École De Physique Des Houches
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Les Houches School of Physics () is an international physics center dedicated to seasonal schools and workshops. It is located in
Les Houches Les Houches (; Arpitan: ''Les Ouches'' or ''Les Oucies'') is an alpine commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Southeastern France. It is located just west of Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, in the larger canton of ...
, France. The school was founded in 1951 by French scientist
Cécile DeWitt-Morette Cécile Andrée Paule DeWitt-Morette (21 December 1922 – 8 May 2017) was a French mathematician and physicist. She founded the Les Houches School of Physics in the French Alps. For this and her publications, she was awarded the American S ...
. Between its participants there have been famous
Nobel laureates in Physics The Nobel Prize in Physics () is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the 1895 will and testament, will of Alfred Nobel (wh ...
like
Enrico Fermi Enrico Fermi (; 29 September 1901 – 28 November 1954) was an Italian and naturalized American physicist, renowned for being the creator of the world's first artificial nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1, and a member of the Manhattan Project ...
,
Wolfgang Pauli Wolfgang Ernst Pauli ( ; ; 25 April 1900 – 15 December 1958) was an Austrian theoretical physicist and a pioneer of quantum mechanics. In 1945, after having been nominated by Albert Einstein, Pauli received the Nobel Prize in Physics "for the ...
,
Murray Gell-Mann Murray Gell-Mann (; September 15, 1929 – May 24, 2019) was an American theoretical physicist who played a preeminent role in the development of the theory of elementary particles. Gell-Mann introduced the concept of quarks as the funda ...
and
John Bardeen John Bardeen (; May 23, 1908 – January 30, 1991) was an American solid-state physicist. He is the only person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics twice: first in 1956 with William Shockley and Walter Houser Brattain for their inventio ...
amongst others. According to former director of the school,
Jean Zinn-Justin Jean Zinn-Justin (born 10 July 1943 in Berlin) is a French theoretical physicist. Biography Zinn-Justin was educated in physics (undergraduate 1964) at the École Polytechnique, and did graduate work in theoretical physics at Orsay, (Ph.D. 1968 ...
, the school is the "mother of all modern schools of physics”. Since 2017, it is a Joint Research Service (, UMS) of the
French National Centre for Scientific Research The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 engi ...
(CNRS) and the
Grenoble Alpes University The (, ''Grenoble Alps University'', abbr. UGA) is a ''grand établissement'' in Grenoble, France. Founded in 1339, it is the third largest university in France with about 60,000 students and over 3,000 researchers. Established as the Univer ...
. In 2020, it was recognized as a EPS Historic Site by the
European Physical Society The European Physical Society (EPS) is a non-profit organisation whose purpose is to promote physics and physicists in Europe through methods such as physics outreach, supporting physicists to engage in the design and implementation of European s ...
(EPS).


History

The school was founded by
Cécile DeWitt-Morette Cécile Andrée Paule DeWitt-Morette (21 December 1922 – 8 May 2017) was a French mathematician and physicist. She founded the Les Houches School of Physics in the French Alps. For this and her publications, she was awarded the American S ...
in 1951. She was 29 years old at the time, had married physicist Bryce DeWitt a week before, and was still a
postdoctoral researcher A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary acade ...
in the United States. The school was created as a post-
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
effort to improve the standard of
modern physics Modern physics is a branch of physics that developed in the early 20th century and onward or branches greatly influenced by early 20th century physics. Notable branches of modern physics include quantum mechanics, special relativity, and genera ...
in Europe, which was lagging behind the United States. She was inspired by her experience in the Girl Scouts and 1949
Richard Feynman Richard Phillips Feynman (; May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988) was an American theoretical physicist. He is best known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, the physics of t ...
's Ann Arbor annual Summer Symposium, at the
University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
, which DeWitt-Morette attended. She quickly gathered the institutional and financial support of
Pierre Victor Auger Pierre Victor Auger (; 14 May 1899 – 24 December 1993) was a French physicist, born in Paris. He worked in the fields of atomic physics, nuclear physics, and cosmic ray physics. He is famous for being one of the discoverers of the Auger effect, ...
(then director of the Natural Sciences Department at
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
), the CNRS, Albert Châtelet (dean of faculty of physics of the
University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...
) and in charge of the French
Ministry of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...
. With a reduced budget, she settled to open the school in a rustic farm surrounded by chalets, a few kilometers from the village of Les Houches. The school was publicized by her French colleagues: Yves Rocard at the
École normale supérieure École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...
, Louis Leprince-Ringuet at
École polytechnique (, ; also known as Polytechnique or l'X ) is a ''grande école'' located in Palaiseau, France. It specializes in science and engineering and is a founding member of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris. The school was founded in 1794 by mat ...
,
Louis de Broglie Louis Victor Pierre Raymond, 7th Duc de Broglie (15 August 1892 – 19 March 1987) was a French theoretical physicist and aristocrat known for his contributions to quantum theory. In his 1924 PhD thesis, he postulated the wave nature of elec ...
and Alexandre Proca at the Institut Henri Poincaré, and Francis Perrin at the
Collège de France The (), formerly known as the or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment () in France. It is located in Paris near La Sorbonne. The has been considered to be France's most ...
and CEA who hired a secretary to handle the paperwork.
Louis Néel Louis Eugène Félix Néel (; 22 November 1904 – 17 November 2000) was a French physicist born in Lyon who received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1970 for his studies of the magnetic properties of solids. Biography Néel studied at the Lyc ...
acquired the patronage of the Grenoble faculty of science in order for the school to be legally attached to the
University of Grenoble The (, ''Grenoble Alps University'', abbr. UGA) is a Grands établissements, ''grand établissement'' in Grenoble, France. Founded in 1339, it is the third largest university in France with about 60,000 students and over 3,000 researchers. Es ...
. DeWitt-Morette also obtained international support from
J. Robert Oppenheimer J. Robert Oppenheimer (born Julius Robert Oppenheimer ; April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physics, theoretical physicist who served as the director of the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory during World ...
,
Enrico Fermi Enrico Fermi (; 29 September 1901 – 28 November 1954) was an Italian and naturalized American physicist, renowned for being the creator of the world's first artificial nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1, and a member of the Manhattan Project ...
,
Julian Schwinger Julian Seymour Schwinger (; February 12, 1918 – July 16, 1994) was a Nobel Prize-winning American theoretical physicist. He is best known for his work on quantum electrodynamics (QED), in particular for developing a relativistically invariant ...
and
Victor Weisskopf Victor Frederick "Viki" Weisskopf (also spelled Viktor; September 19, 1908 – April 22, 2002) was an Austrian-born American theoretical physicist. He did postdoctoral work with Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger, Wolfgang Pauli, and Niels Boh ...
. The first session in 1951 was attended by young French professors like ,
Alfred Kastler Alfred Kastler (; 3 May 1902 – 7 January 1984) was a German-born French physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics. He is known for the development of optical pumping. Biography Kastler was born in Guebwiller (Alsace, at the time part of the Germ ...
and , as well as by famous physicists from abroad including
Walter Heitler Walter Heinrich Heitler (; 2 January 1904 – 15 November 1981) was a German physicist who made contributions to quantum electrodynamics and quantum field theory. He brought chemistry under quantum mechanics through his theory of valence bondi ...
, Léon van Hove,
Emilio Segrè Emilio Gino Segrè ( ; ; 1 February 1905 – 22 April 1989) was an Italian-American nuclear physicist and radiochemist who discovered the elements technetium and astatine, and the antiproton, a subatomic antiparticle, for which he was award ...
, Walter Kohn and
Wolfgang Pauli Wolfgang Ernst Pauli ( ; ; 25 April 1900 – 15 December 1958) was an Austrian theoretical physicist and a pioneer of quantum mechanics. In 1945, after having been nominated by Albert Einstein, Pauli received the Nobel Prize in Physics "for the ...
. The first lessons were given by Van Hove on
quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is the fundamental physical Scientific theory, theory that describes the behavior of matter and of light; its unusual characteristics typically occur at and below the scale of atoms. Reprinted, Addison-Wesley, 1989, It is ...
. Up until the 1960s, the students at the school were cut off from the outside world with the bare minimum in amenities. Nobel laureate
Claude Cohen-Tannoudji Claude Cohen-Tannoudji (; born 1 April 1933) is a French physicist. He shared the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics with Steven Chu and William Daniel Phillips for research in methods of laser cooling and magnetic trap (atoms), trapping atoms. Currentl ...
, a student in 1955, recalled Yves Rocard and Maurice Lévy, inspired by the school, founded a summer school in
Cargèse Cargèse (; or ; ; ) is a village and '' commune'' in the Corse-du-Sud department of France on the west coast of the island of Corsica, 27 km north of Ajaccio. , the commune had a population of 1,325. The village was established at the ...
,
Corsica Corsica ( , , ; ; ) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the Regions of France, 18 regions of France. It is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of the Metro ...
, which they called the '‘Les Houches on the beach". Subsequently, a number of scientific summer schools opened all over Europe following the same model, partly with the support of Advanced Study Institutes program of
NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...
. In its early years, it caused some political controversy, with the
French Communist Party The French Communist Party (, , PCF) is a Communism, communist list of political parties in France, party in France. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its Member of the European Parliament, MEPs sit with The Left in the ...
accusing the school of US espionage and interference. A counter-school project against the allegedly Americanized Les Houches school was considered but was short-lived. In 1977, a physics centre was created, specialised for shorter conferences which could take place all year round. In 1988, a pre-doctoral school was opened for young researchers entering into their PhD theses.


Attendees

This table records attendees who later went on to receive either the
Nobel Prize in Physics The Nobel Prize in Physics () is an annual award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions to mankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the ...
or the
Fields Medal The Fields Medal is a prize awarded to two, three, or four mathematicians under 40 years of age at the International Congress of Mathematicians, International Congress of the International Mathematical Union (IMU), a meeting that takes place e ...
.


Prize

The Cecile DeWitt-Morette, Ecole de Physique des Houches Prize is awarded annually since 2019. It is awarded to scientists, less than 55 year old, from any nationality, who has made a remarkable contribution to physics and have attended the school as a lecturer or student. The jury is composed of members of the
French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...
. Since 2023, it is called the Cécile DeWitt-Morette / Ecole de Physique des Houches / Fundation CFM for Research prize. The laureates are:


References


External links


École de Physique des Houches web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ecole De Physique Des Houches Education in France Summer schools Physics education