Pierre Maurice Gy is a chemist

Chemist

A chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms...

 and statistician

Statistician

A statistician is someone who works with theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private and public sectors. The core of that work is to measure, interpret, and describe the world and human activity patterns within it...

. Born in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, to Felix and Clemence, Gy graduated in chemical engineering

Chemical engineering

Chemical engineering is the branch of engineering that deals with physical science , and life sciences with mathematics and economics, to the process of converting raw materials or chemicals into more useful or valuable forms...

 from ESPCI ParisTech

École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris

The école supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles de la ville de Paris or ESPCI ParisTech is a chemistry and physics engineering college run by the city of Paris, France and a member of ParisTech...

 in 1946.

On graduation, Gy worked as a chemical engineer

Chemical engineer

In the field of engineering, a chemical engineer is the profession in which one works principally in the chemical industry to convert basic raw materials into a variety of products, and deals with the design and operation of plants and equipment to perform such work...

 for the Compagnie Minière du Congo Français, Congo

Republic of the Congo

The Republic of the Congo , sometimes known locally as Congo-Brazzaville, is a state in Central Africa. It is bordered by Gabon, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo , the Angolan exclave province of Cabinda, and the Gulf of Guinea.The region was dominated by...

, before returning to Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 in 1949 as a research engineer for the mining and processing trade organisation Minerais et Metaux. It was during this time that Gy began to address fundamental issues in sampling

Sampling (statistics)

In statistics and survey methodology, sampling is concerned with the selection of a subset of individuals from within a population to estimate characteristics of the whole population....

, especially those concerned with characterising industrial bulk chemicals, aggregates and chemical processes. Gy became head of the mineral processing laboratories and, by 1962, technical manager, during which time he continued to develop his sampling theory

Gy's sampling theory

Gy's sampling theory is a theory about the sampling of materials, developed by Pierre Gy from the 1950s to beginning 2000s in articles and books including:* Sampling nomogram* Sampling of particulate materials; theory and practice...

. Since 1963 he has worked as an industrial sampling consultant.

Gy received doctorates in physics

Physics

Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...

 (1960) and mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

 (1975) from the University of Nancy but has always worked outside the academic mainstream, publishing 9 books and over 175 papers, including:

• (1979) SAMPLING OF PARTICULATE MATERIALS; theory and practice
• (1992) Sampling of Heterogeneous and Dynamic Material Systems: Theories of Heterogeneity, Sampling and Homogenizing
• (1998) Sampling for Analytical Purposes

In August 2003, the First World Conference on Sampling and Blending (WCSB1) was held in honour of Dr Pierre Gy in Esbjerg. WCSB2 was held in Queensland, Australia (May 2005) and WCSB3 in Porto Alegre, Brazil (October 2007). WCSB4 took place in 2009.