Bryce DeWitt

Infobox_Scientist
name = Bryce Seligman DeWitt
birth_date = January 8 1923
death_date = death date and age|2004|9|23|1923|1|8
residence = United States of America
nationality = American
field = Theoretical physicist
work_institution = Institute for Advanced Study
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of Texas at Austin
alma_mater = Harvard University
doctoral_students =
prizes = Dirac Prize
Einstein Prize
footnotes =

Bryce Seligman DeWitt (January 8,1923 – September 23, 2004) was a theoretical physicist best known for formulating canonical quantum gravity, one of the first approaches to quantizing general relativity; for formulating the Wheeler-deWitt equation for the wavefunction of the universe with John Archibald Wheeler; and for advancing the formulation of the Hugh Everett's many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.

He received his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from Harvard University. Afterwards he worked at the Institute for Advanced Study, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Texas at Austin. He was awarded the Dirac Prize in 1987, the American Physical Society's Einstein Prize in 2005, and was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

He was born Carl Bryce Seligman but changed his name in the 1950s. He served in World War II as a naval aviator. He was married to accomplished mathematical physicist Cécile DeWitt-Morette. He died September 23, 2004 from pancreatic cancer at the age of 81.

Books

* "The Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics", Princeton Series in Physics, Princeton University Press (1973), ISBN 0-691-08131-X. Bryce DeWitt, R. Neill Graham, eds.
* "The Global Approach to Quantum Field Theory", The International Series of Monographs on Physics, Oxford University Press (2003), ISBN 978-0198510932. Bryce DeWitt.
* "Sopra un raggio di luce", Di Renzo Editore, Roma, 2005

External links

* [http://www.utexas.edu/faculty/council/2006-2007/memorials/dewitt/dewitt.html University of Texas obituary]
* [http://www-spires.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/hep/wwwcitesummary?rawcmd=FIND+A+Dewitt%2C+b SPIRES list of Dewitt's most-famous papers]
* [http://users.ictp.it/~sci_info/awards/Dirac/DiracMedallists/DiracMedal87.html Dirac Prize citation] , International Centre for Theoretical Physics
* [http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/prizes/prizerecipient.cfm?name=Bryce%20DeWitt&year=2005 Einstein Prize citation] , American Physical Society