1935 (aged 76)
    Occupations
    military personnelarmy officer
    Biography

    Alfred Dreyfus was a French artillery officer of Jewish ancestry from Alsace whose trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason became one of the most polarizing political dramas in modern French history. The incident has gone down in history as the Dreyfus affair, the reverberations from which were felt throughout Europe. It ultimately ended with Dreyfus' complete exoneration.

  7. Ferdinand Foch

    Ferdinand Foch
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1851-1929 (aged 78)
    Occupations
    military officermilitary personnel
    Biography

    Ferdinand Foch was a French general, Marshal of France and member of the Académie Française. He distinguished himself as Supreme Allied Commander on the Western Front during the First World War in 1918.

  8. Henri Poincaré

    Henri Poincaré
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1854-1912 (aged 58)
    Enrolled in Polytechnic School
    Studied in 1873
    Occupations
    topologistphilosopher of sciencephilosopherpolymathwriter
    Biography

    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. Due to his scientific success, influence and his discoveries, he has been deemed "the philosopher par excellence of modern science."

  9. André-Marie Ampère

    André-Marie Ampère
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1775-1836 (aged 61)
    Occupations
    chemistphysicistinventorengineermathematician
    Biography

    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.

  10. Jacques Attali

    Jacques Attali
    Born in
    Algeria Flag Algeria
    Years
    1943-.. (age 81)
    Enrolled in Polytechnic School
    Studied in 1963-1965
    Occupations
    writerinternational forum participanteconomistbankerpolitician
    Biography

    Jacques José Mardoché Attali is a French economic and social theorist, writer, political adviser and senior civil servant.

  11. Henri Becquerel

    Henri Becquerel
    Awards
    Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1852-1908 (aged 56)
    Enrolled in Polytechnic School
    Studied in 1872
    Occupations
    physicistuniversity teacherchemistengineernuclear physicist
    Biography

    Antoine Henri Becquerel was a French engineer, physicist, Nobel laureate, and the first person to discover radioactivity. For work in this field he, along with Marie Skłodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie, received the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics. The SI unit for radioactivity, the becquerel (Bq), is named after him.

  12. Benoit Mandelbrot

    Benoit Mandelbrot
    Born in
    Poland Flag Poland
    Years
    1924-2010 (aged 86)
    Enrolled in Polytechnic School
    1945-1947 studied engineering
    Occupations
    computer scientistwritermathematicianuniversity teacherscientist
    Biography

    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.

  13. Patrick Drahi

    Patrick Drahi
    Born in
    Morocco Flag Morocco
    Years
    1963-.. (age 61)
    Occupations
    entrepreneur
    Biography

    Patrick Drahi is an 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.

  14. Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet

    Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1973-.. (age 51)
    Occupations
    politician
    Biography

    Nathalie Geneviève Marie Kosciusko-Morizet, often referred to by her initials NKM, is an engineer and former politician.

  15. Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac

    Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1778-1850 (aged 72)
    Occupations
    university teacherchemistboard memberphysicistengineer
    Biography

    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.

  16. Augustin-Louis Cauchy

    Augustin-Louis Cauchy
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1789-1857 (aged 68)
    Occupations
    physicistengineermathematicianuniversity teacher
    Biography

    Baron Augustin-Louis Cauchy was a French mathematician, engineer, and physicist who made pioneering contributions to several branches of mathematics, including mathematical analysis and continuum mechanics. He was one of the first to state and rigorously prove theorems of calculus, rejecting the heuristic principle of the generality of algebra of earlier authors. He is one of the founders of complex analysis and the study of permutation groups in abstract algebra.

  17. Albert François Lebrun

    Albert François Lebrun
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1871-1950 (aged 79)
    Occupations
    politicianengineerentomologist
    Biography

    Albert François Lebrun was a French politician, 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).

  18. Joseph Joffre

    Joseph Joffre
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1852-1931 (aged 79)
    Occupations
    military personnel
    Biography

    Joseph Jacques Césaire Joffre, 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.

  19. Nicolas Carnot

    Nicolas Carnot
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1796-1832 (aged 36)
    Occupations
    physicistengineermilitary engineermathematician
    Biography

    Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot was a French mechanical engineer in the French Army, military scientist and physicist, often described as the "father of thermodynamics". He published only one book, the Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire (Paris, 1824), in which he expressed the first successful theory of the maximum efficiency of heat engines and laid the foundations of the new discipline: thermodynamics. Carnot's work attracted little attention during his lifetime, but it was later used by Rudolf Clausius and Lord Kelvin to formalize the second law of thermodynamics and define the concept of entropy. Driven by purely technical concerns, such as improving the performance of the steam engine, Sadi Carnot's theoretical work laid important foundations for modern science as well as technologies such as the automobile and jet engine.

  20. Jean-Marc Jancovici

    Jean-Marc Jancovici
    Years
    1962-.. (age 62)
    Enrolled in Polytechnic School
    1981-1984 graduated with diplôme d'ingénieur
    Occupations
    university teacherbusiness executiveengineerconsultantlecturer
    Biography

    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.

  21. Serge Dassault

    Serge Dassault
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1925-2018 (aged 93)
    Occupations
    entrepreneurpublisheraerospace engineerbusinesspersonpolitician
    Biography

    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.

  22. Tidjane Thiam

    Tidjane Thiam
    Born in
    Ivory Coast Flag Ivory Coast
    Years
    1962-.. (age 62)
    Enrolled in Polytechnic School
    Studied in 1982-1984
    Occupations
    chief executive officerbusinesspersoninternational forum participant
    Biography

    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).

  23. Henry de Lesquen

    Henry de Lesquen
    Born in
    Morocco Flag Morocco
    Years
    1949-.. (age 75)
    Enrolled in Polytechnic School
    Studied in 1968-1971
    Occupations
    radio directorpoliticianofficial
    Biography

    Henry de Lesquen is a French politician. A retired official and former radio host, 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, as well as spreading racialist concepts built on anthropologist Carleton S. Coon's works.

  24. Jules Brunet

    Jules Brunet
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1838-1911 (aged 73)
    Occupations
    military officermilitary personnel
    Biography

    Jules Brunet was a French military officer who served the Tokugawa shogunate during the Boshin War in Japan. Originally sent to Japan as an 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, and later reached the rank of general of division and worked for the Ministry of War.

  25. Georges Sorel

    Georges Sorel
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1847-1922 (aged 75)
    Occupations
    writersociologistengineerphilosophertrade unionist
    Biography

    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.

  26. André Citroën

    André Citroën
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1878-1935 (aged 57)
    Occupations
    industrialistentrepreneurengineer
    Biography

    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.

  27. François Arago

    François Arago
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1786-1853 (aged 67)
    Enrolled in Polytechnic School
    Studied in 1803
    Occupations
    mathematicianuniversity teacherphysicistastronomerwriter
    Biography

    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.

  28. Prince Ferdinand Philippe, Duke of Orléans

    Prince Ferdinand Philippe, Duke of Orléans
    Born in
    Italy Flag Italy
    Years
    1810-1842 (aged 32)
    Occupations
    politicianaristocratmilitary officer
    Biography

    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.

  29. Sadi Carnot

    Sadi Carnot
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1837-1894 (aged 57)
    Occupations
    engineerpoliticiancivil engineerofficial
    Biography

    Marie François Sadi Carnot was a French statesman, who served as the President of France from 1887 until his assassination in 1894.

  30. Siméon Denis Poisson

    Siméon Denis Poisson
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1781-1840 (aged 59)
    Occupations
    university teacherastronomerphysicistpoliticianstatistician
    Biography

    Baron Siméon Denis Poisson FRS FRSE 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 Poisson spot in his attempt to disprove the wave theory of Augustin-Jean Fresnel, which was later confirmed.

  31. Alain Aspect

    Alain Aspect
    Awards
    Nobel Prize in Physics in 2022
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1947-.. (age 77)
    Occupations
    researcherquantum physicist
    Biography

    Alain Aspect is a French physicist noted for his experimental work on quantum entanglement.

  32. Gaspard Monge

    Gaspard Monge
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1746-1818 (aged 72)
    Occupations
    mathematicianuniversity teacherchemistphysicistpolitician
    Biography

    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.

  33. Jean Tirole

    Jean Tirole
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1953-.. (age 71)
    Occupations
    economistuniversity teacher
    Biography

    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.

  34. Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry

    Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1927-1963 (aged 36)
    Occupations
    aerospace engineermilitary engineer
    Biography

    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.

  35. Robert Nivelle

    Robert Nivelle
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1856-1924 (aged 68)
    Occupations
    military personnel
    Biography

    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.

  36. Augustin-Jean Fresnel

    Augustin-Jean Fresnel
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1788-1827 (aged 39)
    Occupations
    physicistengineercivil engineer
    Biography

    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.

  37. Pierre Schaeffer

    Pierre Schaeffer
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1910-1995 (aged 85)
    Enrolled in Polytechnic School
    Studied in 1929-1931
    Occupations
    music criticmusicianradio personalitymusic teachercomposer
    Biography

    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.

  38. Patrick Pouyanné

    Patrick Pouyanné
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1963-.. (age 61)
    Enrolled in Polytechnic School
    In 1986 graduated with diplôme d'ingénieur
    Occupations
    entrepreneurindustrialistbusinesspersonengineerinternational forum participant
    Biography

    Patrick Jean Pouyanné is a French engineer who has been serving as chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies since 2014.

  39. Jean Borotra

    Jean Borotra
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1898-1994 (aged 96)
    Occupations
    tennis playermilitary officer
    Biography

    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.

  40. Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber

    Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1924-2006 (aged 82)
    Occupations
    journalistwriterpolitician
    Biography

    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.

  41. Bruno Mégret

    Bruno Mégret
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1949-.. (age 75)
    Occupations
    officialpolitician
    Biography

    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.

  42. Jean-Marc Germain

    Jean-Marc Germain
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1966-.. (age 58)
    Occupations
    officialpolitician
    Biography

    Jean-Marc Germain is a French politician, member of the Socialist Party. He is the cabinet director of Martine Aubry in Socialist Party. Germain is also the husband of Anne Hidalgo, mayor of Paris.

  43. Urbain Le Verrier

    Urbain Le Verrier
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1811-1877 (aged 66)
    Occupations
    writermeteorologistpoliticianastronomermathematician
    Biography

    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.

  44. Frédéric Oudéa

    Frédéric Oudéa
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1963-.. (age 61)
    Enrolled in Polytechnic School
    Studied in 1981-1984
    Occupations
    banker
    Biography

    Frédéric Oudéa is a French businessmann who was CEO of Société Générale and as president of the European Banking Federation.

  45. Gérard Mourou

    Gérard Mourou
    Awards
    Nobel Prize in Physics in 2018
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1944-.. (age 80)
    Occupations
    university teacherphysicist
    Biography

    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.

  46. Trần Đại Nghĩa

    Trần Đại Nghĩa
    Born in
    Vietnam Flag Vietnam
    Years
    1913-1997 (aged 84)
    Occupations
    politicianengineermilitary engineer
    Biography

    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.

  47. Louis-Eugène Cavaignac

    Louis-Eugène Cavaignac
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1802-1857 (aged 55)
    Occupations
    military officerpolitician
    Biography

    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.

  48. Alexandre-Émile Béguyer de Chancourtois

    Alexandre-Émile Béguyer de Chancourtois
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1820-1886 (aged 66)
    Enrolled in Polytechnic School
    Studied in 1838
    Occupations
    academicmineralogistgeologistchemist
    Biography

    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.

  49. Maurice Allais

    Maurice Allais
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1911-2010 (aged 99)
    Occupations
    physicistengineerresearchereconomist
    Biography

    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.

  50. Petrache Poenaru

    Petrache Poenaru
    Born in
    Romania Flag Romania
    Years
    1799-1875 (aged 76)
    Occupations
    physicistengineermathematician
    Biography

    Petrache Poenaru was a Romanian inventor.

  51. Albert Jacquard

    Albert Jacquard
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1925-2013 (aged 88)
    Occupations
    biologistgeneticistphilosopheressayist
    Biography

    Albert Jacquard was a French geneticist, popularizer of science and essayist.

  52. Henry Louis Le Châtelier

    Henry Louis Le Châtelier
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1850-1936 (aged 86)
    Enrolled in Polytechnic School
    Studied in 1869-1870
    Occupations
    chemistengineerprofessor
    Biography

    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.

  53. François Villeroy de Galhau

    François Villeroy de Galhau
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1959-.. (age 65)
    Occupations
    officialeconomistinternational forum participantbusinessperson
    Biography

    François Villeroy de Galhau is a French civil servant and banker serving as Governor of the Bank of France and ex officio President of the French Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority since 2015.

  54. Charles Hermite

    Charles Hermite
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1822-1901 (aged 79)
    Enrolled in Polytechnic School
    Studied in 1841-1842
    Occupations
    senior lecturermathematicianuniversity teacherprofesseur des universités
    Biography

    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.

  55. Salvador de Madariaga

    Salvador de Madariaga
    Born in
    Spain Flag Spain
    Years
    1886-1978 (aged 92)
    Occupations
    novelistacademicessayistliterary criticengineer
    Biography

    Salvador de Madariaga y Rojo was an "eminent liberal" Spanish diplomat, writer, historian, and pacifist, nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Nobel Peace Prize and awarded the Charlemagne Prize in 1973.

  56. Ion I. C. Brătianu

    Ion I. C. Brătianu
    Born in
    Romania Flag Romania
    Years
    1864-1927 (aged 63)
    Occupations
    railway engineerpoliticiancivil engineerdiplomat
    Biography

    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.

  57. Guillaume Faury

    Guillaume Faury
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1968-.. (age 56)
    Occupations
    aerospace engineerinternational forum participant
    Biography

    Guillaume Faury is a French engineer and businessman. He is the current chief executive officer (CEO) at the aerospace corporation Airbus SE and he also serves as the chairman of its civil aircraft division, Airbus SAS.

  58. Roland Lescure

    Roland Lescure
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1966-.. (age 58)
    Occupations
    economistpolitician
    Biography

    Roland Lescure is a French 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.

  59. Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis

    Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1792-1843 (aged 51)
    Enrolled in Polytechnic School
    Studied in 1808-1810
    Occupations
    physicistuniversity teachercivil engineerengineermathematician
    Biography

    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.

  60. Gérard Araud

    Gérard Araud
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1953-.. (age 71)
    Occupations
    diplomat
    Biography

    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).

  61. Jean-Bernard Lévy

    Jean-Bernard Lévy
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1955-.. (age 69)
    Occupations
    engineerbusinessperson
    Biography

    Jean-Bernard Lévy is a French businessman, and the CEO and chairman of EDF.

  62. Claude-Louis Navier

    Claude-Louis Navier
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1785-1836 (aged 51)
    Occupations
    economistengineer of the French Corps of Bridges and Roadsphysicistengineercivil engineer
    Biography

    Claude-Louis Navier was a French mechanical engineer, affiliated with the French government, and a physicist who specialized in continuum mechanics.

  63. Paul Bert

    Paul Bert
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1833-1886 (aged 53)
    Occupations
    university teacherentomologistofficialgovernorphysician
    Biography

    Paul Bert was a French zoologist, physiologist and politician. He is sometimes given the sobriquet "Father of Aviation Medicine".

  64. Camille Jordan

    Camille Jordan
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1838-1922 (aged 84)
    Occupations
    engineermathematicianuniversity teacherprofessor
    Biography

    Marie Ennemond Camille Jordan was a French mathematician, known both for his foundational work in group theory and for his influential Cours d'analyse.

  65. Michel Virlogeux

    Michel Virlogeux
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1946-.. (age 78)
    Enrolled in Polytechnic School
    Studied in 1965-1967
    Occupations
    expertuniversity teachercivil engineerstructural engineer
    Biography

    Michel Virlogeux FREng CorrFRSE is a French structural engineer and bridge specialist.

  66. Caroline Aigle

    Caroline Aigle
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1974-2007 (aged 33)
    Enrolled in Polytechnic School
    Studied in 1994-1997
    Occupations
    engineeraerospace engineertriathletefighter pilot
    Biography

    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).

  67. Jean-Baptiste Biot

    Jean-Baptiste Biot
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1774-1862 (aged 88)
    Occupations
    mathematicianprofessorphysicistcivil engineerastronomer
    Biography

    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.

  68. Paul Andreu

    Paul Andreu
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1938-2018 (aged 80)
    Enrolled in Polytechnic School
    Studied in 1958-1961
    Occupations
    writerpaintercivil engineerengineerarchitect
    Biography

    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.

  69. Louis Faidherbe

    Louis Faidherbe
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1818-1889 (aged 71)
    Enrolled in Polytechnic School
    Studied in 1838-1840
    Occupations
    politicianmilitary officercolonial administrator
    Biography

    Louis Léon César Faidherbe was a French general and colonial administrator. He created the Senegalese Tirailleurs when he was governor of Senegal.

  70. Guillaume Henri Dufour

    Guillaume Henri Dufour
    Born in
    Germany Flag Germany
    Years
    1787-1875 (aged 88)
    Occupations
    politicianmilitary personnelcivil engineerurban plannercartographer
    Biography

    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.

  71. Eugène Freyssinet

    Eugène Freyssinet
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1879-1962 (aged 83)
    Enrolled in Polytechnic School
    Studied in 1899-1902
    Occupations
    engineer of the French Corps of Bridges and Roadsengineercivil engineerstructural engineer
    Biography

    Eugène Freyssinet was a French structural and civil engineer. He was the major pioneer of prestressed concrete.

  72. Charles Koechlin

    Charles Koechlin
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1867-1950 (aged 83)
    Enrolled in Polytechnic School
    Studied in 1887
    Occupations
    musicologistcomposerwritermusic teacher
    Biography

    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).

  73. Alfred Sauvy

    Alfred Sauvy
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1898-1990 (aged 92)
    Occupations
    sociologistanthropologistdemographerprofessoreconomist
    Biography

    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.

  74. Hervé Mariton

    Hervé Mariton
    Born in
    Algeria Flag Algeria
    Years
    1958-.. (age 66)
    Occupations
    Grands corps de l'Etatcadres de la fonction publiquepolitician
    Biography

    Hervé Marie David Mariton is 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.

  75. Chakib Benmoussaa

    Chakib Benmoussaa
    Born in
    Morocco Flag Morocco
    Years
    1958-.. (age 66)
    Enrolled in Polytechnic School
    Studied in 1976-1979
    Occupations
    diplomatpoliticianengineer
    Biography

    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. On October 7,2021 he was appointed as the education and sports minister.

  76. Jacques De Peretti

    Jacques De Peretti
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1935-.. (age 89)
    Occupations
    businesspersonentrepreneur
    Biography

    Claude Bébéar is a French businessman. He is the former CEO of AXA.

  77. Fulgence Bienvenüe

    Fulgence Bienvenüe
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1852-1936 (aged 84)
    Enrolled in Polytechnic School
    Studied in 1870-1872
    Occupations
    engineerarchitectcivil engineerengineer of the French Corps of Bridges and Roads
    Biography

    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).

  78. Antoine Compagnon

    Antoine Compagnon
    Born in
    Belgium Flag Belgium
    Years
    1950-.. (age 74)
    Enrolled in Polytechnic School
    Studied in 1970-1973
    Occupations
    writerliterary criticteacher
    Biography

    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–).

  79. Louis Pouzin

    Louis Pouzin
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1931-.. (age 93)
    Enrolled in Polytechnic School
    Studied in 1950-1953
    Occupations
    engineercomputer scientist
    Biography

    Louis Pouzin is a French computer scientist. He designed a pioneering packet communications network, CYCLADES that was the first to implement the end-to-end principle, which became fundamental to the design of the Internet.

  80. Michel Chasles

    Michel Chasles
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1793-1880 (aged 87)
    Enrolled in Polytechnic School
    Studied in 1812
    Occupations
    mathematicianphysicistuniversity teachergeometerhistorian of mathematics
    Biography

    Michel Floréal Chasles was a French mathematician.

  81. Benoît Paul Émile Clapeyron

    Benoît Paul Émile Clapeyron
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1799-1864 (aged 65)
    Enrolled in Polytechnic School
    Studied in 1815-1818
    Occupations
    university teacherphysicistengineer
    Biography

    Benoît Paul Émile Clapeyron was a French engineer and physicist, one of the founders of thermodynamics.

  82. Lionel Stoléru

    Lionel Stoléru
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1937-2016 (aged 79)
    Occupations
    conductorengineereconomistpolitician
    Biography

    Lionel Guy Stoléru was a French politician and civil servant. He was also an orchestra founder and conductor.

  83. Pierre Guillaume Frédéric le Play

    Pierre Guillaume Frédéric le Play
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1806-1882 (aged 76)
    Occupations
    engineereconomistpoliticiansociologist
    Biography

    Pierre Guillaume Frédéric le Play was a French engineer, sociologist and economist.

  84. André Turcat

    André Turcat
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1921-2016 (aged 95)
    Occupations
    politicianaircraft pilottest pilot
    Biography

    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.

  85. Bertrand Meyer

    Bertrand Meyer
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1950-.. (age 74)
    Occupations
    engineercomputer scientist
    Biography

    Bertrand Meyer is a French academic, author, and consultant in the field of computer languages. He created the Eiffel programming language and the idea of design by contract.

  86. Xavier Huillard

    Xavier Huillard
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1954-.. (age 70)
    Occupations
    business executiveengineer
    Biography

    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.

  87. Jean-Christophe Yoccoz

    Jean-Christophe Yoccoz
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1957-2016 (aged 59)
    Occupations
    chess playeruniversity teachermathematician
    Biography

    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.

  88. Paul Quilès

    Paul Quilès
    Born in
    Algeria Flag Algeria
    Years
    1942-2021 (aged 79)
    Occupations
    politicianengineer
    Biography

    Paul Quilès was a French Socialist politician.

  89. Antonin Baudry

    Antonin Baudry
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1975-.. (age 49)
    Occupations
    comics artistfilm directorscreenwriterdiplomat
    Biography

    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.

  90. Fabienne Keller

    Fabienne Keller
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1959-.. (age 65)
    Occupations
    bankerpolitician
    Biography

    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.

  91. Jean-François Clervoy

    Jean-François Clervoy
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1958-.. (age 66)
    Occupations
    aerospace engineerastronautengineer
    Biography

    Jean-François André Clervoy is a French engineer and a CNES and ESA astronaut. He is a veteran of three NASA Space Shuttle missions.

  92. Mirza Melkum Khan

    Mirza Melkum Khan
    Born in
    Iran Flag Iran
    Years
    1834-1908 (aged 74)
    Occupations
    diplomatopinion journalistSeraphic Doctor
    Biography

    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.

  93. Patrick Kron

    Patrick Kron
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1953-.. (age 71)
    Occupations
    business executiveengineerinternational forum participant
    Biography

    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.

  94. Abdelouafi Laftit

    Abdelouafi Laftit
    Born in
    Morocco Flag Morocco
    Years
    1967-.. (age 57)
    Enrolled in Polytechnic School
    Studied in 1989
    Occupations
    politician
    Biography

    Abdelouafi Laftit is a Moroccan politician, currently serving as Minister of the Interior since 5 April 2017.

  95. Paul Pierre Lévy

    Paul Pierre Lévy
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1886-1971 (aged 85)
    Enrolled in Polytechnic School
    Studied in 1904-1906
    Occupations
    university teacherengineermathematician
    Biography

    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.

  96. Henry Darcy

    Henry Darcy
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1803-1858 (aged 55)
    Occupations
    physicisthydraulic engineercivil engineerspeleologistengineer
    Biography

    Henry Philibert Gaspard Darcy was a French engineer who made several important contributions to hydraulics, including Darcy’s law for flow in porous media.

  97. Louis Vicat

    Louis Vicat
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1786-1861 (aged 75)
    Enrolled in Polytechnic School
    Studied in 1804-1806
    Occupations
    engineer of the French Corps of Bridges and Roadsengineer
    Biography

    Louis Vicat was a French engineer.

  98. Jean-Victor Poncelet

    Jean-Victor Poncelet
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1788-1867 (aged 79)
    Occupations
    professormilitary engineerphysicistengineerpolitician
    Biography

    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.

  99. Ernest Malinowski

    Ernest Malinowski
    Born in
    Ukraine Flag Ukraine
    Years
    1818-1899 (aged 81)
    Occupations
    engineer
    Biography

    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.

  100. Hervé Le Bras

    Hervé Le Bras
    Born in
    France Flag France
    Years
    1943-.. (age 81)
    Occupations
    historiandemographermathematician
    Biography

    Hervé Le Bras is a French demographer and historian.