For more than a century, mathematics have played a leading role among ENS educational programs. ENS has established a tradition of excellence by training highly qualified scientists: the seven French Fields medallists studied at ENS (1950: Laurent Schwartz mdash; 1954: Jean-Pierre Serre — 1958: René Thom — 1982: Alain Connes — 1994: Pierre-Louis Lions and Jean-Christophe Yoccoz — 2002: Laurent Lafforgue).
The Department of Mathematics and Computer science was first created in 1986. In september 1999 it was divided in two separate entities. The Department of Pure and Applied Mathematics is devoted to advancing research and training in mathematics and its applications.