Ekaterina Kukhtenko's start-up, VAir, aims to make respiratory infection diagnosis easier using a portable, ultra-fast device that analyses patients' exhaled air directly. Born out of the Covid-19 pandemic, this idea has the potential to help millions of people around the world, particularly in developing countries. It has been brought to fruition with the support of the École Polytechnique incubator.
Adrien Bilal (X2010), an assistant professor of economics at Stanford University, has been awarded the 2026 Best Young Economist Award. Adrien Bilal’s research focuses on the economic consequences of global warming. Two of the three other economists honored with this award are also alumni of École Polytechnique.
Margherita Castellano (CMAP*), Magali Korolev (CPHT*), and Kate Sorg (LOB*). Three doctoral students from laboratories affiliated with École Polytechnique were honored during the “Ma thèse en 180 secondes” local competition at Institut Polytechnique de Paris.
A team from the Optics and Biosciences Laboratory (LOB*) has identified structures called G-quadruplexes in the genome of archaea, single-celled organisms. This discovery opens up new perspectives on the study of the role of these structures and the evolution of life.
The start-up Ami Labs (Advanced Machine Intelligence), founded by French researcher Yann LeCun (former Chief Scientist at Meta and winner of the 2018 Turing Award), became a unicorn as soon as it was created. It will be led by Alexandre Lebrun (X1994) and co-founder of the medical AI start-up Nabla. Ami Labs'goal is to develop the next generation of artificial intelligence capable of understanding the world around us: ʻworld modelsʼ.
Against a backdrop of rising geopolitical tensions, six second-year Cycle Ingénieur Polytechnicien students participated in the British Model NATO, held on February 25 at the British Foreign Office. This first French participation in the British Model NATO took place as part of the Model NATO course offered by the English section of the School’s Department of Languages and Cultures.
Entrepreneurship, Corporate relations, Innovation, Sustainable Development
Radiant is a rapidly growing green tech start-up that specialises in producing carbon-free heat for industrial use. It won first prize in the European Stage Two competition, representing École Polytechnique, and successfully raised funds at the end of last year. Meet its two founders: Thomas Delhon, an aerospace engineer, and Alexandre Meurisse, a former PhD student at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) laboratories. They received support from École Polytechnique's X-UP incubator, which provided a springboard for their success.
École Polytechnique ranks first among Engineering Schools in the ranking of cooperation between higher education institutions and businesses published on February 5 by News Tank and Emerging. The institutions ranked were evaluated on two criteria: the employability of their graduates and the quality of their cooperation with partner companies.
École Polytechnique hosted the third edition of the international scientific conference “Réflexions,” organized by the Institut Polytechnique de Paris, of which École Polytechnique is a founding member. The Energy4Climate interdisciplinary research center and renowned researchers associated with École Polytechnique—Philippe Drobinski, Céline Guivarch, and Mathieu Xémard—led the roundtable discussions at this third edition.
Named “AI for Markets and Quantitative Investments” (MaQI), this new master's program complements École Polytechnique's AI training offerings. It aims to help position France as a center of excellence in finance training in the age of AI. The program will begin in September 2026.
From middle school to higher education, a variety of support measures can be implemented to encourage and assist women in achieving success in science. On Monday, 26 January, Juliette Toumelin (Head of the Equal Opportunities Division within the Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Responsibility Department) and Antigoni Alexandrou (CNRS Research Director at LOB) discussed the mentoring programmes available at École Polytechnique and the Institut Polytechnique de Paris.
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.
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