Born in Calais in 1921, Gérard Debreu died on the last day of 2004 in the Paris area where he spent the last years of his life. He graduated from Ecole Normale Supérieure, one of the elite schools in France with a strong program in mathematics. While studying there he came to economics through the influence of Maurice Allais, who was teaching economics in a neighboring school, Ecole des Mines. In 1949 a Rockefeller fellowship allowed him to visit American universities and, in particular, the University of Chicago. He was then offered a position of research associate by the Cowles Commission for Research in Economics. In 1962, Gérard Debreu accepted a position of professor of economics (transformed later into a joint professorship of economics and mathematics) at the University of California, Berkeley. He was President of the Econometric Society in 1971 and received the Nobel prize in 1983.