École de physique des Houches

The Ecole de Physique des Houches is an international research center and meeting place in the Savoy Alps. It is located in Les Houches in the French department of Haute- Savoie. The center was founded in 1951 by the theoretical physicist Cecile DeWitt - Morette. It is a joint institution of the University Joseph Fourier ( UJF ) in Grenoble and the Institut national polytechnique de Grenoble ( INPG ).

The Ecole de Physique des Houches offers a wide range of seminars for physicists in different fields. The first course was given in 1951 by Léon Van Hove and was devoted to quantum mechanics. The school was able to quickly attract many famous physicists of the present as tutors, including, for example, the Nobel Prize winner Enrico Fermi, Wolfgang Pauli, Murray Gell-Mann and John Bardeen. Among the young students were, among others, Pierre -Gilles de Gennes, Georges Charpak and Claude Cohen- Tannoudji, which, at that time still unknown, and later should also receive the Nobel Prize. Also among the pupils was the mathematician Alain Connes, later winner of the Fields Medal.

Over the years, the school opened for other neighboring fields, such as mathematics, chemistry or biology. Today there also numerous conferences and scientific training (summer school) will be organized.

The previous directors were Cécile DeWitt - Morette, Roger Balian, Raymond Stora, Jean Zinn -Justin and François David. The current director is Jean Dalibard.