Raymond Félix Stora (18 September 1930 – 20 July 2015) was a French theoretical physicist. He was a researcher at Service de Physique Théorique at

CEA Saclay The CEA Paris-Saclay center is one of nine centers belonging to the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). Following a reorganization in 2017, the center consists of multiple sites, including the CEA Saclay site (formerly a ...

, then a research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) at CPT Marseille and at LAPP Annecy, as well as a member of

CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in Meyrin, western suburb of Gene ...

's theory group. His work focused on

particle physics Particle physics or high-energy physics is the study of Elementary particle, fundamental particles and fundamental interaction, forces that constitute matter and radiation. The field also studies combinations of elementary particles up to the s ...

. Stora studied at the

École Polytechnique (, ; also known as Polytechnique or l'X ) is a ''grande école'' located in Palaiseau, France. It specializes in science and engineering and is a founding member of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris. The school was founded in 1794 by mat ...

from 1951 to 1953, and then at

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

(MIT), where he received a doctorate in 1958 under the supervision of

Victor Weisskopf Victor Frederick "Viki" Weisskopf (also spelled Viktor; September 19, 1908 – April 22, 2002) was an Austrian-born American theoretical physicist. He did postdoctoral work with Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger, Wolfgang Pauli, and Niels Boh ...

. Stora's most influential contribution to physics was his work with Carlo Becchi and Alain Rouet on a rigorous mathematical procedure for quantizing non-Abelian gauge field theories, which dates from the mid 1970s and is now known as BRST quantization. Stora was elected as a correspondent to the physics section of the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...

in 1994. In 2009, he was awarded the

Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics is an award given each year since 1959 jointly by the American Physical Society and American Institute of Physics. It is established by the Heineman Foundation in honour of Dannie Heineman. As of 201 ...

. CNRS held a special conference in his honour some months after his 80th birthday.

References

1930 births 2015 deaths French theoretical physicists Members of the French Academy of Sciences 20th-century French physicists Jewish French scientists Winners of the Max Planck Medal Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni École Polytechnique alumni Scientists from Paris French mathematical physicists People associated with CERN Research directors of the French National Centre for Scientific Research {{France-physicist-stub