Bernard d'Espagnat

Bernard d'Espagnat (b. Fourmagnac, France, 1921) theoretical physicist and author, best known for his work on the nature of reality.

Quote: "The doctrine that the world is made up of objects whose existence is independent of human consciousness turns out to be in conflict with quantum mechanics and with facts established by experiment." [ [d'Espagnat, Bernard, The Quantum Theory and Reality, Scientific American, Nov. 1979] ]

Education and career

Bernard d'Espagnat obtained his PhD from the Ecole Polytechnique and the Institut Henri Poincaré (Louis de Broglie group), and started his career as a researcher at the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique CNRS from 1947 to 1957. During this period he also worked with the physicist Enrico Fermi in Chicago (1951-1952), and on a research project led by Niels Bohr at the Institute in Copenhagen (1953-1954). He then pursued his scientific career at the Geneva based Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Nucleaires (CERN) and, as a theoretical physicist, at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (1954-1959).

From 1959 until his retirement in 1987 Bernard d'Espagnat worked as a senior lecturer at the faculty of Sciences of the Sorbonne University. He was director of the Laboratory of Theoretical Physics and Elementary Particles at the University of Paris XI (Orsay) from (1980-1987).

Visiting professor at the University of Texas, Austin (USA) in 1977 and the University of California in Santa Barbara (1984)

Member of the International Academcy of the Philosophy of Science (Brussels), since 1975.

Member of the French Academy of Moral and Political Sciences since 1996

Publications

*1965 - Conceptions de la physique contemporaine; les interprétations de la mécanique quantique et de la mesure.
*1971 - Conceptual Foundations of Quantum Mechanics.
*1979 - A la recherche du réel, le regard d’un physicien. (In Search of Reality)
*1982 - Un atome de sagesse, propos d’un physicien sur le réel voilé.
*1984 - Nonseparability and the Tentative Descriptions of Reality.
*1985 - Une incertaine réalité; le monde quantique, la connaissance et la durée.
*1990 - Penser la science ou les enjeux du savoir.
*1990 - Georges d’Espagnat.
*1993 - Regards sur la matière des quanta et des choses (en collaboration).
*1994 - Le Réel voilé, analyse des concepts quantiques (Veiled Reality: An Analysis of Present-day Quantum Mechanical Concepts)
*1997 - Physique et réalité, un débat avec Bernard d'Espagnat
*1998 - Ondine et les feux du savoir. Carnets d'une petite sirène
*2002 - Traité de physique et de philosophie (2006 On physics and philosophy. Princeton University Press)

External links

* [http://www.asmp.fr/fiches_academiciens/ESPAGNAT.HTM French Academy of Political and Moral Sciences]

Notes