Paris-Saclay University

Paris-Saclay University
Université Paris-Saclay


Former name
University of Paris Sud XI
Paris Faculty of Sciences in Orsay
TypePublic research university
Establishedc. 1150 University of Paris
1956 University of Paris in Orsay
1971 Paris-Sud University
2014 As a community
2019 Replaces Paris-Sud University
AffiliationChancellery of the Universities of Paris
Udice Group
ChancellorBernard Beignier (Chancellor of the universities of Paris)
PresidentProf. Camille GALAP
Academic staff
10,500
Students60,000
Undergraduates5,400
Postgraduates23,300
6,000
Location, ,
France

48°42′42″N 2°10′17″E / 48.7117343°N 2.1712888°E / 48.7117343; 2.1712888
CampusMidsize city, 200 hectares (490 acres)
Websiteuniversite-paris-saclay.fr

Paris-Saclay University (French: Université Paris-Saclay, pronounced [ynivɛʁsite paʁi saklɛ]) is a combined technological research institute and public research university in Orsay, France. Paris-Saclay was established in 2019 after the merger of four technical grandes écoles, as well as several technological institutes, engineering schools, and research facilities; giving it fifteen constituent colleges with over 48,000 students combined.

With the merger, the French government has explicitly voiced their wish to rival top American technological research institutes, such as MIT. The university has over 275 laboratories in particle physics, nuclear physics, astrophysics, atomic physics and molecular physics, condensed matter physics, theoretical physics, electronics, nanoscience and nanotechnology. It is part of the larger Paris-Saclay cluster, which is a research-intensive academic campus encompassing Paris-Saclay University, the Polytechnic Institute of Paris, combined with a business cluster for high-technology corporations. Paris-Saclay notably also includes the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques, where many contributions to the development of modern mathematics have been made, among them modern algebraic geometry and catastrophe theory.

Paris-Saclay has two main campuses: the 495-acre Plateau urban campus, straddling Orsay, Gif-sur-Yvette and Palaiseau (with the Campus Agro Paris-Saclay) and centered on the Quartier de Moulon; and the historic campus in the valley, centered around the Château de Launay, the university's former headquarters. It also has several decentralized campuses, such as the medical campus in Bicêtre Hospital at Kremlin-Bicêtre, and the law faculty campus at Sceaux. The University of Versailles and the University of Évry, both part of Paris-Saclay, have campuses in Versailles, Guyancourt, Vélizy-Villacoublay, Saint-Germain-en-Laye and Évry-Courcouronnes.

As of 2021, 11 Fields Medalists and 4 Nobel Prize winners have been affiliated with the university and its associated research institutes.