[1] Initially, she pursued engineering, but she eventually obtained two degrees in the sciences and in philosophy at the University of Sorbonne in Paris.

In 1935, Tonnelat pursued a doctorate in theoretical physics under Louis de Broglie at the Institut Henri Poincaré.

De Broglie supported her research in unified field theory, but he himself stayed away from it and chose not to be directly involved with her studies.

[3] Although her papers were eventually published at the French Academy of Sciences, her work was subject to delays due to an interruption caused by German occupation of France in the early 1940s.

After the war, Tonnelat spent some time at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies with scientist Erwin Schrödinger in order to focus on furthering the research she had done under de Broglie earlier in her life.

[4] In 1953, just prior to Einstein's death, Marie-Antoinette Tonnelat was invited to Princeton University to speak about the topic at the International Congress for the History of Science in Jerusalem.

[3] In the 1960s, Tonnelat participated as nominator for the Nobel Prize in Physics, she proposed Louis Néel in 1960 and Alfred Kastler in 1965.

[7] For her book History of the Principle of Relativity (French: Histoire du principe de la Relativité) Tonnelat received the Prix d'Académie [fr] of the Académie Française in 1972 awarded for outstanding publications.