René Huyghe (3 May 1906 – 5 February 1997) was a French writer on the history, psychology and philosophy of art. He was also a curator at the Louvre's department of paintings (from 1930), a professor at the Collège de France and from 1960 a member of the Académie Française. He was the father of the writer François-Bernard Huyghe.
Ariane Mnouchkine (French: [aʁjan nuʃkin]; born 3 March 1939) is a French stage director. She founded the Parisian avant-garde stage ensemble Théâtre du Soleil in 1964. She wrote and directed 1789 (1974) and Molière (1978), and directed La Nuit Miraculeuse (1989). She holds a Chair of Artistic Creation at the Collège de France, an Honorary Degree in Performing Arts from the University of Rome III, awarded in 2005 and an Honorary Doctor of Letters from Oxford University, awarded 18 June 2008.
Marie Ennemond Camille Jordan (French: [ʒɔʁdɑ̃]; 5 January 1838 – 22 January 1922) was a French mathematician, known both for his foundational work in group theory and for his influential Cours d'analyse.
Maurice de Broglie, 6th Duke of Broglie (27 April 1875 – 14 July 1960) was a French physicist. His younger brother was the theoretical physicist Louis de Broglie.
Jacques Augustin Berque (4 June 1910, Molière, Algeria – 27 June 1995) was a French scholar of Islam and sociologist of the Collège de France. His expertise was the decolonisation of Algeria and Morocco.
Berque wrote several histories on the classical and medieval periods in the Arab world, as well as highly influential works on modern era colonisation and decolonisation. He had a countervailing influence on French historiography of the first half of the twentieth century, which tended to see Arabs and in particular the inhabitants of North Africa as a less advanced people or pawns of a victorious France; Berque emphasized instead the rich Arab cultural heritage at a time when historical opinion was sharply divided. As such he was viewed as a sympathetic observer of Muslim society, arguing that the role of Islam was key to any work on the Middle East and North Africa.
Étienne-Émile Baulieu (born 12 December 1926) is a French biochemist and endocrinologist who is best known for his research in the field of steroid hormones and their role in reproduction and aging.
Lucien Paul Victor Febvre (, French: [lysjɛ̃ pɔl viktɔʁ fɛvʁ]; 22 July 1878 – 11 September 1956) was a French historian best known for the role he played in establishing the Annales School of history. He was the initial editor of the Encyclopédie française together with Anatole de Monzie.
Ambroise Paul Toussaint Jules Valéry (French: [pɔl valeʁi]; 30 October 1871 – 20 July 1945) was a French poet, essayist, and philosopher. In addition to his poetry and fiction (drama and dialogues), his interests included aphorisms on art, history, letters, music, and current events. Valéry was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 12 different years.
Jean Hyacinthe Henri Vincent (22 December 1862 – 23 November 1950) was a French physician who was a native of Bordeaux. He was an associate professor at Val-de-Grâce, as well as medical inspector general with the French Army. Later he attained the chair of epidemiology at Collège de France.
Vincent is credited with the discovery of the organisms that cause an acute infection of the oral soft tissues, including the tonsils and pharynx.
This condition is caused by the combination of the fusiform bacilli (Bacillus fusiformis), and the spirochete (Borrelia vincentii). The disease was called Vincent's angina in honor of his discovery. Many publications using the term "Vincent's angina" date from the twentieth century, and the term is not so common in modern times. When the gums are involved, it was termed "Vincent's gingivitis". In modern times, Vincent's gingivitis is usually termed necrotizing ulcerative gingivitis (sometimes known as trench mouth).
He is also remembered for his work with vaccines, and his successful inoculations of the French Army against typhoid fever and paratyphoid fever, types A and B. He started these vaccinations in 1910, and they were continued during World War I. Marshals Joseph Joffre (1852–1931) and Ferdinand Foch (1851–1929) paid homage to Vincent and his medical work that saved countless lives.
Edmond Nicolas Laguerre (9 April 1834, Bar-le-Duc – 14 August 1886, Bar-le-Duc) was a French mathematician and a member of the Académie des sciences (1885). His main works were in the areas of geometry and complex analysis. He also investigated orthogonal polynomials (see Laguerre polynomials). Laguerre's method is a root-finding algorithm tailored to polynomials. He laid the foundations of a geometry of oriented spheres (Laguerre geometry and Laguerre plane), including the Laguerre transformation or transformation by reciprocal directions.