Jean-Charles Gille

Dr. Jean-Charles Gille-Maisani (22 May 1924 – 29 January 1995) was a French, later Canadian, engineer, psychiatrist and professor of medicine.[1]

Cover of one of Gille's books.

Monsieur Gille during a class of EE, Laval University.

Gille was born in Trier (Germany), where his father, originally from Lorraine, was a superior officer in the French garrison. He learned German early in life and moved on to learn French, English, Italian, Spanish, Russian and Polish, as well as Latin and Ancient Greek.

He entered the École Polytechnique in 1943. After graduation, and a year of specialization at the École nationale supérieure de l'Aéronautique, he studied at Harvard where he received a Master of Arts degree in the newly created automation discipline. Back in France in 1948, he entered the Services techniques aéronautiques and worked in the engines and special objects. He was also a certified pilot and colonel.

In 1953, he started studying medicine, and received a Ph.D. in 1960, with a specialisation in psychiatry and psychology. At the same time, he was director of studies at the E.N.S. de l'Aéronautique (Paris) and created, in 1962, with Marc Pélegrin, the Centre d'études et de recherches en automatique (CERA) which expanded rapidly, having in 1965, 70 to 80 employees.[2]

In 1963, he was a defense witness at the trial of Jean Bastien-Thiry, one of the perpetrators of an assassination attempt against President de Gaulle.

In 1966, he left France to live in Quebec, Canada, where he was already an established visiting professor. Until pancreatic cancer caused his death in 1995, he was titular professor in the Faculty of Sciences and Engineering, Département de Génie Électrique electrical engineering, Université Laval in Quebec City.

Beside engineering and medicine, his fields of interest also included graphology, classical music and poetry. He was Honoris Causa Doctor of Silesian University of Technology and a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences.