Armand de Gramont, a rich industrialist and friend of Marcel Proust, was the man who had the idea to create the Institut d'Optique.

It is consequently the oldest institution of higher education and research in optics in the world[3] and the most important in terms of annual number of graduates.

The Institut d'optique Graduate School provides an education of high scientific level, especially for former students from the French Classe préparatoire aux grandes écoles.

Through the Institut d'optique théorique et appliquée, it participates at the world level to the promotion of knowledge and to the development of new techniques in optics.

A number of noted French optical scientists have been associated with SupOptique, including Henri Chrétien, Charles Fabry, André Maréchal, and Alain Aspect.