Michel Louis Balinski (born Michał Ludwik Baliński; October 6, 1933 – February 4, 2019) was an American and French applied mathematician, economist, operations research analyst and political scientist.

He was known for his work in optimisation (combinatorial, linear, nonlinear), convex polyhedra, stable matching, and the theory and practice of electoral systems, jury decision, and social choice.

[3] Michel Balinski was born in Geneva, Switzerland, the grandson of the Polish bacteriologist and founder of UNICEF, Ludwik Rajchman.

Upon becoming director of the Laboratoire d’Econométrie (1989 to 1999), he co-founded and co-directed the joint Ecole Polytechnique/Université de Paris 1 masters program "Modélisation et méthodes mathématiques en économie: optimisation et analyse stratégiques," and its successor the joint Ecole Polytechnique/Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris 6) masters program "Optimisation, jeux et modélisation en économie.

His contributions to linear and nonlinear optimization include a primal/dual simplex method that incorporates a natural proof of termination and leads to a self-contained, elementary but rigorous, constructive account of the theory and the basic computational tool of linear programming; the use and economic interpretation of dual prices; and a proof that prices in von Neumann's model of an expanding economy are marginal values.

His work in integer programming includes the formulation and analysis of the fixed cost transportation problem; one of the first computationally successful practical uses of Gomory's cutting plane algorithm (1968, truck deliveries with cost functions in part concave, in part convex); and an extensive survey paper on integer programming which was awarded INFORM's Lanchester Prize in 1965.

His 1982 book[11][12] with H. Peyton Young[13] has had direct practical application in apportioning the seats of assemblies to regions in several countries (including the UK).

World Trade Corporation Fellow 1969–1970; Lester R. Ford Award, Mathematical Association of America 1976;[17] Honorary Master of Arts, Privatum, Yale University 1978; Special Service Award, Mathematical Optimization Society, 1982; Honorary Doctorate (Ehrendoktors, Mathematisch-Naturwissenshaftlichen) Universität Augsburg, 2004;[4] Murat Sertel Lecturer (inaugural lecture), 8th International Meeting of the Society for Social Choice and Welfare, Istanbul, July 2006; Messenger Lecturer, Cornell University, September 2007;[18][19][20] IFORS Distinguished Lecturer, INFORMS National Meeting, Washington, D.C., October 2008;[21] George H. Hallet Award, 2009;[22] Lester R. Ford Award, Mathematical Association of America, 2009;[23] Celebration of Michel Balinski's 78 years at the 23rd International Conference on Game Theory, SUNY Stony Brook, July 2012;[24] John von Neumann Theory Prize, INFORMS, 2013;[16] INFORMS Fellow, 2014.