Georges-Joseph Ranque (7 February 1898 – 15 January 1973) was the inventor of the Ranque-Hilsch vortex tube, which generates streams of hot and cold gas from a stream of compressed gas. Georges-Joseph Ranque was born in Ambérieu-en-Bugey, France in 1898. His father, Léon-Joseph Ranque, worked as an engineer for a railroad; his mother was Joséphine Saint Germain. Georges attended the St. Louis lycée, where he became interested in physics. In 1918, he was admitted to the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, where he studied physics. Subsequently he did post-graduate work at the Conservatoire des Arts-et-Métiers.