List of French scientists

A

• José Achache, geophysicist and ecologist
• Jean le Rond d'Alembert, mathematician, mechanician, physicist and philosopher
• Claude Allègre, geochemist
• Lucile Allorge, botanist
• André-Marie Ampère, physicist and mathematician
• Camille Arambourg, vertebrate palaeontologist.
• Françoise Ardré, phycologist, marine scientist
• Alain Aspect, physicist

  B

• Louis Bachelier, mathematician
• Antoine Jérôme Balard, chemist
• Éliane Basse, paleontologist and geologist
• Pierre-Dominique Bazaine, mathematician and engineer
• Jean de Beaurain, geographer
• Antoine César Becquerel, electrochemist
• Edmond Becquerel, physicist
• Henri Becquerel, physicist and Nobel laureate
• Jean Becquerel, physicist
• Léon Bence, physician
• Jacques Benoit, physician, biologist and neuroendocrinologist
• Claude Bernard, physiologist
• Marcellin Berthelot, chemist, opponent of vitalism
• Claude Louis Berthollet, chemist
• Julien Bessières, physician, diplomat, and member of the Egyptian Institute of Sciences and Arts
• Alfred Binet, psychologist who invented the first practical IQ test
• Prosper-René Blondlot, physicist
• Pierre Boiteau, botanist
• Jean Bosler, astronomer
• Marcellin Boule, palaeontologist, geologist, and anthropologist
• Claude Bourgelat, veterinary surgeon
• Thomas Bourgeron, neuroscientist
• Jean-Baptiste Boussingault, chemist
• Gerard Brachet, space scientist
• Paul Broca, physician, surgeon, anatomist, and anthropologist
• Louis de Broglie, physicist
• Bernard Brunhes, physicist
• Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, naturalist and mathematician

  C

• Bernard Cabane, physicist and chemist
• Pierre Jean George Cabanis, physiologist
• Albert Calmette, physician, bacteriologist and immunologist
• Georges Canguilhem, physician and philosopher
• Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot, physicist and military engineer
• Élie Cartan, mathematician
• Henri Cartan, mathematician
• Augustin-Louis Cauchy, mathematician and physicist
• Jean-François Champollion, philologist
• Jean-Pierre Changeux, neurochemist
• Georges Charpak, physicist, Nobel prize winner 1992
• Georges Charpy, physicist and metallurgist
• Henry Louis Le Chatelier, chemist known for Le Chatelier's principle
• Albert Châtelet, mathematician
• Émilie du Châtelet, mathematician and physicist
• Jean Mathieu de Chazelles, professor of hydrography
• Michel Che, chemist
• Daniel Choquet, neuroscientist
• Gustave Choquet, mathematician
• Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat, mathematician
• Charles [Pierre Claret de Fleurieu], explorer, hydrographer and politician
• Alain Connes, mathematician; Fields Medalist 1982
• Louis Couffignal, mathematician and cybernetician
• Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, physicist, discoverer of Coulomb's law
• Vincent Courtillot, geophysicist
• Jacques-Yves Cousteau, oceanographer
• Philippe Cousteau, oceanographer
• Jean-Marie-Joseph Coutelle, engineer, scientist and pioneer of ballooning
• Adam de Craponne, engineer who implemented the Canal de Craponne in 1559
• Jean Cruveilhier, anatomist and pathologist
• Marie Curie, physicist and chemist, two Nobel Prizes, in physics and chemistry
• Pierre Curie, physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize in physics
• Georges Cuvier, regarded as the founding father of palaeontology
• Boris Cyrulnik, ethologist, neurologist, and psychiatrist

  D

• Thomas-François Dalibard, physicist and botanist
• Henry Darcy, hydraulic engineer
• Michel Darluc, naturalist
• Raymond Daudel, quantum chemist
• Jean Dausset, biologist, Nobel prize winner 1980
• Suzanne Débarbat, astronomer and historian of science and technology
• André-Louis Debierne, chemist
• Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre, mathematician and astronomer
• Marcel Deprez, electrical engineer
• John Theophilus Desaguliers, natural philosopher
• Guillaume Delisle, cartographer
• Girard Desargues, mathematician
• René Descartes, scientist and philosopher
• Robert Debré, physician
• Roland Douce, plant biologist
• Jean-Baptiste du Hamel, natural philosopher
• Émilien Dumas, palaeontologist, and geologist
• Jean-Baptiste Dumas, chemist
• Charles François Dupuis, polymath and theologian

  F

• Pierre Fauchard, physician, "the father of modern dentistry"
• Hervé Faye, astronomer
• Pierre de Fermat, mathematician
• Louis Feuillée, explorer, astronomer, geographer, and botanist
• Bernard Foing, astronomer
• Léon Foucault, physicist
• Pierre Fourmanoir, ichthyologist
• Joseph Fourier, mathematician and physicist
• Augustin-Jean Fresnel, physicist known for work on optics

  G

• Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, mathematician and physicist, Nobel Prize in physics 1991
• Sophie Germain mathematician, physicist and philosopher.
• Paul Gervais, palaeontologist and entomologist
• Jacques Géry, ichthyologist
• Mirko Grmek, historian of medicine
• Alexander Grothendieck, mathematician; Fields Medalist 1966
• Camille Guérin, biologist
• André Guinier, physicist

  H

• Jacques Hadamard, mathematician
• Armand Havet, botanist
• Victor Henri, physical chemist and physiologist
• Charles Hermite, mathematician
• Catherine Hill, epidemiologist and biostatistician
• Étienne Hubert d'Orléans, Arabist

  J

• François Jacob, biologist, Nobel prize winner 1965
• Charles Janet, chemist and biologist
• Paul Janet, philosopher
• Irène Joliot-Curie, physicist, Nobel Prize winner 1935
• Frédéric Joliot-Curie, physicist, Nobel Prize winner 1935
• Jean Jouzel, glaciologist and climatologist
• Gaston Julia, mathematician

  K

• Nicole El Karoui, mathematician
• Robert Kühner, mycologist
• Jean Kuntzmann, mathematician

  L

• Michel de La Vigne, physician
• Yves Lacoste, geographer and geopolitician
• Laurent Lafforgue, mathematician; Fields Medalist 2002
• Frédéric de Lafresnaye, ornithologist
• Joseph Louis Lagrange, mathematician
• Jean Laherrère, consultant and petroleum engineer
• Claude François Lallemand, physician and pathologist
• Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, evolutionary biologist
• Paul Langevin, physicist
• Pierre-Simon Laplace, mathematician and physicist
• François-de-Paule Latapie, botanist
• Lucien Laubier, oceanographer
• René Lavocat, paleontologist
• Antoine Lavoisier, chemist
• Michel Lazdunski, biochemist
• Eliane Le Breton, physiologist
• Xavier Le Pichon, geophysicist
• Alfred Legoyt, statistician
• Jean-Marie Lehn, chemist, Nobel prize 1987
• Jean-Marc Lévy-Leblond, physicist
• Claude Lévi-Strauss, anthropologist
• Arnoult de Lisle, Arabist and physician
• Pierre-Louis Lions, mathematician; Fields Medalist 1994
• Edmond Locard, pioneer of forensic science
• André Lwoff, biologist, Nobel prize 1965

  M

• Jean-Michel Macron, neurologist
• Charles Madic, radiochemist
• Jean-Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan, geophysicist, astronomer and chronobiologist
• Benoit Mandelbrot, mathematician
• Pierre Louis Maupertuis, mathematician and philosopher
• Prosper Ménière, doctor concerned with hearing loss and tinnitus
• Marin Mersenne, mathematician
• Charles Messier, astronomer
• André Michaux, botanist and explorer
• François André Michaux, botanist
• Jean-Louis Michel, oceanographer and engineer
• Alphonse Milne-Edwards, mammalologist and ornithologist
• Henri Milne-Edwards, zoologist
• Abraham de Moivre, mathematician
• Jacques Monod, biologist, Nobel prize winner 1965
• Théodore Monod, naturalist and theologian
• Gabriel Mouton, mathematician and astronomer

  N–O

• Adolphe-Simon Neboux, surgeon and naturalist
• Louis Néel, physicist, Nobel Prize 1970
• André Niederlender, archaeologist
• Jean de Noailles, chemist
• Jean-Baptiste Noulet, archaeologist
• Hélène Olivier-Bourbigou, chemist

  P–Q

• Henri Padé, mathematician
• Paul Painlevé, mathematician and statesman
• Denis Papin, physicist, mathematician, and inventor
• Blaise Pascal, mathematician and philosopher
• Étienne Pascal, mathematician
• Louis Pasteur, microbiologist and chemist
• Jean Pecquet, psychologist
• Jean-Marie Pelt, botanist
• Jocelyne Pérard, geographer
• Jean Robert Petit, paleoclimatologist
• Alphonse Pinart, philologist
• Gilles Pisier, mathematician
• Hippolyte Pixii, inventor
• Henri Poincaré, mathematician and physicist
• Lucien Poincaré, physicist
• Siméon Poisson, mathematician and physicist
• Pierre Poivre, horticulturist and botanist
• Albéric Pont, dentist and pioneer in maxillofacial surgery
• Alberte Pullman, quantum chemist
• Bernard Pullman, quantum chemist
• Lucien Quélet, naturalist and mycologist

  R

• Petrus Ramus, mathematician and logician
• Louis-Antoine Ranvier, physician, pathologist, anatomist and histologist
• Didier Raoult, microbiologist and virologist
• René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur, entomologist
• Jacques Ricard, biochemist
• Jean-Baptiste Robinet, naturalist
• Antoine Georges Roederer, engineer and scientist
• Paul Rohmer, physician
• Michel Rolle, mathematician
• Henri Romagnesi, mycologist
• Jean Rostand, biologist and philosopher
• Louis Rougier, mathematician, physicist, and philosopher

  S

• Nicolas Sarrabat, mathematician concerned with many aspects of science
• Henri Émile Sauvage, ichthyologist, paleontologist, and herpetologist
• Conrad Schlumberger, geophysicist
• Marcel Schlumberger, geophysicist
• Laurent Schwartz, mathematician; Fields Medalist 1950
• Géraud Sénizergues, computer scientist and 2002 Gödel Prize recipient.
• Jean-Pierre Serre, mathematician; Fields Medalist 1954

  T

• Michel Talagrand, mathematician
• Jules Tannery, mathematician
• Auguste Ambroise Tardieu, forensic medical scientist
• Haroun Tazieff, volcanologist and geologist
• Daniel Tauvry, physician
• Fabiola Terzi, physician-scientist
• Melchisédech Thévenot, inventor of the spirit level
• Adrien-Jean-Pierre Thilorier, discoverer of dry ice
• Françoise Thom, historian
• René Thom, mathematician; Fields Medal 1958
• Muriel Thomasset, physicist
• Pierre-Marie-Jérôme Trésaguet, engineer and road builder

  V–Y

• Georges Valiron, mathematician
• Jean-Pierre Vernant, historian
• Jean-Christophe Victor, geographer
• Paul-Émile Victor, ethnologist
• François Viète, mathematician
• Louis Pierre Vieillot, ornithologist
• Charles Athanase Walckenaer, geographer
• Wendelin Werner, mathematician; Fields Medalist 2006
• Rachid Yazami, engineer and inventor
• Jean-Christophe Yoccoz, mathematician; Fields Medalist 1994

  Z

• Andrea Zitolo, scientist in physical-chemistry