Cécile DeWitt-Morette facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Cécile DeWitt-Morette
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Cécile DeWitt-Morette (left) with Bryce DeWitt (right)
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Cécile Andrée Paule Morette
21 December 1922 Paris, France
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| Died | 8 May 2017 (aged 94) |
| Known for | École de Physique des Houches |
| Spouse(s) | Bryce DeWitt (1951–2004; his death) |
| Children | 4 |
| Awards | Marcel Grossmann Award |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Theoretical physics Functional integration |
| Institutions | Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies Institute for Advanced Study University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University of Texas at Austin |
| Doctoral advisor | Walter Heitler Louis de Broglie |
Cécile Andrée Paule DeWitt-Morette (born December 21, 1922 – died May 8, 2017) was a brilliant French mathematician and physicist. She is famous for starting a special summer school in the French Alps called Les Houches. This school helped many future Nobel Prize winners in science, like Pierre-Gilles de Gennes and Georges Charpak, achieve great success. For her amazing work, she received the American Society of the French Legion of Honour Medal in 2007.
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Early Life and Education
Cécile Morette was born in 1922 and grew up in Normandy, France. In 1943, she earned her first university degree, called a License des Science, from the University of Caen.
She originally wanted to become a surgeon. However, during World War II, it was very hard to get into medical school in France. So, she decided to study mathematics, physics, and chemistry instead.
Studying in Paris During Wartime
After getting her first degree, Morette went to the University of Paris. While she was studying there, her family faced a terrible tragedy. Her mother, sister, and grandmother died during the Allied bombing of Caen. This bombing happened to support the D-Day landings.
In 1944, while still working on her doctorate at the University of Paris, Morette started a job. She worked at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. This center was led by the famous scientist Frédéric Joliot-Curie. From 1946 to 1947, she was a scholar at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. In 1947, she finished her Ph.D. with a thesis about how particles called mesons are made.
Contributions to Physics
In 1948, a famous scientist named J. Robert Oppenheimer invited Cécile to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Oppenheimer had just become the director there.
Exploring Quantum Mechanics
While at Princeton, Cécile became very interested in Richard Feynman's "path integral method." This was a new way to do calculations in quantum mechanics, which studies the smallest particles in the universe. Cécile worked hard to make this method more precise and reliable. Her work helped lead to the widespread use of Feynman diagrams and the math behind them.
At the Institute, she also met Bryce DeWitt, an American physicist. They fell in love and got married in 1951. They had four children together and worked on many scientific projects as a team.
Founding the Les Houches Summer School
After the war, French science needed a boost. In 1951, DeWitt-Morette decided to create a special summer school. She chose a beautiful location in Les Houches in the French Alps.
She was very clever in getting the school started. She even told stories about how she managed to get funding. She would find ways to meet important government ministers. Then, she would convince her male colleagues to support her ideas. Sometimes, she even pretended the ideas were theirs!
Cécile led this amazing school for 22 years. Over twenty students or teachers from the school later won Nobel Prizes. The famous French mathematician Alain Connes, who won the Fields Medal, said the summer school was key to his career. Nobel laureates like Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, Georges Charpak, and Claude Cohen-Tannoudji also said the school helped them succeed.
In 1958, NATO started funding similar advanced study centers. These centers were based on the successful model Cécile created at Les Houches. In 1987, Cécile and her husband attended a Quantum Gravity Seminar in Moscow.
Bryce DeWitt, her husband, passed away in 2004. In 2007, Cécile DeWitt-Morette received a special award. It was the American Society of the French Legion of Honour Medal for Distinguished Achievement. At that time, she was a respected professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
Scientific Collaborations and Discoveries
In 1953, a man named Agnew Bahnson wanted to fund a research institute. He contacted Bryce DeWitt with his idea. They agreed to call it the "Institute for Field Physics." It was set up in 1956 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Both Bryce and Cécile directed this new institute.
In 1958, Cécile DeWitt-Morette invited Léon Motchane to visit the Institute for Advanced Study in the USA. This visit inspired Motchane to create his own institute in France. He founded the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques. This institute focused on important research in mathematics, theoretical physics, and human sciences.
Testing Einstein's Theory of Relativity
In 1972, Morette and her husband led an exciting expedition. They traveled to Mauritania in Africa. Their goal was to test a key part of Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity. This theory predicts that light bends when it passes by very massive objects.
They made their measurements during a solar eclipse in Mauritania. During an eclipse, the moon blocks the sun, making it easier to see stars near the sun. They took pictures of stars during the eclipse. Six months later, they took more pictures of the same stars when the sun was not in the way. By comparing the two sets of pictures, they confirmed that light indeed bent as it passed by the sun. This was exactly what Einstein's theory predicted!
In 1972, Morette and her husband joined the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin. Cécile started focusing more on physics than mathematics. She became a full Professor in 1985.
Awards and Recognition
Professor Cécile DeWitt-Morette received many honors for her work. In 2007, she was given the American Society of the French Legion of Honour Medal. This award recognized her outstanding achievements in science. At the time, she was a respected professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
See also
In Spanish: Cécile DeWitt-Morette para niños
