Several of the French Nobel Prize winners were employed by the CNRS, particularly at the start of their careers, and most worked in university laboratories associated with the CNRS.
Nobel laureates in Physics • 1966:
Alfred Kastler, École normale supérieure (research director at CNRS from 1968 to 1972); • 1970:
Louis Néel, director of the Electrostatics and Metal Physics Laboratory (Grenoble) from 1946 to 1970; • 1991:
Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, Collège de France, Higher School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry; • 1992:
Georges Charpak, Higher School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry and CERN (CNRS researcher from 1948 to 1959); • 1997:
Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, Collège de France and École normale supérieure (CNRS research associate from 1960 to 1962); • 2007:
Albert Fert, CNRS/Thales
UMR, jointly with Peter Grünberg (German physicist); • 2012:
Serge Haroche, Collège de France (administrator), University of Paris-VI (from 1975 to 2001), CNRS (from 1967 to 1975). • 2022:
Alain Aspect, CNRS research director emeritus, professor at the École normale supérieure Paris-Saclay, the École polytechnique and the Institut d'optique Graduate School.
Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine • 2008:
Luc Montagnier, Professor Emeritus at the Institut Pasteur, Viral Oncology Unit, honorary research director at the CNRS and member of the Academies of Sciences and Medicine. Price in common with Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Harald zur Hausen; • 2011:
Jules Hoffmann, Emeritus Research Director, Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology (University of Strasbourg).
Nobel laureates in Chemistry • 1987:
Jean-Marie Lehn, University of Strasbourg and Collège de France (CNRS researcher from 1960 to 1966); • 2016:
Jean-Pierre Sauvage, University of Strasbourg (Researcher at CNRS from 1971 to 2014).
Fields Medal • Among the French mathematicians who obtained the Fields medal, only Jean-Christophe Yoccoz and Cédric Villani seem never to have been employed by the CNRS (they did, however, work in units associated with the CNRS). • 1950:
Laurent Schwartz, University of Nancy (CNRS scholarship holder from 1940 to 1944 at the University of Toulouse); • 1954:
Jean-Pierre Serre, Collège de France (attached, then in charge, then research professor at the CNRS from 1948 to 1954); • 1958:
René Thom, University of Strasbourg (CNRS researcher from 1946 to 1953??); • 1966
Alexandre Grothendieck, University of Paris (research associate at CNRS from 1950 to 1953); • 1982:
Alain Connes, Institute of Advanced Scientific Studies (intern, then attached, then research fellow at the CNRS from 1970 to 1974); • 1994:
Pierre-Louis Lions, Paris-Dauphine University (CNRS research associate from 1979 to 1981); • 2002:
Laurent Lafforgue, Institute of Advanced Scientific Studies (CNRS research fellow from 1990 to 2000 at Paris-XI); • 2006:
Wendelin Werner, Paris-Sud 11 University (CNRS research fellow from 1991 to 1997 at Paris-VI then ENS); • 2014:
Artur Ávila, Jussieu Institute of Mathematics -Paris Rive Gauche (research fellow then research director since 2003); • 2018:
Alessio Figalli, who began his career in 2007 at the Jean-Alexandre Dieudonné mathematics laboratory (CNRS-UCA).
Other distinctions • 2003: the Business Delegation receives the European Grand Prix for Innovation Awards, European innovation prize for scientific organizations; • 2003:
Jean-Pierre Serre wins the Abel Prize (researcher at the CNRS from 1948 to 1954); • 2007:
Joseph Sifakis,
Turing Award (highest distinction in computer science, considered the Nobel Prize in this field). He is research director at the CNRS in the Verimag laboratory which he founded. == Ranking ==