About Bryce DeWitt
Bryce Seligman DeWitt (born Carl Bryce Seligman; January 8, 1923 – September 23, 2004) was an American theoretical physicist noted for his work in gravitation and quantum field theory. == Personal life == He was born Carl Bryce Seligman, but he and his three brothers, including noted ichthyologist Hugh Hamilton DeWitt, added "DeWitt" from their mother's side of the family, at the urging of their father, in 1950. Several decades later, when Felix Bloch learned of this name change, he was so upset that he blocked DeWitt's appointment to Stanford University; consequently, DeWitt and his wife Cecile DeWitt-Morette, a mathematical physicist, accepted faculty positions at the University of Texas at Austin. DeWitt trained in World War II as a naval aviator, but the war ended before he saw combat. He died September 23, 2004, from pancreatic cancer at the age of 81. He is buried in France, and was survived by his wife and four daughters. == Academic life == He received his bachelor's (summa cum laude), master's and doctoral degrees from Harvard University. His Ph.D. (1950) supervisor was Julian S. Schwinger, a Nobel Prize-winning american theoretical physicist, best known for his work on quantum electrodynamics (QED). Afterwards, DeWitt held a postdoctoral position at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, and worked at the Lawrence Livermore Lab (1952–1955). Thereafter, he held faculty positions at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1956–1972) and, later, at the University of Texas at Austin (1973–2004).
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.