Institut d'Optique Graduate School
 |
|
| Type | Grande école |
|---|---|
| Established | 1917 |
| President | Elisabeth Giacobino |
| Director | Jean-Louis Martin |
|
Academic staff
|
50 |
|
Administrative staff
|
200 |
| Students | 440 |
| 90 | |
| Address | RD 128, Palaiseau, Palaiseau, Orsay, Saint-Etienne, Bordeaux, France |
| Campus | Campus polytechnique de Palaiseau |
| Nickname | SupOptique |
| Affiliations | University of Paris-Saclay, UniverSud Paris, ParisTech |
| Website | www.institutoptique.fr |
The Institut d'optique Graduate School ("Higher school of optics"), nicknamed "SupOptique" or "IOGS", is one of the most prestigious French Grandes Ecoles and the leading French grande école in the field of optics and its industrial and scientific applications, and a member of the prestigious University of Paris-Saclay,UniverSud Paris and ParisTech (Paris Institute of Technology). The École supérieure d'optique was opened in 1920, as part of the Institut d'optique théorique et appliquée, aiming to train engineers and cadres for the French optics industry. It is consequently the oldest institution of higher education and research in optics in the world and the most important in term of annual number of graduates.
The Institut d'optique Graduate School provides an education of high scientific level, specially for former students from the French Classe préparatoire aux grandes écoles. It trains engineers to be, in industry and research, the actors of the development of optics in many areas such as telecommunications, biology, energy, materials, nanotechnologies, aerospace engineering. It trains also researchers and teachers in the fields of optics and physics. Through the Institut d'optique théorique et appliquée, it participates at the world level to the promotion of knowledges and to the development of new techniques in optics
Since September 2006, the set constituted by the École supérieure d'optique and the Institut d'optique théorique et appliquée has been designated by the names "Institut d'optique Graduate School" or Institut d'optique.
Armand de Gramont who was a rich industrialist and friend of Marcel Proust, is the man who first initiated the will to create the Institut d'Optique. In 1916, Gramont and Henri Chrétien (a French astronomer) were working together at the French Technical Aeronautics Section. Chrétien was working at the time on calculations for optical instruments. They both decided to create the project of building an institute dedicated to teaching Optics. That same year, Gramont became part of a comity that examined inventions that could interest the ministry of Defense. That is where he met Charles Fabry, who had previously become famous thanks to his experimental demonstration of the existence of the Ozone layer in the atmosphere. On October 21, 1916 Gramont had lunch with four government ministers. As a result, a new committee was formed, in charge of establishing the project. During the month of November 1917, the first board meeting was held.
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