Bryce DeWitt | |
|---|---|
 Bryce with his wife Cécile | |
| Born | Carl Bryce Seligman January 8, 1923 Dinuba, California, U.S. |
| Died | September 23, 2004(2004-09-23) (aged 81) Austin, Texas, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Harvard University (BS, MS, PhD) |
| Known for | |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 4 |
| Awards |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Theoretical physics |
| Institutions | |
| Doctoral advisor | Julian Schwinger |
| Doctoral students | |
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Bryce Seligman DeWitt (bornCarl Bryce Seligman; January 8, 1923 – September 23, 2004) was an Americantheoretical physicist noted for his work in gravitation andquantum field theory.[1]
He was born Carl Bryce Seligman, but he and his three brothers, including noted ichthyologistHugh Hamilton DeWitt, added "DeWitt" from their mother's side of the family, at the urging of their father, in 1950. Several decades later, whenFelix Bloch learned of this name change, he was so upset that he blocked DeWitt's appointment toStanford University; consequently, DeWitt and his wifeCecile DeWitt-Morette, a mathematical physicist, accepted faculty positions at theUniversity of Texas at Austin.[2] DeWitt trained inWorld War II as a naval aviator, but the war ended before he saw combat. He died September 23, 2004, frompancreatic cancer at the age of 81. He is buried inFrance, and was survived by his wife and four daughters.[3][1]
He received his bachelor's (summa cum laude), master's and doctoral degrees fromHarvard University. His Ph.D. (1950) supervisor wasJulian S. Schwinger, a Nobel Prize-winning american theoretical physicist, best known for his work onquantum electrodynamics (QED). Afterwards, DeWitt held a postdoctoral position at theInstitute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, and worked at theLawrence Livermore Lab (1952-'55). Thereafter, he held faculty positions at theUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1956-'72) and, later, at theUniversity of Texas at Austin (1973-2004).
In 1957 he and his wife organized theChapel Hill Conference.[4]
In 1987 he was awarded theDirac Prize,[5] thePomeranchuk Prize in 2002, and, posthumously, the American Physical Society'sEinstein Prize in 2005.[6] He also was a member of theNational Academy of Sciences.[7]
He pioneered work in the quantization ofgeneral relativity and, in particular, developedcanonical quantum gravity,[8] manifestly covariant methods, and heat kernel algorithms. DeWitt formulated theWheeler–DeWitt equation for thewave function of the universe withJohn Archibald Wheeler and advanced the formulation ofHugh Everett'smany-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.[1] With his studentLarry Smarr, he originated the field ofnumerical relativity.[9]: 25–35, 37
