2012

They’re names are Gaétan, Raphaël, Léo or Vincent… They are handballers and champions of the ParisTech Tournament. Spotlight on the feat achieved by their team last autumn, a resounding success which illustrates the dynamism of the Bureau of Sports, the competitive spirit of our engineering students and the atmosphere which exists on campus.

Pierre Sens et Florent Krzakala are theoretical physicists, both members of the Gulliver Laboratory. This year, they both received an international research grant to develop innovative interdisciplinary projects. From compressed data sensing to cell mobility, a meeting with two scientists who think big in a laboratory specialising in diversity of scales.

It was at ESPCI, with her husband, that Marie Curie began work on radioactivity. It was here that, together, they discovered polonium and radium, and it is here that she learned to develop her skills. A review in images of the positive influence of Marie Curie on our School and its heritage, at the time when the President of the Republic is paying homage to this exceptional woman, recipient of two Nobel prizes, capable from the outset of combining invention, interdisciplinarity and experimental practice.

ESPCI ParisTech is seeking to appoint a new Director General (“Directeur Général”) starting January 1st 2014. The application procedure will be open until October 31st 2012.

Dan Shechtman, the 2011 Chemistry Nobel Laureate, gave at ESPCI ParisTech his first lecture in France since being awarded the Nobel Prize. This exceptional conference took place in the amphitheater named after Frédéric Joliot, who graduated from ESPCI in 1923 and received the Chemistry Nobel Prize in 1935 with his wife Irène Joliot-Curie for the discovery of artificial radioactivity. This lecture was fascinating for its scientific content and for the human story behind the discovery of quasi crystals and the struggle that Dan Shechtman led to have their existence acknowledged by the scientific community. The event has been captured on video.