Philippe Baptiste

Philippe Baptiste (born 28 March 1972) is a French engineer, academic and researcher who has been serving as Minister responsible for Higher Education and Research in the government of Prime Minister François Bayrou since 2024, reporting to Minister Elizabeth Borne.

Baptiste is most well known as the president of the National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) in addition to his several books and scientific publications and communications in the field of algorithms, combinatorial optimization, operational research and artificial intelligence.

Early life and education Baptiste was born on March 28, 1972, in France. Baptiste holds a PhD in computer science from the University of Technology of Compiègne additionally he is a civil engineering graduate from the Ecole des Mines engineering school in Nancy. He also holds a MSc from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow and holds a DEA postgraduate diploma from Sorbonne University and is a research director. Baptiste specialises in operational research and artificial intelligence (AI), combinatorial optimisation, and algorithms.

Career In 1999 during his academic career, Baptiste was a researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), in addition to IBM's Watson Research Center during 2000 to 2001.

In November 2000, Baptiste was awarded the ERCIM Cor Baayen Award for his PhD thesis in an ERCIM country which include: Cyprus, Poland, France, Germany, Austria, Greece, Italy, Norway, Portugal, The Netherlands, Finland and Sweden. Baptiste won this award due to the quality of his PhD thesis and his previous publications and achievements up to the year 2000.