List of École Polytechnique alumni

This is a list of notable people affiliated with the École Polytechnique.

=Notable alumni=Alumni of the École Polytechnique are traditionally referred to as “X”, or “X"nnnn"”, where "nnnn" stands for the year of admission into the school.

cientists and engineers

*Michel Virlogeux (X1967), engineer of the Millau Viaduct
*Benoît Mandelbrot (X1944), promoted the concept of 'fractals'
*Louis Leprince-Ringuet (X1920)
*André Lévêque (X1919), Corps of Mines, scientist
*Paul Lévy (X1908), one of the forefathers of the modern theory of stochastic processes
*Eugène Freyssinet (X1899), developed the prestressed concrete
*Georges Charpy (X1887), invented the Charpy impact test
*Henri Poincaré (X1873)
*Henri Becquerel (X1872), physicist, Nobel laureate, one of the discoverers of radioactivity
*Henri-Louis le Chatelier (X1869)
*Émile Clapeyron (X1816)
*Auguste Comte (X1814)
*Michel Chasles (X1812)
*Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot (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.
*Gustave Coriolis (X1808)
*Augustin Louis Cauchy (X1805), mathematician, formulated the residue theorem
*Augustin Fresnel (X1804), physicist, major contributor to wave optics
*André-Marie Ampère (X1803), physicist, co-discoverer of electromagnetism
*François Arago (X1803)
*Claude-Louis Navier (X1802)
*Siméon-Denis Poisson (X1798)
*Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac (X1797)
*Étienne-Louis Malus (X1795)
*Jean-Baptiste Biot (X1794)
*Maurice Allais, Nobel prize in Economics,
*Edmond Malinvaud
*Charles Joseph Minard (X1796), civil engineer noted for inventions in the field of Information graphics
*Henri Brocard, (X1865) mathematician, Brocard points] named for him.
*Vincent Saubestre (X1983).
*Bui Huy Duong (X1957), French Academy of Sciences, European Academy of Sciences

CEOs and industrialists

*Claude Bébéar (X1955) : Former CEO and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Axa, widely considered the Godfather of French business
*Jean-Marie Messier (X1976) : former head of Vivendi Universal
*Carlos Ghosn (X1974) : head of Nissan and Renault
*Driss Benhima (X1974) : Chairman of the Board and CEO of Royal Air Maroc
*Serge Dassault (X1946) : CEO of the Dassault Group
*Denis Ranque (X1970) : head of Thales Group
*Michel Pébereau (X1961) : head of BNP Paribas
*Conrad Schlumberger (X1898) : one of the Schlumberger brothers who founded the Société de Prospection Électrique, that became later Schlumberger Limited
*André Citroën (X1898) : founder of Citroën Corporation
*Fulgence Bienvenüe (X1870) : founder of the Paris Métro
*Marc Fleury (X1989) : founder of JBoss Inc.
*Sir James Wilford (X1947) : Former Senior Partner of Defoe Fournier & Cie.
*Bernard Arnault (X1969) : CEO of LVMH
*Thierry Desmarest (X1964) : CEO of Total
*Serge Tchuruk (X1958) : former CEO of Total, CEO of Alcatel
*Gérard Mestrallet (X1968): CEO of Suez
*Jean-Martin Folz (X1966) : former CEO of PSA Peugeot Citroën
*Guy Dollé (X1963) : CEO of Arcelor
*Jean-Louis Beffa (X1960) : CEO of Saint-Gobain
*Didier Lombard (X1962) : CEO of France Telecom

French presidents, politicians and public figures

*Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (X1944) : former President of the French Republic
*Marie François Sadi Carnot (X1857) : former President of the French Republic
*Francis Mer (X1959) : former Minister of Finances
*Jacques Rueff (X1919) : former Deputy Governor of the Bank of France
*Christian Beullac (X1943) : industrialist, Minister
*Jacques Attali (X1963) : writer and President Mitterand's advisor
*Bruno Mégret (X1969): French Far-right politician

Military officers

*Caroline Aigle (X1994) : First woman to be fighter pilot in the French Air Force.
*Honoré d'Estienne d'Orves (X1921) : “First martyr of Free France”
*Alfred Dreyfus (X1878)
*Jean-Baptiste Eugène Estienne (X1879): “Father of the Tanks”.
*Jules Brunet (X1857) who inspired the motion picture "The Last Samurai"
*Pierre Philippe Denfert-Rochereau (X1842)
*Émile Fayolle (X1873)
*Ferdinand Foch (X1871)
*Joseph Joffre (X1869)
*Robert Nivelle-French commander in chief in World War I
*Joseph Maunoury (X1867)

Astronauts

*Jean-François Clervoy (X1978) : three space missions
*Philippe Perrin (X1982) : one space mission with three EVAs