MATH+ Women’s Lunch with Laura Chaubard, President of École Polytechnique (l’X, Paris), a MATH+ Partner Institution
MATH+ welcomed Laura Chaubard, Director General and Acting President of École Polytechnique (l’X, Paris), for a special Women’s Lunch at TU Berlin’s new IMoS building in July. Representatives of the French Embassy and TU Berlin’s International Office accompanied her.
Laura Chaubard visited Berlin to explore the possibilities of enhancing Franco-German relations and cooperation in AI research. During her visit, she met with representatives of several research facilities as well as presidents of Berlin’s universities. Her visit emphasized the already existing ties with MATH+ as it came after the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between MATH+ and École Polytechnique in Paris in March 2026. Both institutions want to explore opportunities for collaboration in mathematics, artificial intelligence, and related fields involving postdoctoral researchers and faculty members.
Laura Chaubard is a mathematician and alumna of École Polytechnique (X99). She earned her doctorate from Paris Diderot University (Paris VII). In 2023, she became the first woman to serve as President of École Polytechnique, a position she will hold until 1 September 2026. She is also a Knight of the National Order of Merit and a Knight of the Legion of Honor.
During the Women’s Lunch, she reflected on her academic career, shared how she balanced her professional and personal life, and encouraged the students to pursue their own scientific ambitions. The participants also discussed their experiences studying mathematics in their respective home countries, Germany and abroad, emphasizing the importance of support in general.
It was a pleasure to host this exchange between the president, the doctoral researchers and postdocs. The lunch provided an excellent opportunity for the audience to engage directly with a distinguished female academic leader, learn about her career path, and discuss the opportunities and challenges facing women in the STEM area.
The Women’s Lunch goes back to a long-standing tradition at the Berlin Mathematical School: the “Kovalevskaya Lunch” format. These events bring together established women mathematicians and early-career researchers for exchange of experiences as women mathematicians, and encouragement for pursuing academic careers beyond the doctoral level.
During her Berlin visit, Chaubard also met representatives from several institutions to discuss French-German collaboration in artificial intelligence, particularly in the light of the newly established French–German Center on Artificial Intelligence, a joint initiative of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) and the French National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology (Inria).
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