DEBREU, Gerard 1921-2004

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born July 4, 1921, in Calais, France; died December 31, 2004, in Paris, France. Economist, educator, and author. Debreu was a Nobel Prize-winning economist and professor emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley. He initially studied mathematics at the École Normale Superieure in Paris, but left the university after the D-Day invasion to join the French army. After the war, he studied economics at the University of Paris, completing his doctorate in 1956. During the early 1950s, he was also a research associate at the University of Chicago's Cowles Commission for Research in Economics. He joined the Yale University faculty in 1955. It was while at Yale that he wrote his classic, Theory of Value: An Axiomatic Analysis of Economic Equilibrium (1959; new edition, 1971). Here he proved, mathematically, the long-held theories of supply and demand. Later, in 1983, he would win the Nobel Prize for economics for this work, showing exactly how pricing can affect consumer purchases. Debreu moved to Berkeley in 1962 to teach at the University of California. Initially a professor of economics, beginning in 1962, Debreu became professor of mathematics in 1975. Named university professor in 1985, he remained at Berkeley until his retirement in 1991. That year he also won a Berkeley citation from his university. His other books include Mathematical Economics: Twenty Papers of Gerard Debreu (1983) and General Equilibrium Theory (1996). Today, Debreu's mathematical models are still routinely used by economists.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Chicago Tribune, January 6, 2005, section 3, p. 8.

Los Angeles Times, January 6, 2005, p. B9.

New York Times, January 6, 2005, p. A25.

Times (London, England), February 15, 2005, p. 51.