- Alphonse Lavallée
Alphonse Lavallée is the founder of the
École Centrale Paris , a French "Grande École ".He was born in 1791 in Savigné-l'Évêque (
Sarthe region,France ). He became a businessman in the region ofNantes . At the end of the 1820s he decided to create a new school of engineering for the emerging industrial sector, at a time where all the leading institutions were essentially training engineers for public administration. He founded in 1829 theÉcole centrale des arts et manufactures , now also known as theÉcole Centrale Paris , with the help of three scientists : the chemistJean-Baptiste Dumas , the physicistJean Claude Eugène Péclet and the mathematician [http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Printonly/Olivier.html Théodore Olivier] . He gave the money for establishing the school inParis and became the first president ("directeur") of the institution. The first location was the Hôtel de Juigné in theMarais (now building of thePicasso Museum ).His son developed anarboretum in the park of the "Château de Segrez" in Saint-Sulpice-de-Favières (Essonne ), which was one of the biggest inEurope at this time.He died in Paris in 1873 and is buried in the "Père Lachaise" Cemetery.
External links
* [http://www.segrez.com "Château de Segrez"]
* [http://lachaise.gargl.net/photos/photos-thematiques-lavallee.htm Alphonse Lavallée at the "Père Lachaise" Cemetery]
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