José Luis Massera (Genoa, Italy, June 8, 1915 – Montevideo, September 9, 2002)[1][2] was a Uruguayan dissident and mathematician who researched the stability of differential equations.

In the 1930s, Julio Rey Pastor gave regular weekend lectures on topology in Montevideo to a group that included Massera.

[3] Massera developed new notions of stability, and published several foundational papers and an influential textbook.

After military intervention in Uruguay in 1973,[3] Massera was arrested on October 22, 1975 in Montevideo and was held in solitary confinement for nearly a year.

[4] On June 22, 1979, as a consequence of a proposal put forward by Gaetano Fichera and unanimously approved by the whole Mathematics Faculty Council of the Sapienza University of Rome,[5] he was awarded the laurea honoris causa while still being under conviction.