For the European Researchers’ Night on Friday, September 25, high school students from the “Cordées de la réussite” program in Saint-Denis and Argenteuil were invited to tour the laboratories at École Polytechnique. The program included an escape game dedicated to the Higgs boson at the Leprince-Ringuet Laboratory, a sneak peek at the XSeaO2 floating platform, and discussions with researchers from the Molecular Chemistry Laboratory, providing a unique immersion in cutting-edge research.
Francis Bach (X1994), a research director at Inria, and Romain Lopez (X2013), a professor at New York University, are among the researchers in the Class of 2026 of the Schmidt Sciences AI2050 program. The first has been named a Senior Fellow, while the second is joining the program as an Early Career Fellow. Both will focus their work on research issues related to the development of safe and beneficial artificial intelligence.
Gwendal Hénaff, from the Plasma Physics Laboratory (LPP*), and Sooyong Chae, from the Laboratory of Physics of Interface and Thin Film (LPICM*), were recognized at the i-PhD 2026 competition for their doctoral research. They will receive support for developing their entrepreneurial projects. This demonstrates how research that begins as basic science can become the driving force behind practical applications.
Étienne Minvielle, Professor and CNRS Research Director at the École Polytechnique’s Center for Management Research (i3-CRG, jointly administered with...
This award recognizes a career dedicated to the study of quantum phenomena and the development of new experimental approaches in physics. Jacqueline Bloch, a CNRS research director at the Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (C2N)—a joint CNRS-Université Paris-Saclay unit—is also a member of the French Academy of Sciences.
Among the over 3,220 students enrolled at École Polytechnique for the academic year 2026-2027, more than 40 % are international. Admitted to the various degree programs at l’X due to their academic and scientific excellence, they come from around the world to pursue their studies at l’X this year. A diversity of nationalities and backgrounds that enriches the experience for everyone on campus.
The MSc&T program Data Science and AI for Business X-HEC ranks second globally in the 2027 edition of the QS Masters in Business Analytics rankings. The program retains its top global ranking for employability and has improved its rankings in the categories of Thought Leadership and Value for Money.
When massive stars explode as supernovae at the end of their lives, they emit neutrinos, particles that are very difficult to detect. The Super-Kamiokande detector in Japan has observed the first evidence of the “diffuse supernova neutrino background,” resulting from all of these stellar explosions. The Leprince-Ringuet Laboratory (LLR*) is involved in this research.
Marc-Olivier Renou holds a junior professorship at the Inria Center of the Institut Polytechnique de Paris, within the PhIQus team, and is affiliated with the Center for Theoretical Physics (CPHT) and the Computer Science Laboratory of École Polytechnique (LIX). Through the QINF project, he is exploring a new frontier in quantum information: fermionic bits. This project is funded by a Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC).
The French startup Mistral AI has announced a new €3 billion funding round led by Samsung Electronics, bringing its valuation to over €21 billion. Founded in 2023 by three researchers and entrepreneurs, including Arthur Mensch and Guillaume Lample (X2011), Mistral intends to continue developing cutting-edge, open, and sovereign artificial intelligence for the benefit of European companies and institutions.
The American processor designer, Nvidia, has officially announced the acquisition of Hugging Face—co-founded in 2016 by three French entrepreneurs, including two École Polytechnique alumni, Julien Chaumond and Thomas Wolf, both from the Class of 2003—for $12.9 billion. In less than ten years, Hugging Face has established itself as one of the world’s leading platforms for sharing and using open artificial intelligence models.
Vicky Kalogeiton, a researcher at the École Polytechnique’s Computer Science Laboratory (LIX*), has just received a Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). The goal of her research project FLASH is to make generative image AI more efficient, more accessible, and more sustainable.
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