The ''Corps des Ingénieurs des Ponts, des Eaux et des Forêts'' (, in English "Corps of the Engineers of Bridges, Waters and Forests") is a technical

Grand Corps of the French State Grand may refer to: People with the name * Grand (surname) * Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor Places * Grand, Oklahoma, USA * Grand, Vosges, village and commune in France with Gallo-Roman amphitheatre * Grand County (disambiguation), se ...

( grand corps de l'État). Its members, called ''ingénieurs des ponts, des eaux et des forêts'' (nicknamed ''IPEF''), are senior civil servants and top-level engineers, mainly employed by the French Ministry of Ecological Transition and by the French

Ministry of Agriculture An agriculture ministry (also called an agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister f ...

, but they can also work for every French Ministries, public establishments, or public compagnies. Thanks to its history and its selective recruitment policy, the ''Corps des IPEF'' enjoys considerable prestige within France's senior civil services, as the ''

Corps des mines The () is the foremost technical Grand Corps of the French State (). It is composed of the state industrial engineers. The Corps is attached to the French Ministry of Economy and Finance. Its purpose is to entice French students in mathematic ...

'' and the ''

Corps de l'armement The Corps de l'armement (), or Corps des ingénieurs de l'armement () is a Technical Grand Corps of the French State (''grand corps de l'Etat'' ), aimed at providing the French Armed Forces with all appropriate Military technology, equipment and su ...

''.

Recruitment and training

Most of the ''IPEF'' are recruited from

École polytechnique (, ; also known as Polytechnique or l'X ) is a ''grande école'' located in Palaiseau, France. It specializes in science and engineering and is a founding member of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris. The school was founded in 1794 by mat ...

(around 50%), where they are selected based on their final ranking, and there exist several competitive entrance exams for former students from

AgroParisTech AgroParisTech (; officially ''Institut national des sciences et industries du vivant et de l’environnement'', or Paris Institute of Technology for Life, Food and Environmental Sciences)English naming according tEnglish brochure is a French h ...

, from the Écoles normales supérieures, or from other French ''Grandes écoles'' such as

École des ponts ParisTech École or Ecole 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 * Éco ...

CentraleSupélec CentraleSupélec (, CS) is one of the most prestigious and selective grandes écoles in France and is a member of the graduate engineering school of Paris-Saclay University in Gif-sur-Yvette, France. It was established on 1 January 2015, as a ...

and

École des mines École or Ecole 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 * Éco ...

. A special entrance exam was recently opened for PhD holders but it offers a limited number of places. In addition, it is possible for other civil servants to join the ''Corps des IPEF'' after passing internal exams so as to widen their career perspectives. People entering the ''Corps des IPEF'' (around 60 each year) are mostly trained at

and

, but some members also attend formation in specific fields in French or abroad universities. After 1 or 2 years of training including an Executive Master in public affairs, several engineers start a PhD during 3 years in a French laboratory, while the others take their first operational position in the French administration. Many executive positions in France's industries and administration are held by these engineers. Being admitted to the ''Corps des IPEF'' is still considered a significant fast-track for executive careers.

Missions

According to the ''Corps'' statutes, every ''IPEF'' participate, under the authority of the competent ministers, in the design, development, implementation and evaluation of public policies, particularly in areas relating to: * climate, * energy demand, * sustainable regional planning and development, * housing and urban development, * transport, * agricultural and forestry development, * management and preservation of natural land and maritime areas and resources, * food and agro-industry. They may perform management, supervisory, monitoring, inspection, study, expert appraisal, public policy evaluation, teaching and research functions, including in international organizations. In particular, they can be in charge of research and teaching activities in these areas. In this case, they are assimilated as permanent researchers.

Organization and structure

The C''orps'' is led by the ''chef de corps'' ("chief of corps"). All members are divided into 3 grades, corresponding to career advancement and levels of responsibility: * ''ingénieur'' ("engineer") * ''ingénieur en chef'' ("chief engineer") * ''ingénieur général'' ("general engineer") There also exist a temporary grade for newly recruited engineers still in training: ''ingénieur-élève'' ("engineer-student").

History

The ''Corps des IPEF'' results of the merger in 2009 of two ''Grands Corps'', namely the ''Corps des Ingénieurs des Ponts et Chaussées (IPC)'' (in English "Corps of the engineers of Bridges and Roads") and the ''Corps des Ingénieurs du Génie rural, des Eaux et des Forêts (IGREF)'' (in English "Corps of the engineers of Rural Engineering, Waters and Forests"). They used to recruit their members in

and

. Even before, the ''Corps des IPC'' absorbed several formers ''Corps'' including civil aviation engineers, geography engineers and meteorological engineers, while the ''Corps des IGREF'' absorbed the ''Corps'' of the engineers of rural engineering and the ''Corps'' of the engineers of waters and forests.

Important former or current members

Paul-Louis Arslanian Paul-Louis Arslanian is a French public servant, former head of the French ''Bureau d'enquêtes et d'analyses pour la sécurité de l'aviation civile'' (1995-2009). Arslanian is Officier of the Légion d'honneur, graduates from ''École polytechn ...

Henri Becquerel Antoine Henri Becquerel ( ; ; 15 December 1852 – 25 August 1908) was a French nuclear physicist who shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with Marie and Pierre Curie for his discovery of radioactivity. Biography Family and education Becq ...

* Christian Beullac *

Fulgence Bienvenüe Fulgence Bienvenüe (; 27 January 1852 – 3 August 1936) 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). A native of Uzel in Britta ...

Jean-Baptiste Biot Jean-Baptiste Biot (; ; 21 April 1774 – 3 February 1862) was a French people, French physicist, astronomer, and mathematician who co-discovered the Biot–Savart law of magnetostatics with Félix Savart, established the reality of meteorites, ma ...

Augustin-Louis Cauchy Baron Augustin-Louis Cauchy ( , , ; ; 21 August 1789 – 23 May 1857) was a French mathematician, engineer, and physicist. He was one of the first to rigorously state and prove the key theorems of calculus (thereby creating real a ...

Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis (; 21 May 1792 – 19 September 1843) 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, le ...

Henry Darcy Henry Philibert Gaspard Darcy (; 10 June 1803 – 3 January 1858) was a French engineer who made several important contributions to hydraulics, including Darcy’s law for flow in porous media. Early life Darcy was born in Dijon, France, on ...

Jules Dupuit Arsène Jules Étienne Juvenal Dupuit (18 May 1804 – 5 September 1866) was a French civil engineer and economist. He was born in Fossano, Cisalpine Republic then under the rule of Napoleon Bonaparte. At the age of ten he went to Versailles w ...

Augustin-Jean Fresnel Augustin-Jean Fresnel (10 May 1788 – 14 July 1827) 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 Isaac Newton, Newton's c ...

Charles de Freycinet Charles Louis de Saulces de Freycinet (; 14 November 1828 – 14 May 1923) was a French statesman who served four times as Prime Minister during the Third Republic. He also served an important term as Minister of War (1888–1893). He belonged ...

Louis Joseph Gay-Lussac Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac ( , ; ; 6 December 1778 – 9 May 1850) 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), f ...

Pierre-Simon Girard Pierre-Simon Girard (4 November 1765 – 30 November 1836) was a French mathematician and engineer, who worked on fluid mechanics. Girard was born in Caen. A prodigy who invented a water turbine at the age of ten, he worked as an engineer at th ...

* Philippe LeBon *

Joseph Liouville Joseph Liouville ( ; ; 24 March 1809 – 8 September 1882) was a French mathematician and engineer. Life and work He was born in Saint-Omer in France on 24 March 1809. His parents were Claude-Joseph Liouville (an army officer) and Thérès ...

Étienne-Louis Malus Étienne-Louis Malus (; ; 23 July 1775 – 23 February 1812) was a French officer, engineer, physicist, and mathematician. Malus was born in Paris, France and studied at the military engineering school at Mezires where he was taught by Gaspa ...

Pierre Méchain Pierre François André Méchain (; 16 August 1744 – 20 September 1804) was a French astronomer and surveyor who, with Charles Messier, was a major contributor to the early study of deep-sky objects and comets. Life Pierre Méchain was bo ...

Charles Joseph Minard Charles Joseph Minard (; ; 27 March 1781 – 24 October 1870) was a French civil engineer recognized for his significant contribution in the field of information graphics in civil engineering and statistics. Minard was, among other things, noted ...

Claude-Louis Navier Claude-Louis Navier (born Claude Louis Marie Henri Navier; ; 10 February 1785 – 21 August 1836) was a French civil engineer, affiliated with the French government, and a physicist who specialized in continuum mechanics. The Navier–Stokes ...

Jean Peyrelevade Jean Peyrelevade (born 24 October 1939) is a senior French center-left politician and business leader. Beliefs and political career In 1981 Peyrelevade was appointed deputy director of the cabinet and economic adviser to French Prime Ministe ...

Gaspard de Prony Baron Gaspard Clair François Marie Riche de Prony (22 July 1755 – 29 July 1839) was a French mathematician and engineer, who worked on hydraulics. He was born at Chamelet, Beaujolais, France and died in Asnières-sur-Seine, France. Educat ...

Marie François Sadi Carnot Marie François Sadi Carnot (; 11 August 1837 – 25 June 1894) was a French statesman who served as President of France from 1887 until his assassination in 1894. His presidency was marked by a series of poorly handled crises. General Boula ...

(former President of the French Republic) *

Bernardin de Saint-Pierre Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (; also called Bernardin de St. Pierre) (19 January 1737, in Le Havre – 21 January 1814, in Éragny, Val-d'Oise) was a French writer and botanist. He is best known for his 1788 novel, '' Paul et Virginie ...

Louis Vicat Louis Vicat (31 March 1786, Nevers – 10 April 1861, Grenoble) was a French engineer. He graduated from the École Polytechnique in 1804 and the École des Ponts et Chaussées in 1806. Vicat studied the setting of mortars and developed his ow ...

* Jacques Villiers *

François Philippe Voisin François Philippe Voisin, (Voisin-Bey) (May 20, 1821 – March 17, 1918) was a French engineer. He was a graduate of the École Polytechnique, an engineer for the Corps of Bridges, Waters and Forests, and was, from 1861 to 1870, the Chief Engine ...

Michel Virlogeux Michel Virlogeux (born 1946, Vichy, Allier, Auvergne) is a French structural engineer and bridge specialist. Career Virlogeux graduated from the ''École Polytechnique'' in 1967 and from the ''École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées'' in 1970. ...

Jean Tirole Jean Tirole (born 9 August 1953) 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 focus ...

(Nobel prize in economics) *

Marion Guillou Marion Guillou (born 17 September 1954 in Marseille, France) is a French scientist specialized in global food security. Guillou wrote proposals for the French government on the agro-ecological transition (June 2013) and on the organization of the ...

Élisabeth Borne Élisabeth Borne (; born 18 April 1961) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from May 2022 to January 2024. A member of President Emmanuel Macron's party Renaissance (French political party), Renaissance, she is the secon ...

(former Prime Minister of French Republic)

References

External links

Official Corps des ponts website
��{{in lang, fr; ''Corps of Bridges, Waters and Forests''. .02

Bridges A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somet ...

Bridges in France Forests of France Water in France * *