# Ana María Cetto

Ana María Cetto Kramis (born 1946, in Mexico City) 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. 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 1979-1982. 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. She was raised by her immigrant parents and is the daughter of the well known German-Mexican architect Max Cetto.

## 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 focussing 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.

## 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), 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.
Ana María Cetto Kramis has been involved in the management of several international organizations. In 1995, she was council member of the Pugwash Conferences, 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. 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). She has also been a member of the Governing Board of the United Nations University (UNU) and a counsil president for the International Foundation for Science (IFS).
Cetto Kramis's 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." 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. Ana María Cetto has also participated in several international programs aimed at promoting women's participation in science. Because of her advocacy, she received the "Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz" distinction awarded by the UNAM. 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, an award created by the University of Deusto to recognize women who work in the labor fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

### 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: a free, online scholarly journal system created in 1997, containing Spanish translations of scholarly sources.

### Museum of Light

Ana María Cetto 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. Cetto was in charge of its renovation in 2016. 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.

## Awards and honors

Ana María Cetto Kramis's 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. 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." 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. 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."

### List of awards and honors

Ana María Cetto Kramis's work has been recognized with several other distinctions, including the following:
* Golden Award from the International League of Humanists (1998)
* Prize for the Development of Physics from the Mexican Society of Physics (2000)
* Honorary doctorate from the Tajik National University (2007)
* Second place in the Award for Mexican Women Inventors and Innovators for the Latindex Project (2008)
* Juchimán Silver Prize in Science and Technology 2010, Mexico, (2011)
* Physics Research Prize (2012)
* Selected as one of the thirteen women for the "Woman and Science: 13 Names to Change the World" Exhibition (2013)
* Included among the 50 most outstanding women in Mexico by Forbes Mexico magazine (2015)
* International Festival of Mayan Culture (FICMAYA) Gold Medal (2017)
* UNESCO Kalinga Prize (2023)

## Selected work
### Selected articles

* 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
* 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
* de la Pena L, Cetto AM. Quantum theory and linear stochastic electrodynamics. FOUNDATIONS OF PHYSICS 31 (12): 1703-1731 DEC 2001
* Vessuri H, Cetto AM. "Pertinence" and "impact". INTERCIENCIA 24 (3): 146-150 MAY-JUN 1999
* Cetto AM, Alonso-Gamboa O. Scientific periodicals in Latin America and the Caribbean: A global perspective. INTERCIENCIA 23 (2): 84-+ MAR-APR 1998
* 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
* "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.

### 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.