Who was Cecile DeWitt-Morette and what was her impact on physics?

  • Topic: News 
  • Thread starter Thread starter George Jones
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Rip
Join the discussion
Registration is free. Start your own thread to ask a follow-up.
2 replies · 2K views
Staff Emeritus
Science Advisor
Gold Member
Messages
7,643
Reaction score
1,602
Cecile DeWitt-Morette died on May 8, 2017.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cécile_DeWitt-Morette
https://cns.utexas.edu/news/ut-austin-mourns-death-of-groundbreaking-physicist-cecile-dewitt-morette

On a personal note, as coauthor the text "Analysis, Manifolds and Physics"
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0444860177/?tag=pfamazon01-20

she played a role in my education. I bought my copy of this book during my first year of grad studies, and I profited from study of parts of it. Who else here has used this book?

Demystifier said:
Since many didn't know that Roger Penrose has a brother physicist Oliver penrose, perhaps many also do not know that ...

2) Bryce S. DeWitt has a wife mathematical physicist Cecile DeWitt-Morette (often signed as Cecile DeWitt)
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: Demystifier, robphy and Astronuc
Physics news on Phys.org
Impressive!
George Jones said:
She founded a summer school at Les Houches in the French Alps. For this and her publications, she was awarded the American Society of the French Legion of Honour 2007 Medal for Distinguished Achievement.[1] Attendees at the summer school included over twenty students who would go on to be Nobel Prize winners,[2] including Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, Georges Charpak, and Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, who identify the school for assisting in their success.[3]
 
Cecile DeWitt-Morette (starting at 18:39) ...
as a panelist for "Recollections of the Relativistic Astrophysics Revolution" (2013)

youtu.be/iH8btReqv4c?t=18m39s

Other possibly interesting links:

https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/23199
http://cwp.library.ucla.edu/Phase2/DeWitt-Morette,_Cecile@862345678.html
http://www.seniorwomen.com/articles/articlesIntCecile.html

A Guide to the Cécile DeWitt-Morette Papers, 1946, 1983-2015
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utcah/03201/cah-03201.html

"Path integrals, Les Houches, and other adventures of Cécile DeWitt-Morette" (Physics Today, 2008)
http://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.2970207

"This site is an unofficial history of the Physics Department at the University of Texas at Austin."
https://web2.ph.utexas.edu/utphysicshistory/CecileDeWittMorette.html
http://server16.websitehostserver.net/~patandme/UTPhysicsHistoryDW/CecileDeWittMorette.htmlI met her briefly when I was considering UT Austin for grad school.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: Greg Bernhardt and berkeman