Directeur de recherche de classe exceptionnelle (emeritus) of the C.N.R.S., École polytechnique
Michel Balinski was an applied mathematician, mathematical economist and operations research analyst. American, educated in the United States, he lived and worked primarily in the United States and France. He was known for his work in optimization (combinatorial, linear, nonlinear), convex polyhedra, stable matching, and the theory and practice of electoral systems, jury decision, and social choice. He was author or co-author of over a hundred scientific articles in addition to three books. Founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal Mathematical Programming (in 1971), he was one of the founders of the Mathematical Optimization Society in 1970 and President of that society from1986 to 1989. An INFORMS Fellow, he was awarded INFORMS’s Lanchester Prize (1965) and John von Neumann Theory Prize (2013), the American Political Science Association’s George H. Hallett Award (2008), and the Mathematical Association of America’s Lester R. Ford Award (1975 and 2009).
Experience
2000–2019
Directeur de recherche de classe exceptionnelle (émérite), C.N.R.S. and Ecole Polytechnique
1982–1999
Directeur de recherche de classe exceptionnelle, C.N.R.S. and Ecole Polytechnique
1982–1990
Leading Professor of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, and of Economics, Stony Brook University
1978–1980
Professor of Organization and Management and of Administrative Sciences, Yale University
1975–1977
Chairman, System and Decision Sciences, I.I.A.S.A. - International Institute for Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria
1965–1977
Professor of Mathematics, Graduate School and University Center, C.U.N.Y.
1963–1965
Associate Professor of Economics, University of Pennsylvania
1960–1963
Research Associate and Lecturer, Mathematics, Princeton University
Education
1959
Princeton University, Ph.D. Mathematics
1956
M.I.T., M.S. Economics
1954
Williams College, B.A. Mathematics
Publications
2014
Judge: Don't vote! (with Rida Laraki), Operations Research 62 483-511
2014
What should 'majority decision' mean? (with R. Laraki). In Jon Elster and Stéphanie Novak (eds.), Majority Decisions, Cambridge University Press
2013
How best to rank wines (with Rida Laraki) , In, Wine Economics: Quantitative Studies and Empirical Applications. London: Palgrave. 149-172.
2013
Jugement majoritaire versus vote majoritaire (via les présidentielles 2011-2012) (with Rida Laraki), Revue Française d'Economie XXXVII 11-44
2012
Ne votez pas, jugez! (with Rida Laraki), Pour la science avril 22-28
2010
Majority Judgment: Measuring, Ranking, and Electing (co-authored with Rida Laraki), M.I.T. Press
2009
Projets électoraux : le droit rencontre les mathématiques, Recueil Daloz No. 3 183-186
2008
Fair majority voting (or how to eliminate gerrymandering), American Mathematical Monthly 115 97-113
2007
A theory of measuring, electing and ranking (with R. Laraki), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 104 8720-8725
2005
What is just ?, American Mathematical Monthly 112 502-511
2004
Le suffrage universel inachevé, Editions Belin
2001
Fair Representation: Meeting the Ideal of One Man, One Vote, 2nd edition (co-authored with H. Peyton Young), Brookings Institution Press
1999
Mexico's 1997 apportionment defies its electoral law (with V. Ramirez), Electoral Studies 18 117-124
1983
Apportioning the United States House of Representatives (with H. P. Young), Interfaces 13 35-43
1982
Fair Representation: Meeting the Ideal of One Man, One Vote (co-authored with H. Peyton Young), Yale University Press
1980
The Webster method of apportionment (with H. P. Young), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 77 1-4
Honours
2013 John von Neumann Theory Prize awarded by INFORMS (Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences)