Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat

Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat
Choquet-Bruhat in 1974
Born
Yvonne Suzanne Marie-Louise Bruhat

(1923-12-29)29 December 1923
Died11 February 2025(2025-02-11) (aged 101)
Mérignac, France
Alma mater
Known for
Spouses
  • Léonce Fourès
    (m. 1947; div. 1960)
  • (died 2006)
Children3, including Daniel
Awards
Scientific career
Fields
InstitutionsPierre and Marie Curie University
Thesis Théorème d'existence pour certains systèmes d'équations aux dérivées partielles non linéaires  (1951)
Doctoral advisorAndré Lichnerowicz

Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat (French: [ivɔn ʃɔkɛ bʁy.a] ; 29 December 1923 – 11 February 2025) was a French mathematician and physicist. She made seminal contributions to the study of general relativity, by showing that the Einstein field equations can be put into the form of an initial value problem which is well-posed. In 2015, her breakthrough paper was listed by the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity as one of thirteen 'milestone' results in the study of general relativity, across the hundred years in which it had been studied.

Choquet-Bruhat was the first woman to be elected to the French Academy of Sciences and was a Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour.