Pierre Benjamin Daniel Massé (13 January 1898,

16th arrondissement of Paris The 16th arrondissement of Paris (''XVIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is referred to as ''seizième''. The arrondissement includes part of the Arc de T ...

– 15 December 1987,

) was an economist, engineer, applied mathematician, and high official in the French government.Alain Beltran & Martine Bungener, «Itinéraire d'un ingénieur», ''Vingtième siècle. Revue d'histoire'', no. 15, juillet-septembre 1987, pp. 59-68

Education and career

After graduation from l'

École polytechnique École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

, Massé became an engineer at l'

École nationale des ponts et chaussées École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

and a Doctor of Science. From 1928 he worked in the electrical industry and became at

Électricité de France Électricité de France S.A. (literally ''Electricity of France''), commonly known as EDF, is a French multinational electric utility company, largely owned by the French state. Headquartered in Paris, with €71.2 billion in revenues in 2 ...

in 1946 the director of electrical equipment and operations and in 1948 the deputy general manager. In 1957 he became president of l'Électricité de

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

. In 1959

Charles de Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government ...

named him Commissaire général du Plan (General Commissioner of Planning) and he held this position until 1966. Massé was chairman of the board of directors of Électricité de France from 1965 to 1969 and an associate professor of la Faculté de Droit de Paris from 1965 to 1967. He was the first president of the

Fondation de France The Fondation de France ("Foundation of France") is an independent administrative agency which was established by the French government in an effort to stimulate and foster the growth of private philanthropy and private foundations in France.Fon ...

from 1969 to 1973. He was elected a member of l'

Académie des sciences morales et politiques An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, f ...

in 1977. Pierre Massé did research in economics on the theories of economic depreciation, dynamic programming, and total factor productivity and in mathematics on

Pontryagin's minimum principle Pontryagin's maximum principle is used in optimal control theory to find the best possible control for taking a dynamical system from one state to another, especially in the presence of constraints for the state or input controls. It states that it ...

. He was an

invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians This is a list of International Congresses of Mathematicians Plenary and Invited Speakers. Being invited to talk at an International Congress of Mathematicians has been called "the equivalent, in this community, of an induction to a hall of fame." ...

in 1928 at Bologna.

Selected publications

* * * ** * ''Le Plan, ou l'Anti-hasard'' (1965; 1991) * ''Les Dividendes du progrès'' (1969) * ''La Crise du développement'' (1973) * * ''Aléas et progrès: entre Candide et Cassandre'' (1984)

References

External links

Pierre Massé (1898–1987) – Author – Resources from the BnF
{{DEFAULTSORT:Masse, Pierre 1898 births 1987 deaths École Polytechnique alumni Corps des ponts Engineers from Paris Civil servants from Paris French economists French civil engineers 20th-century French mathematicians Électricité de France people Fellows of the Econometric Society