Paris-Saclay University () is a public research university based in Paris, France. It is one of the 13 prestigious universities that emerged from the division of the University of Paris, also known as the Sorbonne. It is part of the Paris-Saclay project, which is a research-intensive academic campus, and is the main center for training and research within the technology cluster of Paris-Saclay. The University integrates several leading grandes écoles, faculties, colleges and research centers that are part of the world's top research organizations in various fields. Paris-Saclay has achieved particular renown in mathematics. As of 2021, 11 Fields Medalists have been affiliated with the university and its associated research institutes, which include the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques – generally regarded as the birthplace of modern algebraic geometry and catastrophe theory. History In 2019, the Paris-Saclay University succeeded to University of Paris-Sud (Paris XI) founded in 1971, which itself succeeded to University of Paris founded c. 1150. After World War II, the rapid growth of nuclear physics and chemistry meant that research needed more and more powerful accelerators, which required large areas. The University of Paris, the École Normale Supérieure and the Collège de France looked for space in the south of Paris near Orsay. Later some of the teaching activity of the Faculty of Sciences in Paris was transferred to Orsay in 1956 at the request of Irène Joliot-Curie and Frédéric Joliot-Curie. The rapid increase of students led to the independence of the Orsay Center on March 1, 1965. It became the University of Paris-Sud (Paris XI) in 1971. Now it hosts a great number of laboratories on its large (236 ha) campus in Paris-Saclay. Many of the top French laboratories are among them especially in particle physics, nuclear physics, astrophysics, atomic physics and molecular physics, condensed matter physics, theoretical physics, electronics, nanoscience and nanotechnology. The Paris-Saclay University was established in 2015 as a universities community (ComUE) and in 2019 as a university, with the aim to become a top-ranking, research-focused French university. In order to be recognized as an entity of sufficient size and quality, the university regroups some of the top grandes écoles in France with public universities under a single campus on the Saclay plateau. Each member institution will remain independent but share a significant portion of existing and newly invested resources. This follows a model similar to the one adopted by University of Oxford