A Brief History of the First Decade of SEMA

On January 1, 1958, the Société de Mathématiques Appliquées (SMA) was founded. It was quite an unusual undertaking considering the juxtaposition in the company's name of "applied mathematics" on the one hand, and "corporation (société)" on the other. Although it did not happen in a vacuum, it was nevertheless an original concept. This paper examines the steps that led to the founding of the company and leads the reader through the first decade of its incorporation.