Bernard de Wit

Last updated
Bernard de Wit
Nationality Dutch
Alma mater Utrecht University
Known for supergravity
Awards Humboldt Prize (1998)
ERC Advanced Grant (2010)
Scientific career
Fields Theoretical physics
Institutions Utrecht University
Thesis Field-theoretical approach to symmetry aspects of the weak and electromagnetic interactions  (1973)
Doctoral advisor Martinus Veltman
Doctoral students Jan de Boer, Erik Verlinde
Website

Bernard Quirinus Petrus Joseph de Wit (born 1945 in Bergen op Zoom) is a Dutch theoretical physicist specializing in supergravity and particle physics.

Bernard de Wit studied theoretical physics at Utrecht University, where he got his PhD under supervision of Nobel Prize laureate Martinus Veltman in 1973. After postdoc stints in Stony Brook, Utrecht and Leiden, he became a staff member at National Institute for Nuclear and High Energy Physics (NIKHEF) in 1978, where became head of the theory group in 1981. In 1984 he became professor of theoretical physics at Utrecht University where he has stayed for the rest of his career. During the years, de Wit spent several periods at CERN as a visiting scientist in the Theory Division. [1] He officially retired in 2010, but continues to engage in research.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerard 't Hooft</span> Dutch theoretical physicist

Gerardus (Gerard) ’t Hooft is a Dutch theoretical physicist and professor at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. He shared the 1999 Nobel Prize in Physics with his thesis advisor Martinus J. G. Veltman "for elucidating the quantum structure of electroweak interactions".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martinus J. G. Veltman</span> Dutch theoretical physicist (1931–2021)

Martinus Justinus Godefriedus "Tini" Veltman was a Dutch theoretical physicist. He shared the 1999 Nobel Prize in physics with his former PhD student Gerardus 't Hooft for their work on particle theory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Duff (physicist)</span> British physicist

Michael James Duff FRS, FRSA is a British theoretical physicist and pioneering theorist of supergravity who is the Principal of the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Abdus Salam Chair of Theoretical Physics at Imperial College London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erik Verlinde</span> Dutch theoretical physicist

Erik Peter Verlinde is a Dutch theoretical physicist and string theorist. He is the identical twin brother of physicist Herman Verlinde. The Verlinde formula, which is important in conformal field theory and topological field theory, is named after him. His research deals with string theory, gravity, black holes and cosmology. Currently, he works at the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of Amsterdam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gabriele Veneziano</span> Italian theoretical physicist

Gabriele Veneziano is an Italian theoretical physicist widely considered the father of string theory. He has conducted most of his scientific activities at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, and held the Chair of Elementary Particles, Gravitation and Cosmology at the Collège de France in Paris from 2004 to 2013, until the age of retirement there.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernard d'Espagnat</span> French physicist, philosopher and author

Bernard d'Espagnat was a French theoretical physicist, philosopher of science, and author, best known for his work on the nature of reality. Wigner-d'Espagnat inequality is partially named after him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Léon Van Hove</span> Belgian physicist

Léon Charles Prudent Van Hove was a Belgian physicist and a Director General of CERN. He developed a scientific career spanning mathematics, solid state physics, elementary particle and nuclear physics to cosmology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">François Englert</span> Belgian theoretical physicist

François, Baron Englert is a Belgian theoretical physicist and 2013 Nobel Prize laureate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter van Nieuwenhuizen</span> Dutch theoretical physicist (born 1938)

Peter van Nieuwenhuizen is a Dutch theoretical physicist. He is a distinguished Professor at Stony Brook University in the United States. Widely known for his contributions to String theory, Supersymmetry, Supergravity and Field theory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luciano Maiani</span> Sammarinese physicist

Luciano Maiani is a Sammarinese physicist best known for his prediction of the charm quark with Sheldon Glashow and John Iliopoulos.

Massimo Porrati is a professor of physics and a member of the Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics at New York University. He graduated from the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, Italy with a "Diploma di Scienze" degree in 1985. Later he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at UCLA and UC Berkeley in the USA. He was a research scientist at the INFN section in Pisa, Italy, in collaboration with CERN, where he over the years has spent several periods, before joining NYU in 1992. His major research interests are string theory, supersymmetry and supergravity, nonperturbative aspects of strings and quantum field theory, and cosmology.

Sergio Ferrara is an Italian physicist working on theoretical physics of elementary particles and mathematical physics. He is renowned for the discovery of theories introducing supersymmetry as a symmetry of elementary particles and of supergravity, the first significant extension of Einstein's general relativity, based on the principle of "local supersymmetry". He is an emeritus staff member at CERN and a professor emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Brout</span> American physicist (1928–2011)

Robert Brout was an American theoretical physicist who made significant contributions in elementary particle physics. He was a professor of physics at Université Libre de Bruxelles where he had created, together with François Englert, the Service de Physique Théorique.

Jan Łopuszański was a Polish theoretical physicist and author of several textbooks about classical, statistical and quantum physics. In the field of quantum field theory, he is most famous as co-author of the Haag–Lopuszanski–Sohnius theorem concerning the possibility of supersymmetry in renormalizable QFT's.

Sergio Fubini was an Italian theoretical physicist. He was one of the pioneers of string theory. He was engaged in peace activism in the Middle East.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Racah Institute of Physics</span> Institute at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The Racah Institute of Physics is an institute at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, part of the faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences on the Edmund J. Safra Campus in the Givat Ram neighborhood of Jerusalem.

Pier Gerard "Peter" Bouwknegt is professor of theoretical physics and mathematics at the Australian National University (ANU), and deputy director of their Mathematical Sciences Institute. He is an adjunct professor at University of Adelaide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenneth Le Couteur</span>

Kenneth James Le Couteur was a British physicist who was the foundation Professor of Theoretical Physics at the Australian National University in Canberra. During World War II he worked at Bletchley Park as a codebreaker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ben Nijboer</span> Dutch physicist and professor

Bernard Roelof Andries Nijboer was a Dutch physicist and professor at the Institute of Theoretical Physics of the Utrecht University from 1956 until 1984. He was mainly active in the fields of optics and solid-state physics.

Hermann Nicolai is a German theoretical physicist and director emeritus at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam-Golm.

References

  1. "Bernard de Wit's papers authored during sabbatical periods at CERN". INSPIRE HEP. CERN. Retrieved 2019-10-17.