The Mines Paris – PSL, officially École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris, also known as École des mines de Paris, is a French grande école and a constituent college of PSL University. It was originally established in 1783 by King Louis XVI.
Mines Paris is distinguished for the outstanding performance of its research centers and the quality of its international partnerships with other prestigious universities in the world, which include Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (Harvard SEAS), Shanghai Jiao Tong University, University of Hong Kong, National University of Singapore (NUS), Novosibirsk State University, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, and Tokyo Tech.
Mines Paris also publishes a world university ranking based on the number of alumni holding the post of CEO in one of the 500 largest companies in the world: the Mines ParisTech: Professional Ranking of World Universities. The school is a member of the ParisTech (Paris Institute of Technology) alliance.
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History
A school of mining had been proposed by Henri Bertin in 1765. Still, it was the chemist Balthazar-Georges Sage who, though not a chemist of repute, was a royalist who was able to influence Jacques Necker (1732–1804) on the value of mineralogy in training students in mining. This was achieved through the use of his own large collections of minerals, and a chair in mineralogy was established on July 11, 1778. The school of mines was begun at the mint, the Hôtel de la Monnaie, Paris. The school was officially opened by decree of the French King's Council on March 19, 1783.
The school disappeared at the beginning of the French Revolution but was re-established by decree of the Committee of Public Safety in 1794, the 13th Messidor Year II. It moved to Savoie, after a decree of the consuls the 23rd Pluviôse Year X (1802).
After the Bourbon Restoration in 1814, the school moved to the Hôtel de Vendôme (in the 6th arrondissement in Paris' Jardin du Luxembourg). From the 1960s onwards, it created research laboratories in Fontainebleau, Évry, and Sophia Antipolis (Nice).
Education
École des mines de Paris is a member of the Groupe des écoles des mines (GEM), a group of 8 Institut Mines-Telecom (IMT) engineering schools that are Grandes Écoles, a French institution of higher education that is separate from, but parallel and connected to the main framework of the French public university system. Similar to the Ivy League in the United States, Oxbridge in the UK, and C9 League in China, Grandes Écoles are elite academic institutions that admit students through an extremely competitive process. Alums go on to occupy elite positions within government, administration, and corporate firms in France.
The initial aim of the École des mines de Paris, namely to train high-level mining engineers, evolved with time to adapt to the technological and structural transformations undergone by society. Mines Paris - PSL has now become one of the most prestigious French engineering schools with a broad variety of subjects. Its students are trained to hold management positions, work in research and development departments, or serve as operations officers, among other roles. They receive a well-rounded education in a variety of subjects, ranging from the most technical (Mathematics, Physics) to economics, social sciences or even art, to be able to tackle the management or engineering-related issues they are to face. Exchange programs are possible during the third semester with prestigious universities around the world, such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), California Institute of Technology (Caltech), University of Hong Kong, National University of Singapore (NUS), Tokyo Tech, Seoul National University...
Although the IMT engineering schools are more expensive than public universities in France, Grandes Écoles typically have much smaller class sizes and student bodies, and many of their programs are taught in English. International internships, study abroad opportunities, and close ties with government and the corporate world are a hallmark of the Grandes Écoles. Many of the top-ranked schools in Europe are members of the Conférence des Grandes Écoles (CGE), as are the IMT engineering schools. Degrees from the IMT are accredited by the Conférence des Grandes Écoles and awarded by the Ministry of National Education (France) (French: Le Ministère de L'éducation Nationale).
Mines Paris – PSL provides different educational paths:
The Ingénieurs civils degree (Master of Science and Executive Engineering), ranked among the best French grandes écoles engineering degrees, similar to that offered at École polytechnique, École des Ponts ParisTech, Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace (SUPAERO), and CentraleSupélec.
Rankings
National ranking (ranked as Mines Paris for its Master of Science in Engineering)
International Rankings (Ranked as PSL University)
Student unions and organizations
A Student Union is elected every year after a one-week campaign. It is in charge of enhancing the contact between students and various sponsoring industries as well as organizing events for the students.
Various other organizations are part of students' lives: the Students' Sport Committee (BDS), the Junior Enterprise (JUMP), the Arts' Office (BDA), Cahier Vert (social opening and tutoring), CAV (wine-tasting club), Catholic community, fanfare band, entrepreneur club (Mines Genius), humanitarian organizations (Heliotopia, Ceres, Zanbinou), photography club, and sailing club, among others.
Alumni
Academics & Scientists
Maurice Allais (1911–2010), Nobel Prize in Economics, 1988
Louis Paul Cailletet (1832–1913), physicist and inventor
Marie-Adolphe Carnot (1839–1920), chemist, mining engineer and politician, after whom the uranium ore carnotite is named
Georges Charpak (1924–2010), Nobel Prize in Physics 1992
Ignacy Domeyko (1802–1889), geologist, mineralogist, educator, rector of the University of Chile
Jean-Baptiste Élie de Beaumont (1798–1874), founder of geology, Wollaston Medal 1843
Jean-Jacques Favier (born 1949), astronaut
Philippe Jamet (born 1961), Director General of IONIS Education Group
Auguste Laurent (1808–1853), chemist, precursor of modern organic chemistry
Alfred-Marie Liénard (1869–1958), known for the Liénard–Wiechert potential
Sylvaine Neveu (born 1968), chemist and scientific director of the Solvay group
Henri Poincaré (1854–1912), mathematician and physicist
Mariano Eduardo de Rivero y Ustáriz (1798–1857), mineralogist, founding director of the first school of mines and natural history museum in Gran Colombia
Léon Walras (1834–1910), mathematical economist
Research centres
Energy and Processes
CES (Energy efficiency of Systems Center)
CTP (Thermodynamics of Processes Center)
OIE (Observation, Impacts, Energy Center)
PERSEE (Processes, Renewable Energies and Energy Systems Center)
Mathematics and Systems
CAOR (Robotics Center)
CAS (Automatic Control and Systems Center)
CBIO (Computational Biology Center)
CMA (Applied Mathematics Center)
CMM (Mathematical Morphology Center)
CRI (Computer Science Center)
Earth Science and Environment
Geosciences (Geosciences and Geoengineering Center). Located in Fontainebleau, the Geosciences and Geoengineering Department (a research structure common to Mines ParisTech and Armines) focuses on research and teaching activities in the field of Earth and Environmental Sciences.
ISIGE (Environmental Engineering and Management Center)
Economics, Management, Society
CERNA (Industrial Economics Center)
CGS (Scientific Management Center)
CRC (Crisis and Risk Research Center)
CSI (Sociology of Innovation Center)
Mechanical and Materials Engineering
CEMEF (Material Forming Center)
Materials Center
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Other schools of Mines in France
École nationale supérieure des Mines d'Albi Carmaux (Mines Albi-Carmaux)
École nationale supérieure des Mines d'Alès (Mines Alès)
École nationale supérieure des Mines de Douai (Mines Douai)
École nationale supérieure des Mines de Nancy
École nationale supérieure des Mines de Nantes (Mines Nantes)
École nationale supérieure des mines de Saint-Étienne (Mines Saint-Étienne)
Other schools of Mines in the UK
Royal School of Mines
Camborne School of Mines
Other schools of Mines in Africa
École nationale supérieure des Mines de Rabat (Mines Rabat)
Other schools of Mines in the USA
Colorado School of Mines
Columbia School of Mines