École normale supérieure (Paris)
The École normale supérieure – PSL (French pronunciation: [ekɔl nɔʁmal sypeʁjœʁ]; also known as ENS, Normale sup', Ulm or ENS Paris) is a grande école in Paris, France. It is one of the constituent members of Paris Sciences et Lettres University (PSL).[6] Due to its special historical role, large endowment, and influence within French society, the ENS is generally considered the most prestigious of the grandes écoles.[7] Its pupils are generally referred to as normaliens, while its alumni are generally referred to as archicubes.[8]
Not to be confused with École normale supérieure Paris-Saclay.
The school was founded in 1794 during the French Revolution,[9] to provide homogeneous training of high-school teachers in France, but it later closed. The school was subsequently reestablished by Napoleon I as pensionnat normal from 1808 to 1822, before being recreated in 1826 and taking the name École normale in 1830. When institutes for primary teachers training called écoles normales were created in 1845, the word supérieure (meaning upper) was added to form the current name. In 1936, the institution started providing university-level education.[10]
As a grande école, the vast majority of the academic staff hosted at the ENS belong to external institutions such as one of the Parisian universities, the CNRS and the EHESS. Generalistic in its recruitment and organisation, the ENS is the only grande école in France to have departments of research in all the natural, social, and human sciences.
Its alumni include 14 Nobel Prize laureates,[11] of which 8 are in Physics, 12 Fields Medalists, more than half the recipients of the CNRS's Gold Medal, several hundred members of the Institut de France, as well as several French and foreign politicians and statespeople.[12]
Academics[edit]
Publishing[edit]
Since 2001, the École normale supérieure's internet portal, called Diffusion des savoirs ("Spreading knowledge") has offered access to more than 2000 recordings of conferences and seminars that have taken place at the school, in all sciences natural and social.[72] The school also has launched its own short conference platform, Les Ernest,[73] which shows renowned specialists speaking for fifteen minutes on a given subject in a wide scope of disciplines.
In 1975 the school founded its university press, first called Presses de l'ENS then renamed in 1997 to Editions Rue d'Ulm. This press, which operates on a small scale, publishes specialist academic books mainly in the spheres of literature and the social sciences. Some 300 works are available on line on in the press's bookshop, and about 25 new titles are published every year.[74]
Foundation[edit]
In 1986, an ENS foundation was created and recognised as a fondation d'utilité publique by law.[75] It contributes to the development of the school, most notably by encouraging and facilitating the reception of foreign students and researchers. The Foundation, presided by Alain-Gérard Slama, manages some investments into financed positions for foreign researchers in ENS-associated laboratories. It has for example financed the Louis Pasteur villa, situated close by ENS, which welcomes foreign researchers for extended stays. It has also contributed to financing several positions for scientists in ENS laboratories, for instance in research on telecom network security with France Télécom and on "artificial vision" with the Airbus foundation.