Gilles Lebeau is a former student of the École normale supérieure (ENS) de la rue d'Ulm (class of S1974). Lebeau studied from 1974 to 1978 at the ENS with agrégation in 1976. There he graduated in 1978 with Thèse de troisième cycle and in 1983 with Thèse d'État under the supervision of Louis Boutet de Monvel. Lebeau has been a professor at the University of Orsay and at the École Polytechnique.