Joël Scherk

Who was Joël Scherk?

Joël Scherk, often cited as Joel Scherk, was a French theoretical physicist who studied string theory and supergravity. In 1974, together with John H. Schwarz, he realised that string theory was a theory of quantum gravity. In 1978, together with Eugène Cremmer and Bernard Julia, Scherk constructed the Lagrangian and supersymmetry transformations for supergravity in eleven dimensions, which is one of the foundations of M-theory.

He died unexpectedly, and in tragic circumstances, months after the supergravity workshop at the State University of New York at Stony Brook that was held on 27–29 September 1979. The workshop proceedings were dedicated to his memory, and stated that he suffered from diabetes, and got stuck somewhere without his insulin, and went into a coma.

The high-energy theory library of the Laboratoire de Physique Théorique at École Normale Supérieure is dedicated in his honor. A conference in Paris, on 16–20 October 2006, celebrating 30 years of supergravity, was dedicated to Scherk.