Pierre Maurice Gy (; 25 July 1924 – 5 November 2015) was a

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...

and

statistician A statistician is a person who works with theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private and public sectors. It is common to combine statistical knowledge with expertise in other subjects, and statisticians may wor ...

. Born in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, France, to Felix and Clemence, Gy graduated in

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials int ...

from

ESPCI ParisTech ESPCI Paris (officially the École supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles de la Ville de Paris; ''The City of Paris Industrial Physics and Chemistry Higher Educational Institution'') is a prestigious grande école founded in 1882 by ...

in 1946. On graduation, Gy worked as a

chemical engineer In the field of engineering, a chemical engineer is a professional, equipped with the knowledge of chemical engineering, who works principally in the chemical industry to convert basic raw materials into a variety of products and deals with the ...

for the Compagnie Minière du Congo Français, Congo, before returning to

in 1949 as a research engineer for the mining and processing trade organisation Minerais et Metaux. It was during this time that Gy started to address fundamental issues in sampling, especially those concerned with characterising industrial bulk chemicals, aggregates and chemical processes. Gy became head of the mineral processing laboratories and, by 1962, technical manager, during which time he continued to develop his sampling theory. Since 1963 he has worked as an industrial sampling consultant. Gy received doctorates in

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

(1960) and

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

(1975) from the

University of Nancy A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

but has always worked outside the academic mainstream, publishing 9 books and over 175 papers, including: * (1979) ''SAMPLING OF PARTICULATE MATERIALS; theory and practice'' *(1992) ''Sampling of Heterogeneous and Dynamic Material Systems: Theories of Heterogeneity, Sampling and Homogenizing'' *(1998) ''Sampling for Analytical Purposes'' In August 2003, the First World Conference on Sampling and Blending (WCSB1) was held in honour of Dr Pierre Gy in Esbjerg. WCSB2 was held in Queensland, Australia (May 2005) and WCSB3 in Porto Alegre, Brazil (October 2007)
WCSB4
took place in 2009, WCSB5 in Santiago, Chile and WCSB6 in Lima, Peru. Pierre Gy's work was still the subject of debate and recognition at WCSB7 in Bordeaux, July 2015. He will remain one of the founding fathers of sampling science.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gy, Pierre 1924 births 2015 deaths French chemical engineers French statisticians Nancy-Université alumni