List of École Polytechnique alumni

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