Ana María Cetto

Ana María Cetto Kramis
Ana María Cetto at IAEA Commemorative Ceremony on the Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 2010
Born1946 (age 79–80)
Mexico City, Mexico
Alma mater
Known for
SpouseLuis de la Peña[1]
Parent(s)Max Cetto and Gertrud Catarina Kramis
Scientific career
Fields
Physics
Institutions

Ana María Cetto Kramis (born 1946) is a Mexican physicist and professor. Her work specializes in quantum mechanics, stochastic theory, electrodynamics, and biophysics of light. She is also known for her work as a pacifist and activist for women in science.[2] From 2003 to 2010 she was Deputy Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). She was also professor and director at the Faculty of Sciences at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), from 1979 to 1982.[3] Cetto Kramis is responsible for several scientific literature programs in Latin America and for several international programs on the promotion and participation of women in physics.

Early life

Ana María Cetto Kramis was born and raised in Mexico City, attending primary and secondary school in the greater Mexico City area.[4] She was raised by her parents Gertrud Katarina Kramis, a Swiss designer, and Max Ludwig Cetto Day, a German architect. Her parents were refugees from the Nazi dictatorship. She completed her primary schooling at the German School Alexander von Humboldt of Mexico City, but requested to be transferred to public high school and attended Secondary School Nº 8, Tomás, Garrigue Masaryk in San Pedro de los Pinos. Ultimately, she returned to the German School to complete her two-year preparatory education. Her physics courses were conducted in German, which "presented some challenges for her, as she felt it was not the same as thinking in Spanish." [5]

Personal life

Ana María Cetto Kramis currently resides in Mexico City and is married to her long time mentor from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), physicist Luis de la Peña.

Education

Ana María Cetto Kramis attended the local National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) for her undergraduate degree. For graduate school, Cetto Kramis relocated to the United States for a master's degree at Harvard University in biophysics. She then returned to UNAM where she obtained a master's degree and research PhD focusing on stochastic theory and quantum mechanics. Cetto Kramis more recently gained honorary doctorates from Tajik State National University (TSNU) from 2007 and the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences in 2010.[6]

National and international work

Ana María Cetto Kramis has published over 300 scientific articles on various subjects: stochastic theory, quantum mechanics, and Latin American science advocation. She has also been the director of the Faculty of Sciences at UNAM (1978–1982),[7] as well as a professor, and researcher at the same institution. She was elected president of the executive committee of the Mexican Physical Society in 2021.[8]

Cetto Kramis has been involved in the management of several international organizations. In 1995, she was council member of the Pugwash Conferences,[9] and in 2002 she was appointed as general secretary of the International Council for Science (ICSU), becoming the first Latin American appointed to the position.[2] Cetto Kramis is also a co-founder and vice-president of the Third World Organization for Women in Science (TWOWS). From 2003 to 2010 she was Deputy Technical Director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).[10] She has also been a member of the Governing Board of the United Nations University (UNU) and a counsel president for the International Foundation for Science (IFS).

Cetto Kramis' trajectory has been recognized on various occasions. She was awarded as "Woman of the Year" in Mexico in 2003 for being an "ambassador of physics in Mexico."[11] She has also received several other distinctions as a member of the Third World Academy of Science, the Mexican Academy of Science, the Mexican Physics Academy and the American Physical Society, and as a member of the World Future Council.

In 2015, the University of Guadalajara created the "Ana María Cetto Chair for the Diffusion of Scientific Culture" in recognition of her scientific work.[12] Cetto Kramis has also participated in several international programs aimed at promoting women's participation in science.[3] Because of her advocacy, she received the "Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz" distinction awarded by the UNAM.[13] She is also responsible for the creation of scientific information programs in Latin America, and programs for the promotion and participation of women in science.

Throughout her career, Cetto Kramis has been involved in various initiatives promoting women in science. She is a jury member of the Ada Byron Award, Mexico Chapter,[14] an award created by the University of Deusto to recognize women who work in the labor fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.[14]

Scientific dissemination

Another of her lines of work has been the dissemination of scientific content. Cetto Kramis is a directing member of the Mexican Journal of Physics and the founding president of Latindex (Regional Online Information System for Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain, and Portugal): a free, open-access, online scholarly journal system created in 1997, containing Spanish translations of scholarly sources.[15] It began as a database of academic journals in Latin America, including ones that were no longer active or focused on scientific communication. The database also established criteria to define what makes a quality journal, based on the historical, cultural, and scientific context of the region, supporting and promoting scientific publication in regional languages.

Currently, Cetto Kramis is part of the foundation board of the Directory of Open Access Journals.[16] She serves as the chair of UNESCO's Scientific Diplomacy & Scientific Heritage,[17] and contributed to the creation of recommendations from UNESCO’s Open Science Committee, which were published in 2021.[18]

Museum of Light

Cetto Kramis participated in the project focused on the creation of the Museum of Light in Mexico City. The Museum of Light is a thematic museum of the General Directorate for the Dissemination of Science of UNAM, and was inaugurated in 1996.[19] Cetto Kramis was in charge of its renovation in 2016.[20] She was also a promoter of the International Year of Light 2015 and belongs to the International Steering Committee of the International Day of Light.[21][22]

Awards and honors

Ana María Cetto Kramis' work has been related to the Nobel Peace Prize on two different occasions. While on the council of Pugwash Conferences in 1995, the organization received the Nobel Peace Prize.[9] The prize was granted for "their efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics and, in the longer run, to eliminate such arms."[23] From 2003 to 2010 she was Deputy Director General and Head of Technical Cooperation Department of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) dedicated to the control of the proliferation of nuclear weapons.[10] The IAEA was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 for "their effort to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way."[24]

List of awards and honors

Ana María Cetto Kramis' work has been recognized with several other distinctions, including the following:

  • Golden Award from the International League of Humanists (1998)[25]
  • Prize for the Development of Physics from the Mexican Society of Physics (2000)[25]
  • Honorary doctorate from the Tajik National University (2007)[25]
  • Second place in the Award for Mexican Women Inventors and Innovators for the Latindex Project (2008) [26]
  • Juchimán Silver Prize in Science and Technology 2010, Mexico, (2011) [3]
  • Physics Research Prize (2012) [27]
  • Selected as one of the thirteen women for the "Woman and Science: 13 Names to Change the World" Exhibition (2013) [28]
  • Included among the 50 most outstanding women in Mexico by Forbes Mexico magazine (2015) [4]
  • International Festival of Mayan Culture (FICMAYA) Gold Medal (2017) [29]
  • UNESCO Kalinga Prize (2023)
  • American Institute of Physics Tate Medal for International Leadership in Physics (2025)[30]

Selected work

Selected articles

  1. Ceccon E, Cetto AM. Capacity building for sustainable development: some Mexican perspectives. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND WORLD ECOLOGY 10 (4): 345-352 DEC 2003
  2. de la Pena L, Cetto AM. Planck's law as a consequence of the zeropoint radiation field REVISTA MEXICANA DE FÍSICA 48: 1-8 Suppl. 1 SEP 2002
  3. de la Pena L, Cetto AM. Quantum theory and linear stochastic electrodynamics. FOUNDATIONS OF PHYSICS 31 (12): 1703-1731 DEC 2001
  4. Vessuri H, Cetto AM. "Pertinence" and "impact". INTERCIENCIA 24 (3): 146-150 MAY-JUN 1999
  5. Cetto AM, Alonso-Gamboa O. Scientific periodicals in Latin America and the Caribbean: A global perspective. INTERCIENCIA 23 (2): 84-+ MAR-APR 1998
  6. de la Pena L, Cetto AM. Estimate of Planck's constant from an electromagnetic Mach principle. FOUNDATIONS OF PHYSICS LETTERS 10 (6): 591-598 DEC 1997
  7. "Cetto, A.M., Valdés-Hernández, A. & de la Peña, L. On the Spin Projection Operator and the Probabilistic Meaning of the Bipartite Correlation Function. Found Phys 50, 27–39 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10701-019-00313-8"

Key findings from selected works

7. This article from 2020 highlights some of the work Cetto Kramis has focussed on with her mentor and husband Luis de la Peña. The publication looks at the fundamental property of spin in electrons and highlights its significance with wide-ranging implications. It acknowledges that the formal treatment of spin often obscures the physical content and meaning of the spin operator and associated observables. The study is looking for the meaning behind the formalism by revisiting basic facts about the one-particle spin operator and analyzing spin projection operator correlation functions.[31]

Books

  • Cetto, Ana María. La luz en la naturaleza y en el laboratorio. México, D.F.: Sep-Fondo de Cultura Económica : Conacyt, 1987. Serie La ciencia desde México; 32.
  • de la Peña, Luis; Cetto, Ana María (1996). van der Merwe, Alwyn (ed.). The Quantum Dice: An Introduction to Stochastic Electrodynamics. Dordrecht; Boston; London: Kluwer Academic Publishers. doi:10.1007/978-94-015-8723-5. ISBN 0-7923-3818-9. LCCN 95040168. OCLC 832537438.
  • de la Peña, Luis; Cetto, Ana María; Valdés-Hernández, Andrea (2016). The Emerging Quantum: The Physics Behind Quantum Mechanics. Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-07893-9. ISBN 978-3-319-34792-9. OCLC 957533055.

References

Notes

  1. ^ Jammer 1974, p. 435.
  2. ^ a b "Ana María Cetto, reconocida científica por su labor pacifista | Fundación UNAM" (in Mexican Spanish). Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  3. ^ a b c "Ana María Cetto reconocida con el premio Juchiman de Plata 2010". Instituto de Física, UNAM (in Spanish). Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  4. ^ a b Staff, Forbes (19 June 2015). "5 mujeres poderosas e inesperadas de México". Forbes México (in Mexican Spanish). Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  5. ^ Charbonneau, Patrick; Frank, Michelle; van der Heijden, Margriet; Monaldi, Daniela, eds. (19 June 2025). Women in the History of Quantum Physics: Beyond Knabenphysik (1 ed.). Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781009535816. ISBN 978-1-009-53581-6.
  6. ^ "Nuestra Gente - Dra Ana María Beatriz Cetto Kramis". www.fisica.unam.mx. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  7. ^ Cavanillas, Belen (16 March 2016). "Entrevista a Doctora Ana María Cetto de UNAM". smartlighting (in Spanish). Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  8. ^ "Cómite Ejecutivo". Sociedad Mexicana de Física. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  9. ^ a b "Ciencia y género: entrevista a Ana María Cetto • LADO B". LADO B (in Spanish). 14 June 2016. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  10. ^ a b Partnership (IAP), the InterAcademy. "Ana María Cetto". www.interacademies.org. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  11. ^ ""Mujer del año", Ana María Cetto, Julieta Fierro y Linda Manzanilla". www.proceso.com.mx (in Spanish). Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  12. ^ "Cátedra para la Difusión de la Cultura Científica Ana María Cetto | Coordinación General de Comunicación Social". comsoc.udg.mx (in Spanish). 30 November 2017. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  13. ^ "Conociendo a Ana María Cetto Kramis. La Mujer Atómica". www.revistahypatia.org. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  14. ^ a b "Jurado – Premio Ada Byron" (in Mexican Spanish). Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  15. ^ "Latindex - Sistema regional de información en línea para Revistas científicas de América Latina, el Caribe, España y Portugal". www.latindex.org. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  16. ^ "Foundation Board & Advisory Board – DOAJ". doaj.org. Retrieved 12 March 2026.
  17. ^ "About us – UNESCO Science Diplomacy and Scientific Heritage". Retrieved 12 March 2026.
  18. ^ "Open science". Archived from the original on 23 February 2026. Retrieved 12 March 2026.
  19. ^ ""Museo de la Luz, único en su tipo en el mundo": Ana María Cetto". www.cronica.com.mx/ (in Spanish). 16 January 2017. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  20. ^ "🔊Ana María Cetto y el Museo de la Luz, una historia en común | UNAM Global" (in Spanish). 22 November 2016. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  21. ^ Barreiro, Luis Juan López (4 June 2018). "La LUZ ya tiene su día | Iluminet revista de iluminación" (in Spanish). Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  22. ^ "UNESCO Endorses International Day of Light". spie.org. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  23. ^ "The Nobel Peace Prize 1995". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  24. ^ "The Nobel Peace Prize 2005". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  25. ^ a b c Sciences (TWAS), The World Academy of. "Cetto Kramis, Ana María". TWAS. Retrieved 15 May 2024.
  26. ^ Unam, Comunidad (20 October 2008). "PREMIAN A ANA MARÍA CETTO POR LA CREACIÓN DEL LATINDEX". Gaceta UNAM (2000-2009) (in European Spanish) (3946): 3.
  27. ^ "Arranca Congreso Nacional de Física con premio a Ana María Cetto". Instituto de Física, UNAM (in Spanish). Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  28. ^ "Mujer y Ciencia: 13 nombres para cambiar el mundo". Facultad de Ciencias (in European Spanish). Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  29. ^ Quintal, Por Johnny Oliver. "Mujeres destacadas reciben la Medalla de Oro del Ficmaya". Johnny Oliver Quintal. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  30. ^ "Ana María Cetto Awarded 2025 Tate Medal for International Leadership in Physics - AIP.ORG". AIP. 18 March 2025. Retrieved 1 November 2025.
  31. ^ Cetto Kramis, Ana Maria (2022). "Electron Spin Correlations: Probabilistic Description and Geometric Representation". Entropy. 24 (10): 1439. Bibcode:2022Entrp..24.1439C. doi:10.3390/e24101439. PMC 9601821. PMID 37420458.

Bibliography

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