Unique destinies: President, Nobel Prize or Musician

Following its establishment in the wake of the French Revolution, the École Polytechnique undertook a long-term mission to train engineers to fulfill the different needs of the French Republic. Whether those engineers' eventual jobs would be to advance industrial and technical development or build infrastructure or armies, their training had to be based on a common foundation, provided by the École Polytechnique. The students - the country's future engineers - were chosen on the basis of their performance in a nationwide competitive exam. For the first time in the history of France, this competitive exam was not based on any condition of birth or wealth anymore - even though it was then reserved to men, and this for more than 150 years.

Henri Poincaré joined the École Polytechnique as a student in 1873 and returned later to teach astrophysics. He advanced all of the subfields of mathematics and theoretical physics, becoming one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. He created algebraic topology and other completely new branches of mathematics. His main areas of work were chaos theory and special relativity, of which he was one of the pioneers, and philosophy of science. Henri Poincaré offered a new approach to theoretical celestial mechanics and the theory of the functions of several complex variables. He became a member of the Academy of Sciences in 1887 and joined the Académie Française in 1908.

A student of the painter Franck Bail (1858-1924) then at the Académie Julian de William Laparra (1873-1920), Paul Albert Laurens (1870-1934), drawing teacher at the École Polytechnique, and Henri Royer (1869-1938). Étienne Buffet was a prolific painter, a regular at the Salon des Artistes Français from 1903, the creator of more than 3,500 canvases, as well as a scientist, an École Polytechnique alumnus (1885 year group), and an artillery officer (rising to the rank of lieutenant-colonel). He also wrote an Essai de théorie intégrale de la peinture (Essay on the Integral Theory of Painting).

Edmunds was a mixed-race Creole from New Orleans, who studied at the École Polytechnique (1871 year group) and at the school of military application at the same time as Ferdinand Foch. In New Orleans, he initially taught at Sumner Boys' School, before joining the main high school in New Orleans, which caused a reaction of outrage among white supremacists, who refused to accept his appointment. Edmunds taught at that high school until about 1877, when political change meant he was only allowed to teach at schools for "people of color." He was awarded the chair of mathematics at the newly established Southern University and published articles in several mathematics journals.

Between the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and World War I, more than 75% of the school's students embarked on a military career. Some of them reached the highest ranks of the army. Ferdinand Foch (from the 1871 year group), shown here as the captain of the 10th Infantry Regiment from 1878-1879, became Chief of the General Staff of the Army in 1917. In March 1918, the need for a sole commander became apparent following the latest breakthroughs by the Germans, and General Foch was named Commander in Chief of the Allied Armies. On August 7, 1918, he was awarded the supreme honor of Maréchal de France. On November 11, 1918, it was he who signed the Armistice.

Joffre, as Chief of the General Staff of the Army, led the French army from the start of World War I until late 1916, so during more than two years of outright war. He was particularly noted for his leadership during the Battle of the Marne, for which he became renowned worldwide. Like Foch, he had been deeply affected by his country's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. At the time, Joffre was a student at the École Polytechnique and he served as a lieutenant in an artillery regiment.

École Polytechnique students have contributed to industrial development with companies still operating today. André Citroën (1898 year group) was the founder of the Citroën car manufacturer. His factory on the Quai de Javel in Paris contributed to the war effort by building munitions, engines, and vehicles of all kinds. It reverted to carmaking in 1919 and by 1929 had become the second biggest car manufacturer in the world (400 vehicles per day).

This invention revolutionized the art of construction in the 20th century by enabling longer and more resistant works of art to be built using reinforced concrete. This civil engineer (from the École Polytechnique's 1899 year group) also invented thermal treatment of concrete, the flat actuator, prestressing through a voltage-controlled hydraulic actuator, and the use of a climbing cone in braced concrete.

Fulgence Bienvenüe (1870 year group) was the father of the Paris Metro. In 1881, he lost his left arm in a train accident. As head of the technical service at the city's metropolitan railway (1898), he oversaw construction of the first line, Vincennes-Maillot, built in time for the 1900 Paris Exposition.

This graduate from the 1899 year group was a great specialist in reinforced concrete, designing all kinds of constructions, such as the Jean Bart Theater in Saint-Nazaire and the Donzère bridge (a prototype of the cable-stayed bridge, where the deck is suspended from cables, themselves supported by pylons). In the field of aeronautics, he designed the Caquot observation balloons (1914), giving the Allies the upper hand in this area. As the technical director of aviation in 1918, he led France to become the world's biggest producer of airplanes. He also established France's Air Museum. In 1931, he worked with French sculptor Paul Landowski to design the internal structure, using reinforced concrete, for the statue of Christ the Redeemer overlooking the bay in Rio de Janeiro.

In 1894, alumnus Alfred Dreyfus (1878 year group) was hit by one of the most significant political scandals to ever occur in France. Wrongly accused of having written a note announcing that military documents would soon be sent to Germany, he was found guilty, demoted from his military rank, and deported for five years to the penal colony on Devil's Island in French Guiana. Before the affair, he was Commander of the 31st Artillery Regiment and had become second-in-command at the Central School of Military Pyrotechnics (explosives). The scandal was known as the Dreyfus Affair and put his career on hold for more than 10 years. Having been found innocent by the Court of Appeal in 1906, he was made an Officer of the Legion of Honor on the day he was demobilized in 1919.

Gaston Moch was part of the same year group (1878) as Alfred Dreyfus. He was also actively involved in the movement demanding a review of the latter's famous trial. Moch was a highly original pacifist and supporter of human rights, using the constructed international language Esperanto. He chaired the International Institute for Peace (Institut International de la Paix, Monaco ). His excellent knowledge of languages and certain technical matters served him well at the start of his career in the army, enabling him to become an intelligence officer and then second-in-command of the technical section for artillery at the Ministry of War. He resigned from the army in 1894, but returned voluntarily during World War I, for which he was made an Officer of the Legion of Honor in 1919.

An alumnus of the 1875 year group, he contributed to the development of martial arts in France, particularly jiujitsu, and introduced close combat techniques to the armed forces. He produced French translations of the writings of Harrie Irving Hancock, one of the first Westerners to become initiated into judo, as early as 1905. An officer in the Department of Automotive Transportation Services during World War I, he introduced General Estienne to the manufacturer Schneider, which resulted in the production of the first tank.

A member of the 1861 year group, he was a civil engineer before becoming a medical doctor in 1869. He also published important texts on medical physics and biological physics. He was a physics professor at the School of Civil Engineering, as well as at the Faculty of Medicine (1886). In addition, he was the Director of the School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry in Paris, President of the French Association for the Advancement of Science, and became President of the Academy of Medicine in 1882. His publications include Traité de physique médicale (Treatise on Medical Physics) and Traité pratique d’électricité (Practical Treatise on Electricity).