Since its creation in 2009, the Mathematical Modelling and Biodiversity Chair (MMB), supported by École Polytechnique and its Foundation, in collaboration with the National Museum of Natural History and supported by Veolia, has been exploring the major challenges of biodiversity at the interface between applied mathematics and ecology. Through interdisciplinary research programmes, scientific meetings and training initiatives, the Chair brings together nearly 150 experts from international laboratories and research institutions to address fundamental questions about population dynamics, evolution and ecosystem resilience.
Nanomaterials are much talked-about, but the methods for making them are still the subject of fundamental research, especially when high temperatures are required. At the Laboratory of Condensed Matter for Physics, a research team is exploring new ways of synthesizing them, using molten salts and lasers.
After studying science, where she developed a passion for computer science, Manon Blanc completed a PhD at the École Polytechnique's Computer Science Laboratory (LIX*). She has received the Saclay Plateau STIC PhD Prize and the L'Oréal-UNESCO Young Talents Prize. Interview.
Bertrand Bessagnet, a CNRS Research Director affiliated with École Polytechnique, conducted the first study on air quality modeling at such resolution over Bhutan. Using the cutting-edge CHIMERE model, the research study was conducted in collaboration with the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development and the Jigme Singye Wangchuck Law University in Bhutan. The findings of the research study have now been published.
Since 2019, the Chair in Space Science and Challenges, led by Professor Pascal Chabert and supported by ArianeGroup, Safran and the École Polytechnique Foundation, has affirmed École Polytechnique's commitment to training future experts in the space sector. Based on demanding scientific teaching, ambitious space projects carried out at the Student Space Centre (CSEP), visits to industrial sites, meetings with industry players, and the development of real space missions, the Chair is positioned as a strategic lever for preparing talented individuals capable of meeting the major technological and societal challenges of tomorrow's aerospace industry.
Experiments reveal defects in the structure of superionic water at high pressures, a phase that remains mysterious and could be present inside planets such as Uranus and Neptune. This is the result of an international collaboration led by scientists from the Intense Lasers Laboratory (LULI*), the University of Rostock, the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, and other European and American institutions**. It is published in Nature Communications
A collaboration involving researchers from the Center for Theoretical Physics (CPHT*) has proposed a theoretical formalism that provides a description of gravity and gravitational waves at the “edge” of the universe. This breakthrough could provide tools for unifying general relativity and quantum mechanics.
The Biomedical Engineering (BME) Seed Grant sponsorship programme, led by Abdul Barakat and supported by the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation and École Polytechnique and its Foundation, will come to an end in late 2025, after nearly seven years dedicated to innovation in biomedical engineering. On 20 November, during the 4th annual forum of the Engineering for Health (E4H) Interdisciplinary Centre, a dedicated session honoured the 11 winning projects, celebrated the advances they have enabled and highlighted the scientific and human impact of this structuring programme.
Some fluorescent molecules used to produce microscopic images of biological processes cause the cells into which they are introduced to stiffen. This phenomenon has just been demonstrated and quantified by a collaboration involving the Hydrodynamics Laboratory (LadHyX*). He is featured on the cover of the journal Cell Reports Physical Science.
The Plasma Physics Laboratory (LPP*), with support from CNES, has developed 3DCAM, a new device for measuring the flow of charged particles in space. It could be used on future space probes.
The Financial Risk Chair, hosted by the Risk Foundation, led by Nicole El Karoui, professor emeritus at Sorbonne University, alongside Huyên Pham, professor at École Polytechnique, and supported by Société Générale, École des Ponts, École Polytechnique and its Foundation, and Sorbonne University, offers an excellent teaching program combining mathematics and finance. It provides students with unique opportunities to meet key players in the financial markets and discuss the place and role of quantitative profiles.
Neutrinos, elementary particles that are particularly difficult to detect, could hold the key to understanding the distribution of matter and antimatter in the universe. Two major neutrino experiments, T2K and NOvA, have just published a joint analysis of their results in the journal Nature. Margherita Buizza Avanzini, a researcher at the Leprince Ringuet Laboratory (LLR*) and member of the T2K collaboration, explains.
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