Albert Châtelet was a French politician and mathematician. After earning a doctorate in and serving first in the health service, then in a ballistic research unit during the First World War, Châtelet became a lecturer at École centrale de Lille and a professor at Université de Lille, rising to the rank of Vice-Chancellor. 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. He joined the Faculty of Science at the University of Paris.