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{{Short description|Theoretical physicist associated with quantum gravity}}
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{{Biography page}}
{{Infobox scientist
{{Infobox scientist
|birth_name = Carl Bryce Seligman
| name = Bryce DeWitt
| image = Cecile.png
| image = Cecile.png
| caption = Bryce (right) and Cécile (left)
| caption = Bryce and Cécile DeWitt
| birth_date = January 8, 1923
| birth_name = Carl Bryce Seligman
| birth_place = Dinuba, California
| birth_date = 8 January 1923
| death_date = {{nowrap|{{death date and age|mf=yes|2004|9|23|1923|1|8}}}}
| birth_place = Dinuba, California, United States
| death_place = {{wipe|Austin, Texas}}
| death_date = 23 September 2004
| residence = {{wipe|United States}}
| death_place = Austin, Texas, United States
| nationality = {{wipe|United States}}
| fields = Theoretical physics
| field = [[Physics:Theoretical physics|Theoretical physicist]]
| work_institutions = Institute for Advanced Study; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; University of Texas at Austin
| work_institution = {{nowrap|Institute for Advanced Study}} <br /> [[Organization:University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill|University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]] <br /> [[Organization:University of Texas at Austin|University of Texas at Austin]]
| known_for = Wheeler-DeWitt equation; quantum gravity; DeWitt notation
| alma_mater = [[Organization:Harvard University|Harvard University]]
| doctoral_advisor = [[Biography:Julian Schwinger|Julian Schwinger]]
| doctoral_students = [[Biography:Donald Marolf|Donald Marolf]]
| prizes = Dirac Prize {{small|(1987)}}<br /> Pomeranchuk Prize {{small|(2002)}}<br />Einstein Prize <small>(2005)</small>
| spouse      = [[Biography:Cécile DeWitt-Morette|Cécile DeWitt-Morette]]
| known_for = [[Physics:DeWitt notation|DeWitt notation]]
}}
}}
[[File:École de Physique des Houches (Les Houches Physics School) main lecture hall 1972.jpg|thumb|240px|Discussion in the main lecture hall at the École de Physique des Houches (Les Houches Physics School), 1972. From left, Yuval Ne'eman, Bryce DeWitt, Kip Thorne.]]
[[Image:DeWitt-Vilkovisky-Barvinsky-Quantum Gravity-V Moscow 1990.gif|thumb|right|Bryce S. DeWitt (center) with Grigori A. Vilkovisky (left) and Andrei O. Barvinsky (right) at the 5th Seminar on Quantum Gravity, Moscow, May 28 – June 1, 1990]]
'''Bryce Seligman DeWitt''' (January 8, 1923 – September 23, 2004) was an American theoretical physicist who studied [[Physics:Gravity|gravity]] and field theories.
==Life==
He was born '''Carl Bryce Seligman''' but he and his three brothers added "DeWitt" from their mother's side of the family, at the urging of their father in 1950, after Bryce experienced anti-semitism as a "budding young scientist in Europe" (Seligman is a Jewish name; ethnically Bryce was part Jewish).<ref>{{cite book|first=Vona|last=DeWitt Smith|title=''Tierck Clafsen DeWitt and Descendants of His Son Luycas DeWitt''|url=https://books.google.com/?id=HioVZV2leOYC&pg=PA198&lpg=PA198&dq=bryce+dewitt+jewish#v=onepage&q=bryce%20dewitt&f=false|publisher=Trafford Publishing|location=Bloomington, Indiana|year=2004|page=198|isbn=9781412019569}}<!--source contains apparent typo: 'Saligman' instead of 'Seligman'--></ref> This is similar to Spanish naming customs, where a person bears two surnames, one being from their father and the other from their mother. Twenty years later this change of name is rumored to have so angered [[Biography:Felix Bloch|Felix Bloch]] that he blocked DeWitt's appointment to [[Organization:Stanford University|Stanford University]] and DeWitt instead moved to Austin, Texas.<ref>{{cite book|first=Cécile|last=DeWitt-Morette|title=The Pursuit of Quantum Gravity: Memoirs of Bryce DeWitt from 1946 to 2004|url=https://books.google.com/?id=kz0_jin-9XAC&dq=Bryce+DeWitt+felix+bloch|postscript=; hbk|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|location=Berlin/Heidelberg, Germany|chapter=Chapter V|page=128|year=2011|isbn=9783642142703}}</ref> He served in [[Social:World War II|World War II]] as a naval aviator. He was married to mathematical physicist [[Biography:Cécile DeWitt-Morette|Cécile DeWitt-Morette]].  He died September 23, 2004 from [[Medicine:Pancreatic cancer|pancreatic cancer]] at the age of 81. He is buried in France, and was survived by his four daughters.
==Work==
He approached the quantization of general relativity, in particular, developed [[Physics:Canonical quantum gravity|canonical quantum gravity]] and manifestly covariant methods that use the [[Heat kernel|heat kernel]]. B. DeWitt formulated the [[Wheeler–DeWitt equation]] for the wavefunction of the [[Astronomy:Universe|Universe]] with [[Biography:John Archibald Wheeler|John Archibald Wheeler]] and advanced the formulation of Hugh Everett's [[Physics:Many-worlds interpretation|many-worlds interpretation]] of quantum mechanics. With his student [[Biography:Larry Smarr|Larry Smarr]] he originated the field of [[Physics:Numerical relativity|numerical relativity]].
He received his bachelor's in 1943, master's in 1947 and doctoral degrees from [[Organization:Harvard University|Harvard University]] in 1950. His Ph.D. supervisor was Julian S. Schwinger. Afterwards he worked at the Institute for Advanced Study, the [[Organization:University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill|University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]] and the [[Organization:University of Texas at Austin|University of Texas at Austin]]. From 1953 to 1956 DeWitt was at the [[Organization:Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory|Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]].
He was awarded the Dirac Prize in 1987, the [[Organization:American Physical Society|American Physical Society]]'s Einstein Prize in 2005 (posthumously), and was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://news.utexas.edu/2004/10/20/pioneering-physicist-bryce-dewitt-dies|title=Pioneering physicist Bryce DeWitt dies|journal=University of Texas News|publisher=The University of Texas at Austin|location=Austin, Texas|date=October 20, 2004|accessdate=March 13, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite conference|first=Dean|last=Rickles|title=The Chapel Hill Conference in Context|date=2010|url=http://www.edition-open-sources.org/sources/5/3/|conference=The Role of Gravitation in Physics|publisher=Max-Planck-Gesellschaft|location=Berlin}}</ref>
==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 (1973), {{ISBN|0-691-08131-X}}.
* 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, [[Organization:Oxford University Press|Oxford University Press]], 2003, {{ISBN|978-0-19-851093-2}}.
* Bryce DeWitt, ''Sopra un raggio di luce'', Di Renzo Editore, Roma, 2005.


==References==
'''Bryce Seligman DeWitt''' (1923-2004) was an American theoretical physicist known for work on quantum gravity, field theory, and the mathematical structure of general relativity.
{{Reflist}}


==Further reading==
== Quantum gravity ==
*{{cite journal
With [[Biography:John Archibald Wheeler|John Archibald Wheeler]], DeWitt is associated with the Wheeler-DeWitt equation, a central equation in canonical quantum gravity. He also worked on covariant quantization methods, path integrals, and the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.
|author=[[Biography:David Deutsch|David Deutsch]], Christopher Isham, Gregory Vilkovisky
|year=2005
|title=Bryce Seligman DeWitt
|journal=Physics Today
|volume=58 |issue=3 |pages=84
|doi=10.1063/1.1897570
|bibcode = 2005PhT....58c..84D |doi-access=free
}}


== External links ==
DeWitt's work belongs to the attempt to connect quantum theory with gravitation and spacetime.
* [http://www.utexas.edu/faculty/council/2006-2007/memorials/dewitt/dewitt.html University of Texas obituary]
* [http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+a+dewitt,+b INSPIRE-HEP list of Dewitt's most famous papers]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080103113108/http://users.ictp.it/~sci_info/awards/Dirac/DiracMedallists/DiracMedal87.html Dirac Prize citation], [[Organization:International Centre for Theoretical Physics|International Centre for Theoretical Physics]]
* [http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/prizes/prizerecipient.cfm?name=Bryce%20DeWitt&year=2005 Einstein Prize citation], [[Organization:American Physical Society|American Physical Society]]
* [http://www.aip.org/history/ohilist/23199.html Oral History interview transcript with Bryce DeWitt February 28, 1995, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100823054004/http://www.memorial.ru/ Gaina Alex: The Quantum Gravity Simposim in Moscow, 1987] Gaina Alex: ГОСТИННАЯ:ФОРУМ: Александр Александров *Сборник рассказов*:РЕПРЕССИРОВАННАЯ НАУКА (PURGED SCIENCE)
*[http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/dewitt-bryce.pdf National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir]


== Quantum Collection links ==
* [[Physics:Quantum gravity]]
* [[Physics:Quantum spacetime]]
* [[Physics:Quantum Measurement problem]]
* [[Physics:Quantum Path integral formulation]]


{{DEFAULTSORT:Dewitt, Bryce}}
== References ==
[[Category:Relativity theorists]]
{{reflist|3}}
* {{Cite web |title=Pioneering physicist Bryce DeWitt dies |url=https://news.utexas.edu/2004/10/20/pioneering-physicist-bryce-dewitt-dies/ |publisher=University of Texas at Austin |access-date=2026-05-23}}
* {{Cite book |last=DeWitt-Morette |first=Cécile |title=The Pursuit of Quantum Gravity: Memoirs of Bryce DeWitt from 1946 to 2004 |publisher=Springer |year=2011}}


{{Sourceattribution|Bryce DeWitt|1}}
{{Author|Harold Foppele}}

Latest revision as of 23:01, 24 May 2026

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Bryce DeWitt
Bryce and Cécile DeWitt
Bryce and Cécile DeWitt
Born 8 January 1923
Dinuba, California, United States
Died 23 September 2004
Austin, Texas, United States


Known for Wheeler-DeWitt equation; quantum gravity; DeWitt notation

Bryce Seligman DeWitt (1923-2004) was an American theoretical physicist known for work on quantum gravity, field theory, and the mathematical structure of general relativity.

Quantum gravity

With John Archibald Wheeler, DeWitt is associated with the Wheeler-DeWitt equation, a central equation in canonical quantum gravity. He also worked on covariant quantization methods, path integrals, and the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.

DeWitt's work belongs to the attempt to connect quantum theory with gravitation and spacetime.

References


Author: Harold Foppele


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