On Monday, January 26, 2026, the anniversary of the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the Eiffel Tower, Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris, unveiled 72 proposals for names of female scientists to be inscribed on the Eiffel Tower. This project, initiated in March 2025 by the City of Paris, the Société d'Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel (SETE), and the association “Femmes & Sciences,” aims to pay tribute to the major contributions of women in the field of science.
Since 1889, on the initiative of Gustave Eiffel, the Eiffel Tower has celebrated science with the names of 72 French scientists—all men—inscribed in gold letters around its first floor. This new addition will restore women scientists to their rightful place in this scientific pantheon.
The expert committee, co-chaired by Isabelle Vauglin, astrophysicist and Vice-President of the “Femmes & Sciences” association, and Jean-François Martins, President of SETE, worked in collaboration with research organizations such as CNRS, INSERM, and INRIA to select these names. It proposes to add 72 new names of women scientists to a frieze just above the existing frieze, on the first floor.
By honoring these women, we celebrate those to whom science owes so much and help inspire entire generations of scientists. The Eiffel Tower thus fully embraces its role as a beacon of humanism, faithful to the spirit that gave birth to it.
The list of 72 names will be sent to the three relevant Academies (Science, Medicine, and Technology), which will decide on the official and final validation of the names of the female scientists selected.
See the complete list of 72 proposed names on the Paris.fr website.
Three women scientists profiled
The oldest - Angélique du Coudray (1712–1794)
Angélique du Coudray embodies the birth of modern scientific transmission in the 18th century. After graduating in obstetrics in 1739, she became a midwife and devoted her life to teaching the art of childbirth throughout the kingdom. An exceptional innovator, she invented a “machine,” a life-size anatomical model used to train midwives and surgeons. Supported by Louis XV, she traveled throughout France for nearly twenty-five years and contributed to a significant reduction in infant mortality. A forgotten pioneer, she imposed a rigorous scientific pedagogy at a time when women rarely had access to medical knowledge.
The most famous—Marie Curie (1867–1934)
A universal figure in science, Marie Curie remains the only person to have received two Nobel Prizes in science in two different disciplines: physics and chemistry. An exceptional researcher, she and Pierre Curie discovered natural radioactivity and opened up entire fields of modern research. Committed to her cause, she put science at the service of the wounded during the First World War thanks to mobile radiology units. Refusing to patent her discoveries, she affirmed a deeply humanistic conception of knowledge. Founder of the Curie Institute, she became the first female scientist to be inducted into the Pantheon in 1995.
The most modern - Alice Recoque (1929-2021)
A pioneer in French computer science, Alice Recoque played a decisive role in the development of computing architectures and artificial intelligence. A graduate of ESPCI, she contributed to the miniaturization of computers and led iconic projects such as Mitra 15. A visionary, she warned as early as the 1970s about the ethical issues associated with digital technologies and helped create the CNIL. A scientist, engineer, and thinker on societal uses, she embodied the entry of computer science into the modern era. France's first exascale supercomputer now bears her name.
