ESPCI Paris (officially the École supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles de la Ville de Paris; ''The City of Paris Industrial Physics and Chemistry Higher Educational Institution'') is a prestigious

grande école A ''grande école'' () is a specialised university that is separate from, but parallel and often connected to, the main framework of the French public university system. The grandes écoles offer teaching, research and professional training in s ...

founded in 1882 by the city of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. It educates undergraduate and graduate students in

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

, chemistry and

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

and conducts high-level research in those fields. It is ranked as the first French ''École d'Ingénieurs'' in the 2017 Shanghai Ranking. ESPCI Paris is a constituent college of Université PSL and a founding member of the ParisTech (Paris Institute of Technology) alliance. 5 researchers and alumni from ESPCI Paris have been awarded the

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

: *

Pierre Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...

and

Marie Curie Marie Salomea Skłodowska–Curie ( , , ; born Maria Salomea Skłodowska, ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first ...

(Physics, 1903), *

- second

(Chemistry, 1911), *

Frédéric Joliot-Curie Jean Frédéric Joliot-Curie (; ; 19 March 1900 – 14 August 1958) was a French physicist and husband of Irène Joliot-Curie, with whom he was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935 for their discovery of Induced radioactivity. T ...

(Chemistry, 1935), *

Pierre-Gilles de Gennes Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (; 24 October 1932 – 18 May 2007) was a French physicist and the Nobel Prize laureate in physics in 1991. Education and early life He was born in Paris, France, and was home-schooled to the age of 12. By the age of ...

(Physics, 1991), *

Georges Charpak Georges Charpak (; born Jerzy Charpak, 1 August 1924 – 29 September 2010) was a Polish-born French physicist, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1992. Life Georges Charpak was born Jerzy Charpak to Jewish parents, Anna (Szapiro) and ...

(Physics, 1992). Two thirds of the students enter the School following a competitive examination (concours X-ESPCI- ENS) following at least two years of Classes Préparatoires. The other students are recruited by submitting applications. The School itself is also known as Physique-Chimie or simply PC. ESPCI Paris nurtures relationships with many industrial partners such as Schlumberger, Rhodia,

TotalEnergies TotalEnergies SE is a French multinational integrated energy and petroleum company founded in 1924 and one of the seven supermajor oil companies. Its businesses cover the entire oil and gas chain, from crude oil and natural gas exploration and ...

Thales Thales of Miletus ( ; grc-gre, Θαλῆς; ) was a Greek mathematician, astronomer, statesman, and pre-Socratic philosopher from Miletus in Ionia, Asia Minor. He was one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Many, most notably Aristotle, regarded ...

, Arkema, Michelin,

Withings Withings (pronounced "WITH-things") is a French consumer electronics company headquartered in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France. It also has offices in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, and Hong Kong, and distributes its products worldwide. Withings is kno ...

, which sponsors groups of students and has research contracts with ESPCI laboratories. ESPCI Paris also has partnerships with

L'Oréal L'Oréal S.A. () is a French personal care company headquartered in Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine with a registered office in Paris. It is the world's largest cosmetics company and has developed activities in the field concentrating on hair color, ...

and

Saint-Gobain Compagnie de Saint-Gobain S.A. () is a French multinational corporation, founded in 1665 in Paris and headquartered on the outskirts of Paris, at La Défense and in Courbevoie. Originally a mirror manufacturer, it now also produces a variety of ...

for professional recruitment.

History

At the end of the 19th century, following the annexation of Alsace and Lorraine by Germany, France lost the École de Chimie de Mulhouse (Mulhouse Chemistry School), which was at that time the best chemistry school in the country. One of its professors, Charles Lauth, obtained permission from the government in 1878 to create a

Grande École Grande means "wikt:large, large" or "great (disambiguation), great" in many of the Romance languages. It may also refer to: Places *Grande, Germany, a municipality in Germany *Grande Communications, a telecommunications firm based in Texas *Gran ...

. In 1882 the École Supérieure de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris was established and became ESPCI, its current name, in 1948. Since its foundation, the founders of the school have emphasized pluridisciplinarity. Biology was introduced in 1994. There are no tuition fees at ESPCI. After its establishment, the School rapidly became a meeting spot for the best scientists. From 1880 on, Pierre and Jacques Curie started a serie of research on crystal electrical properties that led to the

piezoelectricity Piezoelectricity (, ) is the electric charge that accumulates in certain solid materials—such as crystals, certain ceramics, and biological matter such as bone, DNA, and various proteins—in response to applied mechanical stress. The word ''p ...

discovery. In 1897, Marie Curie started her work on uranic rays discovered by Becquerel one year earlier. After numerous experiments in the ESPCI laboratories, she discovered that pitchblende was 4 times more radioactive than uranium or thorium. In July 1898, the Curies announced the discovery of polonium and in December of the same year that of radium.

and

received the Physics

in 1903. After the death of her husband, Marie Curie was granted the Chemistry Nobel Prize in 1911. Many former students have distinguished themselves, amongst which are Georges Claude (5th year), founder of

Air Liquide Air Liquide S.A. (; ; literally "liquid air"), is a French multinational company which supplies industrial gases and services to various industries including medical, chemical and electronic manufacturers. Founded in 1902, after Linde it is ...

Paul Langevin Paul Langevin (; ; 23 January 1872 – 19 December 1946) was a French physicist who developed Langevin dynamics and the Langevin equation. He was one of the founders of the ''Comité de vigilance des intellectuels antifascistes'', an an ...

(7th year), physicist and inventor and

(39th year), founder of the CEA and Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935 with his wife Irène. In 1976,

(Nobel Prize 1991) became Director of the School and remained in this position until his retirement in 2002. In 2015, the city of Paris announced a major renovation plan, in order to modernize the buildings and laboratories of the school. Renovation work should start in 2018 and last five years.

Education

The course of study lasts four years. The two first years give the students a strong basic education in physics, chemistry and biology. The students can major in physics, chemistry or physico-chemistry. Laboratory research projects are also carried out. During the third year, the students carry out an industrial internship, which lasts from 4 to 6 months. More than 50% of the students do their internship abroad, in European countries, the United-States, Japan, China, Australia, or other countries. During the fourth year, the students can either begin doctoral studies or do a masters abroad or in France. In 2002 a masters program in bioengineering was created. The quality of the education at ESPCI enables its students to work in any industrial sector (telecommunication, computing, chemistry, pharmacology, biology, and other fields), mostly in Research and Development (47% in R&D, 10% in production, 10% in consultancy, 5% in environmental work, 3% in teaching, 3% in computing, 22% in other fields such as marketing or management).

Admission

The primary mode of admission (60 out of 90 students every year) is a competitive examination open to candidates enrolled in the PC (Physics-Chemistry) section of the Preparatory Classes to the Grandes écoles. The examinations are the same as for the Ecole Polytechnique but the components are weighted differently. Candidates to the competitive examination must have their licence or an equivalent diploma. They must be aged between 17 and 22 on 1 January of the examination year. Foreign candidates must be under 26 and can attempt this examination three times. It is also possible for students from the MP section (Maths-Physics), PSI section (Physics and Engineering Sciences), and BCPST section (Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Earth Sciences) of the preparatory classes or having completed 2 or 3 years of physics or chemistry in a French university to apply for ESPCI Paris. Admission is reserved to first class honours students selected according to their academic results.

Directors of the ESPCI

* Paul Schützenberger (1882–1896), member of the French Academy of Sciences * Charles Lauth (1897–1904) * Albin Haller (1905–1924), member of the French Academy of Sciences *

(1925–1946), member of the French Academy of Sciences * René Lucas (1947–1968), member of the French Academy of Sciences * Georges Champetier (1969–1975), member of the French Academy of Sciences *

(1976–2003), Nobel laureate, member of the French Academy of Sciences * Jacques Prost (2003-2013), member of the French Academy of Sciences * Jean-François Joanny since 2013. * Vincent Croquette since 2019.

Notable faculty

*Jérôme Bibette, physical chemist, founder of five startups RainDance Technologies, Ademtech, Capsum, HiFiBio and Calyxia. *

Bernard Cabane Bernard Cabane (born 12 October 1945) is a French mountaineer, scientist (physicist and chemist), director emeritus of the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in ESPCI ParisTech where he worked with Nobel Laureate Pierre Gilles ...

, member of the French Academy of Sciences *

, Nobel laureate *Janine Cossy, professor of organic chemistry,

Novartis Novartis AG is a Swiss-American multinational pharmaceutical corporation based in Basel, Switzerland and Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States (global research).name="novartis.com">https://www.novartis.com/research-development/research-loc ...

Prize (2000), Boehringer Ingelheim Prize (2001) * Mathias Fink, professor of acoustics, professor at the

Collège de France The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment ('' grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris n ...

, member of the French Academy of Sciences, founder of Sensitive Object, SuperSonic Imagine, Echosens and Time Reversal Com. *Étienne Guyon, former director of the

École Normale Supérieure École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, S ...

and the Palais de la Découverte * Ludwik Leibler, professor of soft matter, member of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of ...

* Jacques Lewiner, professor of solid state physics, member of the

French Academy of Technologies The National Academy of Technologies of France (''Académie des technologies'') is a learned society, founded in 2000, with an emphasis on technology, and the newest of French academies. In 2007 it acquired the status of ''établissement public'', w ...

, founder of Inventel, Roowin, Cynove and Finsécur *Pierre Papon, professor of thermal physics, former director general of the CNRS *Jean Rossier, professor of biology, member of the French Academy of Sciences *Jérôme Lesueur, professor of quantum physics * Dimitri Roditchev, professor of condensed matter physics

Notable alumni

Paul Lebeau Paul Marie Alfred Lebeau (19 December 1868 – 18 November 1959) was a French chemist. He studied at the elite École supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles de la ville de Paris (ESPCI). Together with his doctoral advisor Henri Mo ...

(4°), chemist, member of the French Academy of Sciences *

Lucien Lévy Lucien Lévy (11 March 1892 – 24 May 1965) was a French radio engineer and radio receiver manufacturer. He invented the superheterodyne method of amplifying radio signals, used in almost all AM radio receivers. His patent claim was at first disa ...

(1892–1965), French radio engineer and radio receiver manufacturer. * Paul Boucherot (4°), physicist, pioneer of DC electric power distribution * Georges Claude (5°), founder of

(7°), professor at the

, member of the French Academy of Sciences *

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 a ...

(9°), chemist, discoverer of the element

Lutetium Lutetium is a chemical element with the symbol Lu and atomic number 71. It is a silvery white metal, which resists corrosion in dry air, but not in moist air. Lutetium is the last element in the lanthanide series, and it is traditionally counted am ...

, member of the French Academy of Sciences *

André-Louis Debierne André-Louis Debierne (; 14 July 1874 – 31 August 1949) was a French chemist. He is often considered the discoverer of the element actinium, though H. W. Kirby disputes this and awards credit instead to German chemist Friedrich Oskar Giesel. D ...

(9°), chemist, discoverer of the element

Actinium Actinium is a chemical element with the symbol Ac and atomic number 89. It was first isolated by Friedrich Oskar Giesel in 1902, who gave it the name ''emanium''; the element got its name by being wrongly identified with a substance An ...

* Fernand Holweck (26°), physicist *René Lucas (34°), physicist, member of the French Academy of Sciences *Henri Moureu (36°), chemist, member of the French Academy of Sciences * Frédéric Joliot (39°), Nobel laureate (1935), founder of the CEA *Jean-Jacques Trillat (39°), physicist, member of the French Academy of Sciences *Georges Champetier (41°), chemist, member of the French Academy of Sciences * Gaston Charlot (41°), chemist, member of the French Academy of Sciences *

Pierre Gy Pierre Maurice Gy (; 25 July 1924 – 5 November 2015) was a chemist and statistician. Born in Paris, France, to Felix and Clemence, Gy graduated in chemical engineering from ESPCI ParisTech in 1946. On graduation, Gy worked as a chemical engi ...

(62°), chemist and statistician *

Philippe Dreyfus Philippe Dreyfus is a French informatics pioneer. After gaining his master's degree in physics in 1950 from the École supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles de la ville de Paris, he became a professor at the Informatics faculty at Ha ...

(66°) informatics pioneer *Michel Winterberger (67°),

Pechiney Pechiney SA was a major aluminium conglomerate based in France. The company was acquired in 2003 by the Alcan Corporation, headquartered in Canada. In 2007, Alcan itself was taken over by mining giant Rio Tinto Alcan. Prior to its acquisition, ...

scientific advisor, member of the

*Michel Lavalou (69°),

Rhône-Poulenc Rhône-Poulenc () was a French chemical and pharmaceutical company founded in 1928. In 1999 it merged with Hoechst AG to form Aventis. As of 2015, the pharmaceutical operations of Rhône-Poulenc are part of Sanofi and the chemicals divisions a ...

scientific advisor, member of the

*Maurice Goldman (70°), physicist, member of the French Academy of Sciences *Guy Sebban (83°),

International Chamber of Commerce The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC; French: ''Chambre de commerce internationale'') is the largest, most representative business organization in the world. Its over 45 million members in over 100 countries have interests spanning every sec ...

Secretary General *Alain Brillet (85°), CNRS Gold Medal 2017, codirector of

VIRGO Virgo may refer to: *Virgo (astrology), the sixth astrological sign of the zodiac * Virgo (constellation), a constellation *Virgo Cluster, a cluster of galaxies in the constellation Virgo *Virgo Stellar Stream, remains of a dwarf galaxy * Virgo Su ...

for 15 years. *Henri-Dominique Petit (87°), Chairman of

Sperian Protection Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building technologies, performance mat ...

*Sylvain Visconti (87°), former vice-president of Rhone-Poulenc *Serge Le Berre (87°), former CTO of Valeo. *Michel Baritiu (87°), former vice-président of

Halliburton Halliburton Company is an American multinational corporation responsible for most of the world's hydraulic fracturing operations. In 2009, it was the world's second largest oil field service company. It has operations in more than 70 countries ...

*Christian Dailly (87°), International director of Arkema *Laurent Vigroux (89°), director of the Institut d'astrophysique de Paris *Xavier Drago (90°), sustainable development director and member of the board of

*Bernard Serin (90°), chairman of

Cockerill-Sambre Cockerill-Sambre was a group of Belgian steel manufacturers headquartered in Seraing, on the river Meuse, and in Charleroi, on the river Sambre. The Cockerill-Sambre group was formed in 1981 by the merger of two Belgian steel groups – SA Cock ...

(CMI) (ex-Usinor) and of the

FC Metz Football Club de Metz, commonly referred to as FC Metz or simply Metz (), is a French association football club based in Metz, Lorraine. The club was formed in 1932 and plays in Ligue 2, the second division in the French football league sys ...

*Philippe Goebel (91°), chairman of Total Petrochemicals France *Patrice Robichon (91°), scientific advisor of Pernod-Ricard * Christian Reinaudo (92°), President of Agfa HealthCare *Philippe Klein (95°), executive vice-president of

Renault Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English; legally Renault S.A.) is a French multinational automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company produces a range of cars and vans, and in the past has manufacture ...

, member of the

Volvo The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...

Board * Hervé This (95°), physical chemist *Henri Rajbenbach (98°), general director of the

Information technology Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of Data (computing), data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information te ...

at the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...

* Éric Carreel (98°), co-founder of

Sculpteo Sculpteo is a French company specialized in 3D printing in the cloud. Sculpteo offers an online 3D printing service, using rapid prototyping and a manufacturing process involving laser sintering or stereo lithography. The company was founded in ...

and Invoxia. * Isabelle Guyon (100°), pioneer and researcher in

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of inquiry devoted to understanding and building methods that 'learn', that is, methods that leverage data to improve performance on some set of tasks. It is seen as a part of artificial intelligence. Machine ...

Laboratories

ESPCI hosts high levels laboratories:
Langevin Institute
of Prof Arnaud Tourin
Chemistry, Biology and Innovation Institute
of Prof. Jerome Bibette
Gulliver Laboratory
of Prof.Elie Raphael
Physics and Materials Laboratory
of Prof. Ricardo Lobo
Physics and Mechanics of Heterogeneous Media
of Prof. Philippe Petitjeans
Soft Matter and Chemistry Laboratory
of Prof. Ludwik Leibler
Brain Plasticity Unit
of Prof. Thomas Preat

of Prof. Joelle Vinh
Sciences and Engineering of Soft Matter
of Prof. Christian Fretigny

The ESPCI Paris International Scientific Committee

President:The ESPCI Paris ISC
/ref> *Prof. Michael Cates, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

Members: *Pr. Jian Ping Gong, Professor at the Laboratory of Soft & Wet Matter at

Hokkaido University , or , is a Japanese national university in Sapporo, Hokkaido. It was the fifth Imperial University in Japan, which were established to be the nation's finest institutions of higher education or research. Hokkaido University is considered ...

, Sapporo (Japan) *Prof. Laura H. Greene, Physics professor at Florida State University, Chief Scientist at the

National High Magnetic Field Laboratory The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (MagLab) is a facility at Florida State University, the University of Florida, and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, that performs magnetic field research in physics, biology, bioengineering ...

, Professor of physics at the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

*Prof. Hui Cao, Professor of Applied Physics and of Physics at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

*Prof. Ben Feringa Professor of Molecular Sciences at

University of Groningen The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; nl, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, abbreviated as RUG) is a public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen in the Netherlands. Founded in 1614, the university is th ...

*Prof.

Krzysztof Matyjaszewski Krzysztof "Kris" Matyjaszewski (; born April 8, 1950) is a Polish-American chemist. He is the J.C. Warner Professor of the Natural Sciences at the Carnegie Mellon University Matyjaszewski is best known for the discovery of atom transfer radical ...

, Professor of The Natural Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University *Prof. Bruno Weber, Professor at the

University of Zurich The University of Zürich (UZH, german: Universität Zürich) is a public research university located in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 f ...

, Institute of Pharmacology & Toxicology - Experimental Imagining and Nauroenergetics *Dr. Armand Adjari, Vice-president Research & Development of

(France) *Dr. Éric Carreel, President-founder of Inventel, Invoxia, Sculpteo & Withings *Dr. Helen Routh, Global Healthcare Executive: Innovation, Technology Development, & General Management, Philips (Boston, USA)

References

External links

Official site of ESPCI

ESPCI Student's Association

ESPCI Alumni Association
{{DEFAULTSORT:ESPCI Paris Educational institutions established in 1882 Technical universities and colleges in France ParisTech, ESPCI ParisTech 1882 establishments in France