List of École Polytechnique alumni

This is a list of notable people affiliated with the École Polytechnique. Alumni of the École Polytechnique are traditionally referred to as "X", or "Xnnnn", where nnnn stands for the year of admission into the school.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Nobel laureates

• 
  Henri Becquerel, X1872
• 
  Maurice Allais, X1931

Name	Class year	Notability	Reference(s)
Jean Tirole (1953– )	X1973	Economist, Nobel prize in Economics winner (2014)	[1]
Maurice Allais (1911–2010)	X1931	Economist, Nobel prize in Economics winner (1988)	[2]
Henri Becquerel (1852–1908)	X1872	Physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics winner 1903, [for] his discovery of radioactivity	[3]

Science, technology, and mathematics

Name	Class year	Notability	Reference(s)
François Arago (1786–1853)	X1803	Mathematician, physicist, astronomer and politician.	[4]
Roger Balian	X1952	Physicist, noted for his works on quantum thermodynamics and theory of measurement, including the Balian-Low theorem
Gérard Berry	X1967	Computer scientist, member of French Academy of Sciences, professor at Collège de France
Urbain Le Verrier	X1833	Astronomer, predicted the existence and position of Neptune using only mathematics, leading to its discovery.
Paul Bert	X1853	Father of Aviation Medicine
Valérie Cornetet		Head of the Institut polytechnique des sciences avancées
Roger Béteille	X1939	Notable aeronautical engineer, mainly for his work in Airbus A300
Jean Bertin	X1938	Engineer, inventor of Aérotrain, a hovercraft train
Louis-Emile Bertin	X1858	Naval engineer, reformed the Japanese military fleet, introduced the Jeune École philosophy
Fulgence Bienvenüe	X1872	Father of Paris Métro
Jean-Michel Bismut	X1967	Mathematician (Probability theory; differential geometry); recipient of Prix Ampère (1990); Member of French Academy of Sciences.
Yves Bréchet	X1981	Physicist, materials scientist, recipient of Körber European Science Award, member of the French Academy of Sciences
Claude Burdin	X1807	Engineer, recipient of Legion of Honour, member of the French Academy of Sciences, coined term "turbine"
Albert Caquot	X1899	Engineer, considered the best living French engineer during half a century
Henry Darcy	X1821	Work on hydraulics, notably the Darcy–Weisbach equation
Auguste Bravais	X1829	Physicist, noted for his works on crystallography and Bravais lattices
Irénée-Jules Bienaymé	X1815	Statistician
Émile Dorand	X1886	Military engineer and aircraft designer, first director of the Service Technique de l'Aéronautique (STAé)	[5]
Alexis Thérèse Petit	X1811	Physicist, noted for his works on Dulong-Petit Law
Pierre Louis Dulong	X1801	Physicist, noted for his works on Dulong-Petit Law
Felix Savary	X1815	Astronomer who worked on double stars
Jacques Babinet	X1812	Notable work on optics and meteorology
Henri-Alexandre Deslandres	X1872	Astronomer, studied the behavior of the atmosphere of the Sun. Director of the Meudon and Paris Observatories
Joseph Louis François Bertrand (1822–1900)	X1839	French mathematician who worked in the fields of number theory, differential geometry, probability theory, economics and thermodynamics..	[6]
Jean-Baptiste Biot (1774–1862)	X1794	Physicist, astronomer, and mathematician who established the reality of meteorites, and studied the polarization of light.	[7]
Jean-Victor Poncelet	X1807	Mathematician and engineer
Jean-Pierre Bourguignon	X1966	Mathematician
Christophe Breuil	X1989	Proved the Taniyama–Shimura conjecture together with Fred Diamond, Richard Taylor and Brian Conrad in 1999
Édouard Brézin	X1958	Theoretical physicist, winner of Dirac Prize
François Hussenot	X1930	Aeronautical engineer, perhaps the first person who invented the flight data recorder
Guy du Merle (1908–1993)	X1927	Aerospace engineer, test pilot and first director-general of the École nationale de l'aviation civile (French civil aviation university)
Henri Brocard (1845–1922)	X1865	Mathematician, Brocard points are named after him.	[8]
Emmanuel Candès	X1990	Statistician, Mathematician, winner of Pólya Prize, Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
Rama Cont	X1991	Mathematician, winner of Louis Bachelier Prize (French Academy of Sciences) (2010), Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
Jean-Marc Fontaine	X1965	Mathematician, member of the French Academy of Sciences
Yves Lambert	X1956	Aerospace engineer, former Director General of Eurocontrol
Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot (1796–1832)	X1812	French physicist, mathematician and engineer who gave the first successful theoretical account of heat engines, the Carnot cycle, and laid the foundations of the second law of thermodynamics.	[9]
Augustin Louis Cauchy (1789–1857)	X1805	Mathematician, formulated the residue theorem	[10]
André-Louis Cholesky	X1895	Mathematician, known for the Cholesky decomposition
Georges Charpy (1865–1945)	X1887	Invented the Charpy impact test
Michel Chasles (1793–1880)	X1812	Mathematician	[11]
Henri-Louis le Chatelier (1850–1936)	X1869	Chemist, most famous for devising Le Chatelier's principle	[12]
Émile Clapeyron (1799–1864)	X1816	Physicist, one of the founders of thermodynamics	[13]
Jean-Michel Coron	X1975	Mathematician
Pierre Henri Hugoniot (1851–1887)	X1872	Physicist, mechanical engineer and scientist. The Rankine–Hugoniot equation is named after him.
Gustave Coriolis (1792–1843)	X1808	Mathematician, mechanical engineer and scientist. The Coriolis Effect is named after him.	[14]
Charles Fabry (1867–1945)	X1885	Physicist, co-inventor of the Fabry–Pérot interferometer	[15]
Philippe Flajolet (1948–2011)	X1968	Computer scientist
Augustin Fresnel (1788–1827)	X1804	Physicist, major contributor to wave optics	[16]
Eugène Freyssinet (1879–1962)	X1899	Developed the prestressed concrete
Camille Jordan (1838–1922)	X1855	Mathematician, known both for his foundational work in group theory and for his Cours d'analyse	[17]
Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac (1778–1850)	X1797	Chemist and physicist. He is known mostly for the Gay-Lussac's laws related to gases.
Émile Lemoine (1840–1912)	X1866	Mathematician, known for his proof of the existence of the Lemoine point (or the symmedian point) of a triangle	[18]
Louis Leprince-Ringuet (1901–2000)	X1920	Physicist, telecommunications engineer, essayist and historian of science
Albert Jacquard	X1945	Geneticist, strong advocate of uneconomic growth
Gabriel Lamé	X1815	Mathematician, noted for his work on Curvilinear coordinates and Lamé function
Paul Lévy	X1908	One of the forefathers of the modern theory of stochastic processes
Alfred-Marie Liénard	X1887	physicist and geologist, noted for his works on Liénard–Wiechert potential
Joseph Liouville (1809–1882)	X1825	Mathematician	[19]
Stéphane Mallat	X1981	Mathematician
Étienne-Louis Malus (1775–1812)	X1795	Physicist, mathematician, known for the Malus's law	[20]
Benoît Mandelbrot (1924–2010)	X1944	Mathematician, father of fractal geometry	[21]
Albert Messiah	X1940	Theoretical physicist, engineer of corps of mines
Bertrand Meyer	X1969	Computer scientist, creator of the Eiffel language and the concept of Design by Contract
Charles Joseph Minard	X1796	Civil engineer noted for inventions in the field of Information graphics
Claude-Louis Navier (1785–1836)	X1802	Engineer and physicist who specialized in mechanics. The Navier–Stokes equations are named after him.	[22]
Hélène Perrin	X1995	Physicist	[23]
Henri Poincaré (1854–1912)	X1873	Mathematician, theoretical physicist, and a philosopher of science	[24]
Siméon Denis Poisson (1781–1840)	X1798	Mathematician, geometer, and physicist	[25]
Alfred Potier	X1840	Physicist
Jean Léonard Marie Poiseuille	X1815	Physicist, noted for his works on fluid mechanics and the Hagen–Poiseuille equation
Henri Victor Regnault	X1830	Physicist and chemist, mentor of William Kelvin, Copley Medal Recipient
Raymond Stora	X1951	Theoretical physicist, winner of Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics for the BRST quantization
Adhémar Jean Claude Barré de Saint-Venant	X1813	Notable mechanician and mathematician
Jean Tirole	X1973	Economist
Léon Charles Thévenin	X1876	Extended the Ohm's law by Thévenin's theorem
Louis Vicat	X1804	Engineer, inventor of the Vicat needle
Michel Virlogeux	X1967	Engineer of the Millau Viaduct.
Jean Zinn-Justin	X1964	Theoretical physicist, member of Académie des Sciences
Rose Dieng-Kuntz	enrolled 1976	Artificial intelligence, first African woman to enroll in the École	[26]
Patrick Ky	X1986	CEO of the European Aviation Safety Agency	[27]
Alexis Bonnet	X1985	Mathematician (1996 EMS Prize), investor, founder of the management company Methodology Asset Management
Yves Poilane	X1979	Director General of IONIS Education Group
Louis Pouzin	X1950	Inventor of the datagram and designer of an early packet communications network, CYCLADES
Anne-Marie Lagrange	X1982	Astrophysicist, French Academy of Sciences, discovered the exoplanet Beta Pictoris b

Humanities, arts, and social sciences

Name	Class year	Notability	Reference(s)
Auguste Comte	X1814	Philosopher, founder of the discipline of sociology and of the doctrine of positivism.	[28]
Roger Guesnerie	X1962	Economist
Charles Koechlin	X1887	Composer
Edmond Malinvaud	X1942	Economist, first president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.
Bernard Salanié	X1984	Columbia University economist, former director of the Center for Research in Economics and Statistics and ENSAE ParisTech
Pierre Schaeffer	X1929	Noted for innovative work in communications and acoustics
Jean Tirole	X1973	Economist
Marc Chervel	X1952	Economist

Business

Name	Class year	Notability	Reference(s)
Bernard Arnault	X1969	CEO of LVMH
Claude Bébéar	X1955	Former CEO and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Axa, widely considered the Godfather of French business
Jean-Paul Béchat	X1962	former CEO of Safran
Jean-Louis Beffa	X1960	CEO of Saint-Gobain
Driss Benhima	X1974	Chairman of the Board and CEO of Royal Air Maroc
Georges Besse		CEO of Renault when assassinated by Action directe
Fulgence Bienvenüe	X1870	Founder of the Paris Métro
André Citroën	X1898	Founder of Citroën Corporation
Jean-Marc Daniel	X1974	Economist
Serge Dassault	X1946	CEO of the Dassault Group
Thierry Desmarest	X1964	CEO of Total
Guy Dollé	X1963	CEO of Arcelor
Patrick Drahi	X1983	Founder and CEO of Altice.
Marc Fleury	X1989	Founder of JBoss Inc.
Jean-Martin Folz	X1966	Former CEO of PSA Peugeot Citroën
Jean-René Fourtou	X1960	CEO of Vivendi
Pierre Gadonneix	X1962	CEO of Électricité de France
Carlos Ghosn	X1974	CEO of Nissan and Renault	[29]
Paul Hermelin	X1972	CEO of Capgemini
Jean-Paul Herteman	X1970	CEO of Safran
Alexandre de Juniac	X1981	CEO of Air France–KLM
Patrick Kron	X1973	CEO of Alstom
Didier Lombard	X1962	CEO of France Telecom
Jean-Marie Messier	X1976	Former head of Vivendi Universal
Gérard Mestrallet	X1968	CEO of Suez
Frédéric Oudéa	X1980	CEO of Société Générale	[30]
Michel Pébereau	X1961	head of BNP Paribas
Pierre Pringuet	X1969	CEO of Pernod Ricard
Denis Ranque	X1970	CEO of Thales Group
Ambroise Roux		CEO, Compagnie générale d'électricité
Conrad Schlumberger	X1898	One of the Schlumberger brothers who founded the Société de Prospection Électrique, that became later Schlumberger Limited
Serge Tchuruk	X1958	Former CEO of Total, CEO of Alcatel
Tidjane Thiam	X1982	Former CEO of Credit Suisse	[31]

Politics and public service

Name	Class year	Notability	Reference(s)
Jacques Attali	X1963	writer and President Mitterrand's advisor
Christian Beullac	X1943	Industrialist, Minister
Philippe Crébassa	X	CEO of Toulouse–Blagnac Airport
Marie François Sadi Carnot	X1857	former President of the French Republic
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing	X1944	former President of the French Republic
Fabienne Keller	X1979	former mayor of Strasbourg
Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet	X1992	Secretary of state of ecology
Albert Lebrun	X1890	former President of the French Republic
Bruno Mégret	X1969	French far-right politician
Francis Mer	X1959	former Minister of Finances
Nguyen Ngoc Bich	X1933	Francophile anticolonialist, resistance hero against the French colonialists in Vietnam's First Indochina War, medical doctor, politician
Louis Pailhas	X1946	civil servant, former head of the École nationale de l'aviation civile
Jean Peyrelevade	X1958	civil servant, politician and business leader.
Gérard Rozenknop	X1969	former head of the École nationale de l'aviation civile
Jacques Rueff	X1919	former Deputy Governor of the Bank of France
Jean-Paul Troadec	X1967	President of the French Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile
Farid Zizi	X1982	CEO of the Direction des Services de la navigation aérienne
Abdourahmane Cissé	X2001	Minister to the Prime Minister in charge of the Budget of Côte d'Ivoire
Élisabeth Borne	X1981	Prime Minister of France

Military

Name	Class year	Notability	Reference(s)
Caroline Aigle	X1994	First woman to be fighter pilot in the French Air Force.
Jules Brunet	X1857	inspired the motion picture The Last Samurai
Pierre Philippe Denfert-Rochereau	X1842	French colonel who successfully defended Belfort during the Franco-Prussian war
Émile Dorand	X1886	Military engineer and aircraft designer
Alfred Dreyfus	X1878	Dreyfus affair
Jean-Baptiste Eugène Estienne	X1879	"Father of the Tanks"
Honoré d'Estienne d'Orves	X1921	"First martyr of Free France"
Émile Fayolle	X1873	Marshal of France promoter of artillery during World War I
Ferdinand Foch	X1871	Supreme Allied Commander in World War I
Joseph Joffre	X1869	Commander-in-chief of French forces of the Western Front in World War I from 1914 to 1916
Emile-René Lemonnier	X1912	French general beheaded by Japanese forces in French Indochina at the beginning of World War II for refusing to sign surrender documents.
Agénor Azéma de Montgravier	X1828	Chef d'escadron of Artillery from 1850, deputy director of the Ecole d'Artillerie de Montpellier from 1859, pioneer archaeologist in North Africa.
Robert Nivelle		Commander-in-chief of French Forces of the Western Front in World War I from 1916 to 1917

Aviators and astronauts

Name	Class year	Notability	Reference(s)
Jean Boulet	X1940	World record for helicopter altitude still standing
Jean-François Clervoy	X1978	Three space missions
Philippe Perrin	X1982	One space mission with three EVAs

Religious leaders

Name	Class year	Notability	Reference(s)

References

1. "Jean Tirole". Nobel Foundation. 2014-10-13. Retrieved 2014-10-13.
2. "Maurice Allais – Currilculum Vitae". Nobel Foundation. 1988-12-10. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
3. "The Nobel Prize in Physics 1903". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2008-10-09.
4. "Arago biography". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.
5. "Fonds Emile Dorand (PDF in French with transcript)". Docplayer.fr. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
6. "Joseph Louis François Bertrand". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.
7. "Biot biography". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.
8. "Brocard biography". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.
9. "Carnot Sadi biography". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.
10. "Cauchy biography". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.
11. "Chasles biography". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.
12. C. H. Desch (January 1938). "Henry Louis Le Chatelier. 1850–1936". Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society. Vol. 2, no. 6. The Royal Society. pp. 250–259. JSTOR 769060.
13. "Clapeyron biography". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.
14. "Gaspard Gustave de Coriolis". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.
15. Joseph F. Mulligan (1998). "Who were Fabry and Perot?" (PDF). American Journal of Physics. Vol. 66. p. 797. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-08-22.
16. "Fresnel biography". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.
17. "Marie Ennemond Camille Jordan". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.
18. "Emile Michel Hyacinthe Lemoine". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.
19. "Joseph Liouville". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.
20. "Étienne-Louis Malus". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.
21. "Benoit Mandelbrot". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.
22. "Claude Louis Marie Henri Navier". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.
23. http://www-lpl.univ-paris13.fr/bec/BEC/PosterTalk/2020_notice_Perrin_en.pdf. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
24. "Jules Henri Poincaré". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.
25. "Siméon Denis Poisson". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.
26. "African Success : Biography of Rose DIENG-KUNTZ". Archived from the original on 2011-10-03. Retrieved 2013-12-13.
27. "The Executive Director - Patrick Ky".
28. Michel Bourdeau (2018). "Auguste Comte". Auguste Comte: Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
29. . bibli-aleph.polytechnique.fr. Retrieved March 1, 2015.
30. Societe Generale Group – General management committee. Societegenerale.com. Retrieved on 2011-07-04.
31. "Tidjane Thiam".