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 selectivity, historical role, and influence within French society, the ENS is generally considered the most prestigious of the grandes écoles, as well as one of the most prestigious higher education institutions in France.^[7] Its pupils are generally referred to as normaliens, while its alumni are sometimes referred to as archicubes.^[8]

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 other institutes 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 also 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]