Estelle Iacona appointed Managing Director of ENSTA

After four years of ambitious collective work and unwavering support from the French Ministry of the Armed Forces, the new ENSTA came into being on January 1, 2025. As part of the Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris), ENSTA combines the strengths and expertise of its Paris-Saclay campus in Palaiseau and its Brest campus in terms of training and research, to meet strategic challenges in key areas of sovereignty, notably defense and security. In the coming months, we will be unveiling a new, expanded training offer for the start of the 2026 academic year, with the ambition of making the academic and scientific excellence of all our training and research units available to our students and their future employers.

ENSTA's new Managing Director is keen to continue the momentum generated by the merger, in the service of the community and in close collaboration with the socio-economic world and stakeholders in the Île-de-France and Brittany regions. Her experience and skills in higher education and research are undeniable assets for the success of the establishment's strategic project.

It is with great pride that, on May 12, I will take over the management of one of France's leading engineering institutes, recognized for its academic excellence and its key role in training tomorrow's engineers in the major sovereignty domains of defense, digital, transport, energy and maritime. I am honored to have the opportunity to continue implementing the merger of the two ENSTAs, formed by the Brest and Paris-Saclay campuses, with the support of the Direction Générale de l'Armement, the Institute's supervisory authority, and all the members of the Board of Directors. In the months and years to come, our joint action will contribute to the development of this prestigious establishment within the Institut Polytechnique de Paris.
I would like to salute and thank the engineers Élisabeth Crépon and Bruno Gruselle who, through their respective leadership of ENSTA Paris and ENSTA Bretagne and their shared vision, have mobilized the stakeholders of both establishments around this project and paved the way for excellence and visibility for our Institute.I would also like to thank the entire ENSTA community for their commitment, which has enabled the institute to establish itself as a key institution in the world of higher education and research. We will build on this solid foundation to intensify our partnerships with industry, national research organizations and major academic players, in particular those at the Institut Polytechnique de Paris, and to further strengthen ENSTA's international visibility.

Estelle Iacona holds an engineering degree from Polytech Nantes and a doctorate from École Centrale Paris. She completed her post-doctorate at Johns Hopkins University, USA, where she was elected a Fellow of the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars in 2022. Her research focuses on gas radiation and coupled transfers. She is also the author of several books on the energy challenges of the future.

Professor at CentraleSupélec since 2007, she has headed the Macroscopic Molecular Energetics and Combustion Laboratory (UPR CNRS). In 2012, she was appointed Vice-President and Director of Research at École Centrale Paris, then at CentraleSupélec. In 2016, she became the École's Deputy Director General in charge of Training and Research. In 2019, she was appointed advisor to the École's General Manager for the creation of the Université Paris-Saclay. She was elected Vice-President of the Board of Directors in March 2020, then President of Université Paris-Saclay in June 2022, a position she held until March 2024. 

Since July 2024, she has been in charge of international strategy at the Ministry of Higher Education and Research. She was also a member of the Board of Directors of Centrale Casablanca between 2015 and 2019. She is currently President of the Strategic Orientation Committee of the University of Toulouse, a member of the School Council of Telecom Paris and an independent director of XFAB Silicon Foundries SE since 2017.