Presentation of the Foundation

Jean-Jacques & Felicia Lopez-Loreta

Jean-Jacques Lopez-Loreta was born in 1922 into a modest family from Bordeaux and died in Switzerland in 2014.
His wife, Felicia Lopez-Loreta (Nivaggioli), a descendant of an old Corsican family, was born in 1922 and died in 2012, also in Switzerland.

Jean-Jacques Lopez-Loreta was a senior officer in the French Air Force Reserve, Knight of the Legion of Honour.
His fortune was built in real estate, where he was very active, as well as in finance, selecting the most relevant quality products in both sectors.

Without heirs, the couple decided to create a public utility foundation in their name, the aim of which is to reward excellence through an annual prize awarded to the winner of an innovative project in each of the following institutions: EPFL and ETHZ in Switzerland, École Polytechnique and ISAE-Supaéro in France

Support and encourage

The goal of the Foundation is to support and encourage students of Swiss and French Polytechnic Universities who are among the highest-performing students of their graduating class and to promote their initiatives, projects, and innovative solutions in their respective fields of activity and specialisation, by awarding each year to one or more designated laureates a prize of EUR 1,000,000.00 (one million Euros) each, in accordance with the terms and conditions set out in the Statutes.

The Polytechnic Universities concerned are exclusively:

• École Polytechnique de Paris
  Palaiseau , France
• Institut Supérieur de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace (ISAE-SUPAERO)
  Toulouse, France
• Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH)
  Zürich, Switzerland
• École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
  Lausanne, Switzerland