profile image of Bernadette Lessel
People

Bernadette Lessel

Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow (Nov 2022–Jan 2025)

Dr.

Bernadette defended her PhD thesis entitled “Shape Space in Terms of Wasserstein Geometry and Applications to Quantum Physics” in June 2018 at the Mathematical Institute of the University of Göttingen. In this work she constructed a mathematical framework to model (non-relativistic, one-particle) quantum dynamics without reference to a spatial background structure, but rather by means of the change of the shape of the state.

During her PhD project, Bernadette was also Visiting Graduate Fellow at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Canada.

In July 2018 Bernadette joined Alexander Blum's MPIWG Research Group on “Historical Epistemology of the Final Theory Program.” There she investigates the question how mathematical reasoning has become a major tool for theory development towards a fundamental equation of physics, pushing aside traditional guiding principles such as induction from data or deduction from physical principles. Besides this, Bernadette is interested to understand the historical and cultural process that led to the final theory program and in the specific motivations for such an endeavor of the main researchers involved.

Projects

The Role of Mathematics in the Final Theory Program

MORE

No projects were found for this scholar.

Selected Publications

Lessel, Bernadette (2024). “From History of Physics to ‘History for Physics.’” The European Physical Journal H 49 (Article 19). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjh/s13129-024-00084-5.

Read More

Lessel, Bernadette (2024). León Rosenfeld and the Quest for Unification [Podcast]. Science Social Podcast. Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. https://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/podcast/science-social-08-leon-rosenfeld-and-quest…

Read More

Lessel, Bernadette (2023). “Walther Mayer — More than ‘Einstein’s Calculator.’” Bits of History (blog), March 22, 2023. https://www.iqoqi-vienna.at/de/blogs/blog/walther-mayer-more-than-einsteins-calculator.

Read More

Blum, Alexander S. and Bernadette Lessel (2022). “The Interpretation Debate and Quantum Gravity.” In The Oxford Handbook of the History of Quantum Interpretations, ed. O. Freire Jr, G. Bacciagaluppi, O. Darrigol, T. Hartz, C. Joas, A. Kojevnikov,…

Read More

Presentations, Talks, & Teaching Activities

Organizer: Live Talks Series on "Diverse Science"

Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin

View Program
Organizer: "History for Physics"

Vienna and Potsdam

View Program

News & Press

Museum für Naturkunde "Diverse Science" talk series coorganized by Postdoctoral Fellow Bernadette Lessel

More

Collaborative symposium to explore the importance of history for current physics research

More

Applications open: “History for Physics" series: Quantum Gravity, deadline November 1, 2019

More

Digital Resources