# 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.

## Nobel laureates

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

## Science, technology, and mathematics

| Name | Class year | Notability |
| Yacine Ait-Sahalia | X1985 | Economist, statistician at Princeton University noted for his works on the econometrics of continuous-time models. |
| François Arago (1786–1853) | X1803 | Mathematician, physicist, astronomer and politician. |
| 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) |
| 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.. |
| Jean-Baptiste Biot (1774–1862) | X1794 | Physicist, astronomer, and mathematician who established the reality of meteorites, and studied the polarization of light. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| Augustin Louis Cauchy (1789–1857) | X1805 | Mathematician, formulated the residue theorem |
| 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 |
| Henri-Louis le Chatelier (1850–1936) | X1869 | Chemist, most famous for devising Le Chatelier's principle |
| Émile Clapeyron (1799–1864) | X1816 | Physicist, one of the founders of thermodynamics |
| 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. |
| Charles Fabry (1867–1945) | X1885 | Physicist, co-inventor of the Fabry–Pérot interferometer |
| Philippe Flajolet (1948–2011) | X1968 | Computer scientist |
| Augustin Fresnel (1788–1827) | X1804 | Physicist, major contributor to wave optics |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Stéphane Mallat | X1981 | Mathematician |
| Étienne-Louis Malus (1775–1812) | X1795 | Physicist, mathematician, known for the Malus's law |
| Benoît Mandelbrot (1924–2010) | X1944 | Mathematician, father of fractal geometry |
| 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. |
| Hélène Perrin | X1995 | Physicist |
| Henri Poincaré (1854–1912) | X1873 | Mathematician, theoretical physicist, and a philosopher of science |
| Siméon Denis Poisson (1781–1840) | X1798 | Mathematician, geometer, and physicist |
| 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 |
| Patrick Ky | X1986 | CEO of the European Aviation Safety Agency |
| 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 |
| Auguste Comte | X1814 | Philosopher, founder of the discipline of sociology and of the doctrine of positivism. |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |

## Politics and public service

| Name | Class year | Notability |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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) |