Physicist Cécile DeWitt-Morette has been promoted to the rank of Officer in the French Legion of Honor.
Dr. Cecile Dewitt-Morette with a team of UT physicists (including her husband, Bryce Dewitt, back left) in Mauritania in 1973. They went there to observe a solar eclipse to test out Einstein's prediction that light passing through a gravitational field would be deflected more than was accounted for by Newtonian physics.Cécile DeWitt-Morette, the Jane and Roland Blumberg Professor of Physics, has been promoted to the rank of Officer in the French Legion of Honor. The Order is the highest decoration in France, and her promotion within the Order is a major honor. It recognizes Dewitt-Morette's continuing contribution to French science and culture.
Dewitt-Morette was first named to the Legion of Honor, as a knight, in recognition of the role played by a school she founded in the revival of theoretical physics after World War Il.
Having already been awarded the medal of the Knights of the Legion of Honor, she will be changing the red ribbon denoting her status as a Knight for the red ribbon with a Rosette denoting an Officer of the Legion, the next rank of the Legion of Honor. The remaining three ranks are Commander, Grand Officer, and Grand Cross. Grand Cross is usually dedicated to Heads of State (kings, emperors, and presidents).
Napoleon Bonaparte created the French Legion of Honor in 1802 to honor exemplary civil or military conduct.
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