42 Recipients of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques

Asbjørn Aarnes was a Norwegian professor and literary historian.

Hiacynt Alchimowicz was a Polish painter in the Classical style who specialized in watercolor landscapes. His older brother was the painter Kazimierz Alchimowicz.

Charles Louis Xavier Arnozan was a French physician, professor of therapeutics then of medical clinic at the Faculty of Medicine of Bordeaux, member of the Académie Nationale de Médecine, deputy mayor of Bordeaux in charge of hygiene.

Petar Atanasov is a Macedonian linguist of Megleno-Romanian origin. His scientific interests include lexicography and Aromanian, Megleno-Romanian and Romance linguistics. He was a professor in the Faculty of Philology at the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje.

George or Georges Balagny was a French photographer from the Batignolles neighborhood in Paris, France. He was born on 16 February 1837 and died in Paris on 17 December 1919.

Mahmoud Cherif Bassiouni was an Emeritus Professor of Law at DePaul University where he taught from 1964 to 2012. He served in numerous United Nations positions and served as the consultant to the US Department of State and Justice on many projects. He was a founding member of the International Human Rights Law Institute at DePaul University which was established in 1990. He served as president from 1990 to 1997 and then as president emeritus. Bassiouni is often referred to by the media as “the Godfather of International Criminal Law” and a “war crimes expert.” As such, he served on the Steering Committee for The Crimes Against Humanity Initiative, which was launched to study the need for a comprehensive convention on the prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity, and draft a proposed treaty. He spearheaded the drafting of the proposed convention, which as of 2014 is being debated at the International Law Commission.

Pierre René Jean Baptiste Henri Brocard was a French meteorologist and mathematician, in particular a geometer. His best-known achievement is the invention and discovery of the properties of the Brocard points, the Brocard circle, and the Brocard triangle, all bearing his name.

Patrick Cousot is a French computer scientist, currently Silver Professor of Computer Science at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University, USA. Before he was Professor at the École Normale Supérieure (ENS), Paris, France, the École Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France and the University of Metz, France and a Research Scientist at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) at the Joseph Fourier University, Grenoble, France.

Colonel Marie Augstin Gaston Cros was a French army officer and archaeologist. He was born in Alsace and was displaced when that territory was incorporated into the German Empire. He joined the French Army as a lieutenant and saw action in Tonkin before spending several years surveying in Tunisia, receiving the honours of membership of Vietnamese and Tunisian orders and appointment as a chevalier of the Legion of Honour. In 1901 Cros was appointed head of the French archaeological expedition to Girsu, Iraq to continue the work of Ernest de Sarzec. His work over the next five years included the tracing of the 32.5 feet (9.9 m) thick city wall and for his work there received a letter of commendation from Gaston Doumergue, the Minister of Fine Arts, and the award of the Golden Palms of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques. Promoted to lieutenant-colonel, Cros served in the French protectorate of Morocco from 1913, seeing action in the Zaian War.

André Damien was a French lawyer and politician who served as the head of the French Bar Association.

Germain Détanger was a French painter, known primarily for his decorative work.

Jean-Louis Étienne is a French doctor, explorer and scientist. He is well known for his Arctic explorations, where he was the first man to reach the North pole alone in 1986, and his Antarctic explorations, including the famous 1990 International Trans-Antarctica Expedition.

Erwan Evenou was a French writer, linguist, political activist, and teacher. He was a strong advocate for the Breton language. He was a recipient of the Ordre des Palmes académiques for his work.

Raymond Federman was a French–American novelist and academic, known also for poetry, essays, translations, and criticism. He held positions at the University at Buffalo from 1973 to 1999, when he was appointed Distinguished Emeritus Professor. Federman was a writer in the experimental style, one that sought to deconstruct traditional prose. This type of writing is quite prevalent in his book Double or Nothing, in which the linear narrative of the story has been broken down and restructured so as to be nearly incoherent. Words are also often arranged on pages to resemble images or to suggest repetitious themes.

Felix Fournery was a French painter, fashion illustrator, printmaker, watercolourist and socialite.

Manuel García Velarde is a Spanish physicist and university professor, currently a member of the Academia Europaea, the Royal Academy of Doctors of Spain and the European Academy of Sciences. Velarde has worked in American and European universities and research organizations, focusing on fluid dynamics and other non-linear problems, including the kinetic and thermodynamic theories, hydrodynamic and interfacial instabilities, anharmonic lattices and electronics.

Major Archibald Alexander Gordon CBE, MVO, Order of Leopold, Legion of Honour was a Scottish soldier who served as attaché to the Military Household of King Albert I of Belgium during World War I, with the title of Belgian King's Messenger. He is the younger brother of William Eagleson Gordon, who was awarded the Victoria Cross.

Sandro Gozi is an Italian politician of the Democratic Party who has been a Member of the European Parliament since 2020. He was a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies from 2006 to 2018 and was elected to the European Parliament in 2019, representing France on the list of Macron's LREM.

Gilbert Grandval was a French Resistance activist who went on to become the military governor of the Saar Protectorate in 1945. He remained in post for a decade, although the nature of the job evolved and there were changes of title in 1948 and again in 1952 when he became, formally, the French ambassador to the Saarland. Subsequently, he became a government minister during the early years of the Fifth Republic.

Natalie Griesbeck is a French politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament for the East of France from 2004 until 2019. She is a member of the Democratic Movement (MoDem), part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.

Mary Riter Hamilton (1873–1954) was a Canadian artist. In 1919, she painted the battlefields of France and Belgium, recording the aftermath of World War I.

Velino Shije Herrera, also known as Ma Pe Wi, was a Zia Pueblo Indian painter.

Efraín Huerta was a Mexican poet and journalist. Born and raised in the state of Guanajuato, he moved to Mexico City initially to start a career in art. Unable to enter the Academy of San Carlos, he attended the Escuela Preparatoria Nacional, where he met writers such as Rafael Solana, Carmen Toscano and Octavio Paz. He had been writing poetry since he was young, but initially opted to attend law school; however, when he published his first book of poems, he left it to pursue writing full-time. As a poet, he published regularly from the 1930s to the 1980s, and as a journalist collaborated with over twenty newspapers and journals, under his own name and using pseudonyms. He was also active politically, a communist and Stalin supporter through his life with his social and political ideas finding their way into his writing. Poetically, he is part of the Taller generation of Mexican poets, although his development was a bit different from others in this group. Near the end of his career, his work had developed a colloquial style, including work focusing on Mexico City and creating a new form called a “poemínimo.”

Robert Elie Klapisch was a French engineer and physicist.

Jan Eugeniusz Krysiński is a Polish scientist, specializing in fluid mechanics and turbomachinery research, and former rector of Lodz University of Technology.

Francis Leo Lawrence was an American educator and scholar specializing in French literature and university administrator. A graduate of Saint Louis University and Tulane University, Lawrence taught at Tulane for over 30 years and held posts as academic vice president, provost, and dean of the graduate school before being appointed as the 18th president of Rutgers University (1990–2002).

Alice Lemieux-Lévesque was a Canadian-American writer. She published multiple books. In 1960, she was awarded the Ordre des Palmes Académiques, a national order of France, for her work in improving French-American relations.

Melva Lind graduated from the University of Minnesota with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1923 and a Master of Arts degree in 1943. She then received the French equivalent to a Master of Arts degree from the Université de Lyon in Lyon, France in 1926. She went on to attend the Université de Paris en Sorbonne in Paris, where she earned her Doctorate in 1929. After which she attended MacPhail School of Music in Minneapolis, Minnesota where she earned a Master of Music in 1937. Over the years she continued her education with two diplomas from the Université de Clermont-Ferrand in France in 1923 and 1924 and a scholarship from the Conservatoire de Musique in Lyon, France in 1924–1925. She also studied around the world at the Universidad de Mexico in Mexico City in 1942, a study seminar in Germany during the summer of 1964, Greece in March 1973, Israel in July 1973, and the Institut de Langue et de Littérature Françaises at the Université de Rennes in France during the summers of 1970–1972.

Adrian McDonnell in Greensboro, North Carolina, is a Franco-American conductor.

Bienvenido F. Nebres S.J. is a Filipino scientist, mathematician, and Jesuit who was the longest-serving university president of the Ateneo de Manila University. He succeeded Joaquin G. Bernas in 1993, and served as University President until 1 June 2011. He currently sits as a member of the board of trustees of Georgetown University, Regis University, the Asian Institute of Management, and other colleges and universities in the Philippines. He is also a member of the board of directors of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company, and is currently chairman of the Synergeia Foundation. He was also Provincial Superior of the Society of Jesus in the Philippines.

Gustave Léon Niox was a French général, Governor of Les Invalides, director of the Musée de l'Armée, and a military historian.

Joseph Samuel Nye Jr. is an American political scientist. He is the co-founder, along with Robert Keohane, of the international relations theory of neoliberalism, developed in their 1977 book Power and Interdependence. Together with Keohane, he developed the concepts of asymmetrical and complex interdependence. They also explored transnational relations and world politics in an edited volume in the 1970s. More recently, he explained the distinction between hard power and soft power, and pioneered the theory of soft power. His notion of "smart power" became popular with the use of this phrase by members of the Clinton Administration, and more recently the Obama Administration. He is the former Dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he currently holds the position of University Distinguished Service Professor, Emeritus. In October 2014, Secretary of State John Kerry appointed Nye to the Foreign Affairs Policy Board. He is also a member of the Defense Policy Board.

Joseph Maurice Pambet was a French army general. Volunteering for service in 1872 Pambet graduated from the Ecole Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr and served with a number of line infantry and light infantry regiments, reaching the rank of captain by 1885. Having attended the École Militaire he became an adjutant to his regiment and then an aide to brigade and divisional generals. Returning to regimental service as a chef de bataillon Pambet began a nine-year tour of service in Tunisia from 1896.

Govindan Rangarajan is currently the Director of the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru, India. He is a Professor at the Department of Mathematics, Indian Institute of Science.

Charles Eucharist de Medicis Sajous was an American endocrinologist, laryngologist, and writer based in Philadelphia. He was a prolific writer and editor of medical textbooks and encyclopedias, and was the first president of the Endocrine Society. He held professorships at the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, and the Medico-Chirurgical College of Philadelphia.

Admiral Antoine Schwerer was a French naval officer. He served in varied roles in many parts of the world, and published a number of technical papers. He rose through the ranks to become an admiral during World War I (1914–18). After retiring in 1924 he was involved with the right-wing and monarchist League of the Action Française. He was president of the League from 1930 to 1935.

William McGuckin, known as Baron de Slane was an Irish orientalist. He became a French national on 31 December 1838. and held the post of the Principal Interpreter of Arabic of the French Army from 1 September 1846 until his retirement on 28 March 1872. He is known for publishing and translating a number of important medieval Arabic texts.

Y. K. Sohoni (1911–2003) was a teacher and professor of French for over fifty years. He was based in Pune and Bombay for most of his life, till he migrated to the United States of America in 1984. In 1953, he started the Indian Association of Teachers of French. He was instrumental in setting up several departments and institutes for the teaching and learning of French in India, and was the first Head of the Department of Modern European Languages at the University of Pune, Among other awards, in 1975 he was awarded the Chevalier dans l'Ordre Palmes Académiques by the Government of France "pour services rendus a la culture française." It was in the same year that he established the Department of French in CIEFL, Hyderabad. From 1984, he lived in Great Falls, Virginia till his death in 2003.

Arthur Szyk was a Polish-Jewish artist who worked primarily as a book illustrator and political artist throughout his career. Arthur Szyk was born into a prosperous middle-class Jewish family in Łódź, in the part of Poland which was under Russian rule in the 19th century. An acculturated Polish Jew, Szyk always proudly regarded himself both as a Pole and a Jew. From 1921, he lived and created his works mainly in France and Poland, and in 1937 he moved to the United Kingdom. In 1940, he settled permanently in the United States, where he was granted American citizenship in 1948.

Elsa Harriet Thulin, was a Swedish translator.

Dorothy Wanja Nyingi is a Kenyan ichthyologist and recipient of the Ordre des Palmes académiques for her work on Fish Biodiversity and Aquatic Ecology. She is the head of the Ichthyology Department at the National Museums of Kenya. She is the author of the first guide to fresh water fish in Kenya, Guide to the Common Freshwater Fishes of Kenya.

Zygmunt Zaleski of Lubicz coat of arms, pseudonymes R. de Bron, R. Debron, was a Polish literature historian, literary critic, poet, publicist, translator. Awarded the Légion d'honneur.