Paul Langevin entered the École municipale de physique et de chimie industrielles de la ville de Paris (Municipal School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry of the city of Paris) at the age of 16. There, one of his professor was Pierre Curie.  He continued his studies  at the École Normale Supérieure then at the Faculty of Sciences in Paris. Holder of bachelor's degrees in physics and mathematics, he gained the aggregation in physical sciences in 1897 and obtained a scholarship the same year, which allowed him to spend one year at the Cavendish laboratory of J.J. Thomson, in Cambridge.

      He obtained a doctoral thesis in 1902 and then began a career in teaching and research. He first worked at the College de France and then at the École municipale de physique et de chimie industrielles de la ville de Paris, taking over, from 1905, the position of Pierre Curie.

    Paul Langevin and his wife Jeanne form with the Curies, as well as Henriette and Jean Perrin, Marguerite and Émile Borel and other members of the Parisian academic world, a united, progressive, committed group. They distinguished themselves in particular by defending Alfred Dreyfus or, in another register, by developing innovative ideas on education. Thus, in 1907 and 1908, half a dozen children aged eight to fourteen, including Irène Curie, attended the courses of the Teaching Cooperative created by this group of intellectuals. Chemistry lessons were given by Jean Perrin, physics lessons by Marie Curie, mathematics by Paul Langevin, while Henriette Perrin was responsible for French, and other eminent professors from the College de France or the Sorbonne introduced the new generation to history, English, German, arts...