École normale supérieure de Lyon

In the first semester of the 2026-2027 academic year, ENS de Lyon is welcoming more than 80 international students from some 20 countries. The International Relations Office organized a welcome program for them, which included a welcome reception attended by the School’s president, Emmanuel Trizac, and the vice president for International Relations, Vanessa Guignery.

Deadline: November 20, 2026

In June 2026, Marie-Hélène Barrière, a digital publishing specialist at the Persée laboratory, participated in an Erasmus+ Staff Week at Dorset College in Dublin. This week-long training program on artificial intelligence—rich in learning opportunities and new connections—enabled her to develop new skills, which she now applies in her work at ENS de Lyon.

Since its inception in 2024, the Nanomer project—which brings together European and Latin American institutions focused on nanoscience—has given rise to several initiatives in both education and research. Here’s a look back at the activities in which ENS de Lyon participated in 2025-2026 and at upcoming projects.

ENS de Lyon has adopted a Charter of Commitment against all forms of discrimination, racism, antisemitism, violations of rights, incitement to hatred, and violence.

As part of the ENS-IISER partnership, Hemal BAPAT, a BS-MS student at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Bhopal, joined ENS de Lyon through the BIOSANTEXC program for a three-month research internship at the Developmental Epigenomics Laboratory at IGFL.

As part of the ENS-IISER partnership, Divyan SHARMA, a BS-MS student at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Bhopal, joined ENS de Lyon through the BIOSANTEXC program for a three-month research internship at the RDP Laboratory.

Vanessa Guignery is the new Vice President for International Relations at ENS de Lyon, effective September 1, 2026, bringing to the role her experience in academic research, international engagement and institutional responsibilities. The transition marks a new chapter for the School’s international relations.

Representatives of the BIOSANTEXC network met on 22-23 July 2026 at IISER Thiruvananthapuram to explore new opportunities for scientific collaboration between France and India across several fields of life sciences and health.

At the start of the 2026-2027 academic year, ENS de Lyon will welcome its first two Lafayette Fellows, two of the thirty recipients of the Lafayette Fellowship. This Franco-American program of excellence will enable 30 American students to pursue a fully funded Master's degree in France while participating in an international leadership program.

Welcome and congratulations on joining ENS de Lyon!

Welcome to our new students and staff! Find here the welcome booklets, the guides that will take you through ENS de Lyon.

Find below information concerning the availability of main services of ENS de Lyon during the summer 2026.

As part of the ENS-IISER partnership, Nikita SHARMA, a doctoral student at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Bhopal, joined ENS de Lyon through the BIOSANTEXC program and completed a three-month internship at the IGFL.

On the occasion of the induction of Marc Bloch and his wife, Simonne Vidal, into the Panthéon on June 23, 2026, the École normale supérieure de Lyon honors the legacy of one of the most influential figures in modern French history and in the development of history as a discipline.

As part of the France–India Year of Innovation 2026, ENS Paris-Saclay hosted the first edition of ENS Beyond Borders, bringing together French and Indian institutions, researchers, and students to highlight the diversity of collaborations developed within the ENS network. The event showcased interdisciplinary partnerships in research and education, including the BIOSANTEXC Franco-Indian Campus in Health coordinated by ENS de Lyon.

Romain Graziani, professor of Chinese studies at ENS de Lyon and researcher at the Institute of East Asian Studies; and Henning Samtleben, professor of Physics at ENS de Lyon and member of LPENSL, were appointed senior members of the Institut Universitaire de France on May 21, 2026. Ten alumni of the School were also appointed.

ENS de Lyon congratulates Thierry Dauxois on his appointment as president of the CNRS. Photo credit: © Cyril FRÉSILLON / CNRS Images

A look back at the ENS de Lyon graduation ceremony—Class of 2025.

Philippe Lalliot, an alumnus of the École Normale Supérieure (ENS) in Fontenay-Saint-Cloud, has been appointed French Ambassador to Morocco.

On the occasion of European Doctoral Day 2026, celebrated on May 13, the ENS de Lyon is highlighting its PhD studies and the support systems available to doctoral candidates throughout their academic journey at the School.
A webinar on the mentoring program for female doctoral candidates, in partnership with the Femmes & Sciences association, will be held on May 11 at 11:00 a.m (in French). Register now!

As part of the PROSFER program, ENS de Lyon welcomed French and Chinese partners to select joint-supervised doctoral students and discuss upcoming academic exchanges. The meeting also provided an opportunity to review prospects for scientific cooperation, particularly within the framework of the JoRISS program.

SpaceX's Crew Dragon 12 rocket successfully lifted off on February 13, 2026, carrying French astronaut Sophie Adenot, who was tasked with deploying MATISS-4. This experiment, led by Laurence Lemelle (CNRS, LGL-TPE, ENS de Lyon) was assembled by the LPENSL mechanical engineering department, under the supervision of Denis Le Tourneau. Photo credit: © NASA/ESA

As part of the ENS-IISER partnership, Gayatree MISHRA , a doctoral student from IISER Bhopal, joined ENS de Lyon through the BIOSANTEXC program and completed a three-month internship at the IGFL.

As part of the ENS-IISER partnership, Aswathy LATIKA BABU, a doctoral student at the NCCS, joined ENS de Lyon through the BIOSANTEXC program and completed a three-month internship at the IGFL.

From February 11, 2026, International Day of Women and Girls in Science, to March 12, 2026, Science is a Woman's Job Day, meet women involved in research at ENS de Lyon, take part in events dedicated to women's rights and gender equality, and learn about ENS de Lyon's initiatives and commitments to gender equality.

Openness and diversity feature prominently among the strategic actions of ENS de Lyon's institutional project. A new master plan for professional equality between women and men has been adopted for 2024-2026, with a number of key actions that reinforce the policy of equality and prevention of gender-based and sexual violence for both students and staff. Particular attention is being paid to girls' and women's access to scientific fields and careers, as well as to the working conditions of female PhD students and young researchers.

From February 11 to March 12, ENS de Lyon is offering events and resources on issues related to women's rights and the visibility of women in research.

On January 30, 2026, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) signed an agreement to build the Blue Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (BlueMUSE), a new instrument for ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT). Thumbnail credit © ESO

Seventeen exchange students from around the world are joining ENS de Lyon for the second semester of the 2025-2026 academic year. From workshops to social meetups, the ENS de Lyon community is actively supporting international students as they settle in, fostering connections, engagement, and a vibrant campus experience.

Maud Ventura, who holds a Master's degree in philosophy from École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, has recently won one of the 2025 Encouragement Awards for Young Writers, presented by the Simone and Cino Del Duca Foundation on the recommendation of the Académie Française Awards Committee.

Natacha Gillet, a researcher at the ENS Lyon Chemistry Laboratory (LCH), is one of 18 winners of the Émergence 2026 program, which supports researchers with innovative projects in the field of chemistry.

François Rousset, researcher at the International Research Center in Infectious Diseases (CIRI) and head of the “Molecular Genomics of Microorganisms” team, was awarded the Paoletti Prize on January 7, 2026, a prize that recognizes promising young scientists in all fields of biology. Photo credit © CNRS

On 8 and 9 December 2025, the Franco-Indian Life Sciences and Health Campus brought together more than 80 researchers and institutional stakeholders in Paris for a workshop dedicated to global health. Co-organized by the BIOSANTEXC and IN-HEALTH projects, the event highlighted the major challenges of interdisciplinary research and the prospects for scientific cooperation between France and India.

On Monday, December 15, 2025, at Université Lyon 2, the Rhône Auvergne delegation held its CNRS 2025 Talent Awards ceremony. Among the winners were four members of ENS de Lyon! They are Gwyneth Ingram, CNRS researcher and director of the Plant Reproduction and Development Laboratory (silver medal); Benjamin Wesolowski, CNRS research fellow at the Center for Pure and Applied Mathematics (bronze medal); Stéphanie Durand, CNRS researcher and seismologist at LGL-TPE (bronze medal); and Justine Lascar, CNRS research engineer and member of the ICAR laboratory (collective crystal for the RUSHS network). We also extend our congratulations to the alumni of ENS de Lyon who have won two silver medals and six bronze medals.

After receiving his honorary doctorate, Hartmut Rosa joined Christine Détrez, Olivier Hamant, and Lukas Pairon in a roundtable discussion about acceleration, alienation, and resonance as ways of relating to the world. Watch the video of this conference.

On December 5, 2025, Laurence Roulleau-Berger, Emeritus Research Director at the CNRS, Triangle Laboratory, and French Director of the International Advanced Laboratory (CNRS-ENS de Lyon/Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Post-Western Sociology in Europe and in China) was appointed Vice President for European Engagement at the Global China Academy.

Lucie Étienne, Research Director at the International Research Center in Infectious Diseases (CNRS/ENS de Lyon/INSERM/Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1/Hospices Civils de Lyon/Université Jean Monnet – Saint-Étienne) has just been awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant for the FUNEVO project. Photo credit © Sidaction - CNRS

Following the call for applications launched in 2023 for the 1% for art, the M8 building at ENS de Lyon will be enriched with a contemporary work of art: “Éclosion du visible” (Emergence of the Visible) by artist Capucine Vanderbrouck. A creation at the crossroads of art and science.

Since the start of the 2025 academic year, missions to China, Japan, the United States, and Canada by the Vice President for International Relations have strengthened or initiated our relationships with major international universities.

The FluoroBreaker project, developed by students from the iGEM Lyon 2025 team, won a gold medal at the Grand Jamboree, the final event of this prestigious international synthetic biology competition.

According to a CNRS publication dated November 18, 2025, based on a press release from the ESO (European Southern Observatory). On November 10, four lasers simultaneously pierced the sky at Cerro Paranal in Chile, marking a major milestone in the GRAVITY+ project, to which the Lyon Astrophysics Research Center (CRAL / OSUL – Sponsored by: CNRS / ENS de Lyon / Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1). Photo: Artist's rendering of the GRAVITY+ project on the VLT © ESO

According to a CNRS press release dated November 14, 2025. In January 2024, the CNRS launched a collective scientific study to examine the uses of rare earths from a circular economy perspective. The results of this study were presented on November 14, 2025, at a public symposium. This work, which draws on 4,100 scientific articles, aims to provide an integrated overview of the scientific knowledge available on the challenges and opportunities of responsible rare earth use. Romain Garcier, senior lecturer in geography at ENS de Lyon (CNRS/EVS), is one of the scientific leaders of this study, alongside Pascale Ricard (CNRS) and Clément Levard (CNRS). Photo credit: © Cyril Fresillon / Mecaware / CNRS Images

Renowned sociologist and political philosopher, professor at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena and director of the Max Weber College at the University of Erfurt, Hartmut Rosa will honor us with his presence at ENS de Lyon on December 15, 2025, as part of the ceremony to award him an Honoris Causa Doctorate, followed by a public lecture in English entitled: “Acceleration, Alienation, and Resonance: Forms of Connecting with the World.” Here, we invite you to discover his rich professional and academic career, as well as the various scientific fields to which he has made significant contributions. Photo credit © Jürgen Scheere

To celebrate the upcoming 250th anniversary of American independence and French-American friendship, France has launched the Lafayette Fellowships, a new program offering 30 scholarships each year to American students who wish to spend a year pursuing a master’s degree in France. ENS de Lyon is proud to be among the 15 French host institutions for the laureates.

Léa Chazot Franguiadakis, researcher at LPENSL, and entrepreneur Typhaine Brual, incubated at ENS de Lyon, are among the winners of the French Government’s Innovation Competition, in the i-PhD category, which supports the development of emerging start-ups.

The Artificial Intelligence Day, organized by AILyS at the Campus Région du numérique, aims to strengthen collaborations between researchers and businesses to foster innovative AI projects in the Lyon–Saint-Étienne area. Supported by the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region, the event features conferences and thematic workshops focused on key fields such as health, chemistry, security, and digital frugality.

At the start of the 2025 academic year, the ENS de Lyon welcomed 85 international students with an orientation week combining French language courses, thematic workshops, and guided visits designed to facilitate their integration. The welcome speeches encouraged curiosity, experimentation, and civic engagement, foundational values of the School.