View source for René de Possel

{{Short description|French mathematician}}
{{More citations needed|date=March 2016}}
{{infobox person
|birth_name = Lucien Alexandre Charles René de Possel
|birth_date = {{birth date|1905|2|7}}
|birth_place = [[Marseille]], [[France]]
|image = Hornich Wittich DePossel.png
|caption = From left to right: {{ill|Hans Hornich|de}}, {{ill|Hans Wittich|de}}, René De Possel. Oberwolfach, 1961.
|occupation = Mathematician, computer scientist
|known = Founder of Nicolas Bourbaki
|death_date = {{death year and age|1974|1905}}
|death_place = Paris, France
}}
'''Lucien Alexandre Charles René de Possel''' (7 February 1905 – 1974) was a French [[mathematician]], one of the founders of the [[Nicolas Bourbaki|Bourbaki]] group, and later a pioneer [[computer scientist]], working in particular on [[optical character recognition]].

==Life==
Possel was born in [[Marseille]].  He had the conventional background for a member of Bourbaki: the [[École Normale Supérieure]], [[agrégation]], and then study in [[Germany]]. He left Bourbaki at an early stage: there was an obvious personal matter intruding between him and [[André Weil]] who had married De Possel's ex-wife Eveline following her divorce from De Possel in 1937.<ref>
{{cite book
 |author= Amir Aczel
 |author-link= Amir Aczel
 |title= The artist and the mathematician
 |year= 2006
 |publisher= High Stakes Publishing
 |location= London
 |isbn= 978-1-84344-034-5
 |url-access= registration
 |url= https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781843440345
 }}</ref>

==Work==
De Possel published an early book on [[game theory]] in 1936 (''Sur la théorie mathématique des jeux de hasard et de réflexion''). His later research work in computer science at the [[Institut Blaise Pascal]] was in a position of relative isolation, as the subject strove for independence and to move away from the imposed role of service provider in the field of [[numerical analysis]]. He became director there in 1960, in succession to [[Louis Couffignal]] (1902–1966), until an administrative reorganisation under the [[C. N. R. S.]] in 1969. He was a leading figure in pushing for the later [[Institut de Programmation]].  He died in [[Paris]].

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Possel.html Biography] (including 4 pictures) on St-Andrews site.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Possel, Rene De}}
[[Category:Nicolas Bourbaki]]
[[Category:École Normale Supérieure alumni]]
[[Category:1905 births]]
[[Category:1974 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century French mathematicians]]