Albert Châtelet
Encyclopedia
Albert Châtelet was a French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...

 politician and scientist. Châtelet received his teaching degree from the École Normale Supérieure
École Normale Supérieure
The École normale supérieure is one of the most prestigious French grandes écoles...

 in 1908. After earning a doctorate
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...

 in 1913, Châtelet became a lecturer at École centrale de Lille
École Centrale de Lille
Located in the campus of the University of Lille in France, École Centrale de Lille is a renowned Graduate Engineering school, with roots back to 1854 as the École des arts industriels et des mines de Lille, re-organised in 1872 as Institut industriel du Nord.It is one of the Centrale Graduate...

 and a professor at Université de Lille
Université Lille Nord de France
The University of Lille -Nord de France , located in Lille, France, is a center for higher education, academic research and doctoral studies located over multiple campuses in the Academie de Lille....

, rising to the rank of Vice-Chancellor by 1924. After thirteen years of chancellorship he was appointed as the Director of Secondary Education by the Ministry of National Education, where he served under Jean Zay
Jean Zay
Jean Zay is a French politician born in Orléans on 6 August 1904 and assassinated 20 June 1944 by the miliciens in Molles . He was the Minister of National Education and Fine Arts from 1936 until 1939....

 until 1940. In 1945 he joined the Faculty of Science at the University of Paris
University of Paris
The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...

, succeeding Jean Cabannes
Jean Cabannes
Jean Cabannes was a French physicist specialising in optics.From 1910 to 1914 Cabannes worked in the laboratory of Charles Fabry in Marseille on the topic launched by Lord Rayleigh at the end of the 19th century of how gas molecules diffused light. In 1914 he showed that pure gases could scatter...

 as its Dean
Dean (education)
In academic administration, a dean is a person with significant authority over a specific academic unit, or over a specific area of concern, or both...

 in 1949. After his retirement as Dean in 1954 Châtelet began participating in political movements at the forefront of the downfall of the French Fourth Republic
French Fourth Republic
The French Fourth Republic was the republican government of France between 1946 and 1958, governed by the fourth republican constitution. It was in many ways a revival of the Third Republic, which was in place before World War II, and suffered many of the same problems...

 by joining the Rationalist Union in 1955. In 1958 Albert Châtelet was chosen to represent the Union of Democratic Forces
Union of Democratic Forces
Union of Democratic Forces or Union of the Democratic Forces is the name of:*Union of Democratic Forces *Union of Democratic Forces *Union of Democratic Forces *Union of Democratic Forces...

 as its candidate during the French presidential election
French presidential election, 1958
The French presidential election of 1958, the first of the French Fifth Republic, took place on December 21, 1958. This was the only French presidential election by the electoral college .-First round:To win, a candidate...

. He earned only 8.4% of the vote, losing out to the Union of Democrats for the Republic candidate Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....

.

He is not to be confused with the leading French art historian of the same name.
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