Chimie ParisTech, officially École nationale supérieure de chimie de Paris (; "National High School of Chemistry of Paris") and also known as ENSCP or Chimie Paris, is a prestigious

grande école A (; ) is a specialized top-level educational institution in France and some other countries such as Morocco and Tunisia. are part of an alternative educational system that operates alongside the mainstream List of public universities in Franc ...

and a constituent college of PSL Research University specialised in chemical science. It was founded in 1896 within the

University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...

and is located in the 5th arrondissement of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. Most of the students enter the school after highly competitive exams known as the '' Concours commun Mines-Ponts'', following at least two years of '' classes préparatoires''. There is also a small number of excellent students from French universities admitted to the school. Chimie ParisTech is known as France's most selective chemical engineering college The school is a research center hosting ten laboratories which conduct high level research in various fields of chemistry.

History

The École nationale supérieure de chimie de Paris was founded in 1896 by

Charles Friedel Charles Friedel (; 12 March 1832 – 20 April 1899) was a French chemist and Mineralogy, mineralogist. Life A native of Strasbourg, France, he was a student of Louis Pasteur at the University of Paris, Sorbonne. In 1876, he became a professor of ...

, a chemist and mineralogist who headed the school until 1899. At the time, the school was called the Laboratoire de chimie pratique et industrielle. It was located in the 6th arrondissement (rue Michelet), where it stayed until 1923. After the death of Friedel,

Henri Moissan Ferdinand Frédéric Henri Moissan (; 28 September 1852 – 20 February 1907) was a French chemist and pharmacist who won the 1906 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in isolating fluorine from its compounds. Among his other contributions, Mo ...

took the reins of the school. He was awarded the

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

for chemistry in 1906, while he was director. Moissan made student admission subject to competitive exams and renamed the school Institut de chimie appliquée (Institute of Applied Chemistry). In 1907, the school began delivering a prestigious masters of engineering. In the same year, Moissan died and a transitional directorate was created. Soon thereafter, Camille Chabrié was named director. The school closed when

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

started and reopened in 1916. This was also the first year a female student was admitted; the ENSCP was one of the first engineering schools in France to do so. In 1923, the school moved to its current location, on the rue Pierre et Marie Curie (in the 5th arrondissement). The buildings were designed and built by Henri-Paul Nénot, architect of the Sorbonne. In 1932, the school became l'Institut de Chimie de Paris (Paris Institute of Chemistry). Finally, in 1948, it became the École nationale supérieure de chimie de Paris (ENSCP).

ENSCP directors

*1896 - 1899 :

*1899 - 1907 :

(

Nobel Prize in Chemistry The Nobel Prize in Chemistry () is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outst ...

) *1907 - 1908 : collective direction *1908 - 1928 : Camille Chabrié *1928 - 1938 :

Georges Urbain Georges Urbain (12 April 1872 – 5 November 1938) was a French chemist, a professor of the Sorbonne, a member of the Institut de France, and director of the Institute of Chemistry in Paris. Much of his work focused on the rare earths, isolating ...

(member of the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...

) *1938 - 1950 : Louis Hackspill *1950 - 1961 : Georges Chaudron (member of the

) *1961 - 1976 : Jacques Bénard *1976 - 1985 : Fernand Coussemant *1985 - 1987 : Jean Talbot *1987 - 1992 : Claude Quivoron *1992 - 1996 : Bernard Trémillon *1996 - 2005 : Danièle Olivier *2006 - 2010 : Alain Fuchs *2010 - 2015 : Valérie Cabuil *2015–present : Christian Lerminiaux

Research units

Notable research units includes: *

Photovoltaic Energy Development and Research Institute Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially ...

, École nationale supérieure de chimie de Paris in association with the

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 eng ...

. Director Olivier Kerrec and research director Daniel Lincot.

Notable alumni

* Pedro Nel Ospina, former

President of Colombia The president of Colombia (President of the Republic) is the head of state and head of government of Colombia. The president heads the executive branch of the Government of Colombia, national government and is the commander-in-chief of the Mil ...

* Alain Berton, chemical engineer * Eugène Schueller, founder of

L'Oréal L'Oréal S.A. () is a French multinational personal care corporation registered in Paris

Jacques Bergier Jacques Bergier (; maybe born Yakov Mikhailovich Berger (); Odessa, Paris, 23 November 1978) was a chemical engineer, member of the French resistance, spy, journalist and writer. He co-wrote the best-seller '' The Morning of the Magicians'' with ...

, chemical engineer * Olivier Kahn, French chemist * Jacques Livage, French chemist * Raphaël Quenard, French actor * Henri B. Kagan, French chemist

References

External links

Official site of ENSCPENSCP Alumni associationParisTech website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chimie ParisTech Chemical industry in France Chemistry education Engineering universities and colleges in France ParisTech Buildings and structures in the 5th arrondissement of Paris Schools in Paris Universities and colleges established in 1896 1896 establishments in France