Bryce Seligman DeWitt (January 8, 1923 – September 23, 2004), was an American

theoretical physicist Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experime ...

noted for his work in

gravitation In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the stron ...

and

quantum field theory In theoretical physics, quantum field theory (QFT) is a theoretical framework that combines classical field theory, special relativity, and quantum mechanics. QFT is used in particle physics to construct physical models of subatomic particles and ...

Life

He was born Carl Bryce Seligman, but he and his three brothers, including the noted

ichthyologist Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish ( Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish ( Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish ( Agnatha). According to FishBase, 33,400 species of fish had been described as of O ...

Hugh Hamilton DeWitt Hugh Hamilton DeWitt (28 December 1933-5 January 1995) was an American ichthyologist, marine biologist and oceanographer. DeWitt was born on 28 December 1933 in San Jose, California, son of Carl Bryce Seligman, a country doctor, and Honor Petti ...

, added "DeWitt" from their mother's side of the family, at the urging of their father, in 1950. In the early-1970s, this change of name so angered Felix Bloch that he blocked DeWitt's appointment to

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

and DeWitt and his wife Cecile DeWitt-Morette, a mathematical physicist, accepted faculty positions at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

. DeWitt served in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

as a naval aviator. He died September 23, 2004 from

pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a mass. These cancerous cells have the ability to invade other parts of the body. A number of types of pancr ...

at the age of 81. He is buried in France, and was survived by his wife and four daughters.

Work

He pioneered work in the quantization of

general relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity and Einstein's theory of gravity, is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of gravitation in modern physics ...

and, in particular, developed

canonical quantum gravity In physics, canonical quantum gravity is an attempt to quantize the canonical formulation of general relativity (or canonical gravity). It is a Hamiltonian formulation of Einstein's general theory of relativity. The basic theory was outlined by B ...

, manifestly covariant methods, and heat kernel algorithms. DeWitt formulated the

Wheeler–DeWitt equation The Wheeler–DeWitt equation for theoretical physics and applied mathematics, is a field equation attributed to John Archibald Wheeler and Bryce DeWitt. The equation attempts to mathematically combine the ideas of quantum mechanics and gene ...

for the wave function of the universe with John Archibald Wheeler and advanced the formulation of Hugh Everett's many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. With his student Larry Smarr, he originated the field of numerical relativity. He received his bachelor's (summa cum laude), master's and doctoral degrees from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

. His Ph.D. (1950) supervisor was

Julian S. Schwinger Julian Seymour Schwinger (; February 12, 1918 – July 16, 1994) was a Nobel Prize winning American theoretical physicist. He is best known for his work on quantum electrodynamics (QED), in particular for developing a relativistically invaria ...

. Afterwards, he held a postdoctoral position at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent schola ...

, in Princeton, NJ, worked at the Lawrence Livermore Lab, and then held faculty positions at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United State ...

and, later, the

. He was awarded the Dirac Prize in 1987, the

Pomeranchuk Prize The Pomeranchuk Prize is an international award for theoretical physics, awarded annually since 1998 by the Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics (ITEP) from Moscow. It is named after Russian physicist Isaak Yakovlevich Pomeranchuk, w ...

in 2002, and the American Physical Society's Einstein Prize posthumously in 2005, and was a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...

Books

* Bryce DeWitt, ''Dynamical theory of groups and fields'', Gordon and Breach, New York, 1965 * Bryce DeWitt, R. Neill Graham, eds., ''The Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics'', Princeton Series in Physics,

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial ...

(1973), . * S. M. Christensen, ed., ''Quantum theory of gravity. Essays in honor of the 60th birthday of Bryce S. DeWitt'', Adam Hilger, Bristol, 1984. * Bryce DeWitt, ''Supermanifolds'', Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1985. * Bryce DeWitt, ''The Global Approach to Quantum Field Theory'', The International Series of Monographs on Physics,

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...

, 2003, . * Bryce DeWitt, ''Sopra un raggio di luce'', Di Renzo Editore, Roma, 2005. * Bryce DeWitt, ''Bryce DeWitt's Lectures on Gravitation'', Steven M. Christensen, ed., Springer, 2011.

References

External links

University of Texas obituary

INSPIRE-HEP list of Dewitt's most famous papers

International Centre for Theoretical Physics The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) is an international research institute for physical and mathematical sciences that operates under a tripartite agreement between the Italian Government, United Nations Educatio ...

Einstein Prize citation

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...

Oral history interview transcript with Bryce DeWitt and Cecile DeWitt-Morette on February 28 1995, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives

Gaina Alex: The Quantum Gravity Simposim in Moscow, 1987
Gaina Alex: ГОСТИННАЯ:ФОРУМ: Александр Александров *Сборник рассказов*:РЕПРЕССИРОВАННАЯ НАУКА (PURGED SCIENCE)
Steven Weinberg, "Bryce Seligman Dewitt", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (2008)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dewitt, Bryce 1923 births 2004 deaths Harvard University alumni Deaths from pancreatic cancer 20th-century American physicists American relativity theorists Fellows of the American Physical Society University of Texas at Austin faculty Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Jewish physicists Deaths from cancer in Texas

Life

Work

Books

References

Further reading

External links