Josiane Serre

Josiane Serre (17 December 1922 - 11 October 2004) was a French academic chemist, the final director of the l'École normale supérieure de jeunes filles, and acting director of l'École normale supérieure in Paris. A French pioneer of quantum chemistry, she is one of 72 women in STEM whose names have been proposed to be added to the Eiffel Tower.

Early life and education Josiane Marie Mauricette Blanche Heulot was born on 17 December 1922 in Lyon. She earned her baccalauréats in arts and sciences in 1940, then attended preparatory classes at the lycée Fénelon in Paris. After a period of illness, in 1944 she entered the l'École normale supérieure de jeunes filles in Sèvres. and earned a doctorate in chemistry at the University of Paris. After marriage to mathematician Jean-Pierre Serre she took his surname and became known as Josiane Serre.

Career Left to right: René Thom, Jean Arbault, Jean-Pierre Serre, Josiane Serre, Jean Braconnier and Georges Reeb at the Oberwolfach Research Institute for Mathematics in 1949. She initially worked in organic chemistry at the l'École normale supérieure de la rue d'Ulm where she conducted research on terpene derivatives.

After two years teaching in a secondary school,

After the death in 1989 of mathematician Georges Poitou, director of the École normale supérieure, Serre served as interim administrator from 1989 to 1990. She was the first woman to hold this position.

The same year, she was appointed to the Comité national d'évaluation des établissements publics à caractère scientifique, culturel et professionnel (National Committee for the Evaluation of Public Scientific, Cultural and Professional Institutions).

In 1991, she was appointed to the cabinet of the then Minister of National Education, Lionel Jospin, where she was responsible for the newly established instituts universitaires de formation des maîtres (university institutes for teacher training).

Publications

Josiane Serre, De l'École normale de professeurs femmes (Sèvres) à l'ENS de jeunes filles: 1881-1985, Bulletin de la Société des amis de l'ENS, 164, 1985.