Claude Bernard University Lyon 1

University rankings
University rankings
Global – Overall
ARWU World	201–300 (2023)
QS World	=452 (2024)
THE World	401–500 (2024)
National – Overall
ARWU National	9–12
THE National	11–16

Claude Bernard University
Lyon 1
Université Claude-Bernard Lyon 1
Type	Public
Established	1971
Budget	€420.5 M (2020)
President	Frédéric Fleury
Academic staff	2,857
Administrative staff	1,766
Students	47,860
Location	Lyon, France; 45°46′52″N 4°52′03″E / 45.78098°N 4.86759°E
Campus	Urban
Affiliations	University of Lyon
Website	www.univ-lyon1.fr

Claude Bernard University Lyon 1 (French: Université Claude-Bernard Lyon 1, UCBL) is one of the three public universities of Lyon, France. It is named after the French physiologist Claude Bernard and specialises in science and technology, medicine, and sports science. It was established in 1971 by the merger of the 'faculté des sciences de Lyon' with the 'faculté de médecine'.

The main administrative, teaching and research facilities are located in Villeurbanne, with other campuses located in Gerland, Rockefeller, and Laennec in the 8th arrondissement of Lyon. Attached to the university are the Hospices Civils de Lyon, including the 'Centre Hospitalier Lyon-Sud', which is the largest teaching hospital in the Rhône-Alpes region and the second-largest in France.

The university has been independent since January 2009. In 2020 it managed an annual budget of over €420 million and had 2857 faculty.^[1]

History

On 17 March 1808, Napoleon I founded the University of France, a national organisation with responsibility for formal education from primary through to university level. This decree created the Academy of Lyon within the University and established the Lyon Faculty of Science.^[2] The Lyon Faculty of Medicine was founded on 8 November 1874 and was later merged with the Faculty of Science on 8 December 1970 to create Claude Bernard University.^[3]

Locations and buildings

Main sites

The university is not located on a single campus but has departments and other facilities distributed across several key sites throughout Lyon and the wider region. The LyonTech-la Doua campus located north of Villeurbanne and east of Lyon's Parc de la Tête d'Or hosts the administrative headquarters of the university as well as its Faculties of Science and Technology and of Sport Sciences.

A second key site, the Lyon Health East Campus, is located in the eighth arrondissement next to the Edouard Herriot hospital and the Vinatier medical centre. It hosts the Faculty of Odontology and the Lyon East Faculty of Medicine, in addition to several research institutes dedicated to medical and biological sciences.

Areas of study

Natural science

Public health

Other

Sport (STAPS, "Sciences et Techniques des Activités Physiques et Sportives")
Observatory of Lyon
ISFA, Graduate School of Actuarial Studies (ISFA, "Institut de Science Financière et d'Assurances")
Engineering school École polytechnique universitaire de l'université Lyon-I

Reputation

The university was ranked 9-11 out of universities in France and in the 201–300 band of world universities by Academic Ranking of World Universities 2021.^[8]

Notable faculty

Mathematics

Geneviève Comte-Bellot (born 1929) – physicist
John Adrian Bondy (born 1942) – mathematician
Michelle Schatzman (1949–2010) – mathematician
Jean-Louis Nicolas – number theorist
Pierre Auger (born 1953) – bio-mathematician
Fokko du Cloux (1954–2006) – Dutch mathematician and computer scientist
Christian Krattenthaler (born 1958) – mathematician
Marta Macho Stadler (born 1962) – Basque mathematician
Marie-France Sagot – computational biologist
Isabelle Daniel – mineralogist
Marivi Fernández-Serra – physicist
Tuna Altınel (born 1966) – mathematician
Sylvie Benzoni (born 1967) – mathematician
Vincent Calvez (born 1981) – mathematician

Medicine

Antonin Poncet (1849–1913) – surgeon
Jean-Louis Touraine (born 1945) – professor of medicine
Gilles Salles – haematologist
Véronique Trillet-Lenoir (born 1957) – oncologist and politician
Patrick Froehlich (born 1961) – physician and novelist
David Servan-Schreiber (1961–2011) – physician and neuroscientist

Notable alumni

Academic

Cécile Mourer-Chauviré (born 1939) – paleontologist
Christian Dumas (born 1943) – biologist
Jean Bellissard (born 1946) – mathematical physicist
Francis Clarke (born 1948) – mathematician
Rabesa Zafera Antoine (born 1950) – plant biologist, university president
Muhammad Baydoun (1952–2022) – Lebanese mathematician and politician
Jean Decety (born 1960) – neuroscientist
Uwe Rau – German physicist
Teresa Torres – Chilean paleontologist
Raphaèle Herbin – mathematician
Nouria Salehi – Afghan-Australian nuclear physicist, biophysicist and humanitarian
Patrick Mehlen (born 1968) – biologist
Hélène Courtois (born 1970) – astrophysicist
Catherine Tallon-Baudry – electrophysiologist
Theodora Hatziioannou – virologist
Victor Grignard – chemist, 1912 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Alexis Carrel – surgeon and biologist, 1912 Nobel Prize in Medicine