 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, with a statement that he, a diabetic, was trapped somewhere without his insulin and went into a diabetic coma.