Eugene Paul Wigner, born in
Budapest, Hungary, on November 17, 1902, naturalized a citizen of
the United States on January 8, 1937, has been since 1938 Thomas
D. Jones Professor of Mathematical Physics at Princeton
University - he retired in 1971. His formal education was
acquired in Europe; he obtained the Dr. Ing. degree at the
Technische
Hochschule Berlin. Married in 1941 to Mary Annette Wheeler,
he is the father of two children, David and Martha. His son,
David, is teaching mathematics at the University of
California in Berkeley. His daughter, Martha, is with the
Chicago area transportation system, an organization endeavoring
to improve the internal transportation system of that city.
Dr.Wigner worked on the Manhattan Project at the University of
Chicago during World War II, from 1942 to 1945, and in
1946-1947 became Director of Research and Development at Clinton
Laboratories. Official recognition of his work in nuclear
research includes the U. S. Medal for Merit, presented in 1946;
the Enrico Fermi Prize (U.S.A.E.C.) awarded in 1958; and the
Atoms for Peace Award, in 1960. Dr. Wigner holds the Medal of the
Franklin Society, the Max Planck Medal of the German Physical
Society, the George Washington Award of the American-Hungarian
Studies Foundation (1964), the Semmelweis Medal of the
American-Hungarian Medical Association (1965), and the National
Medal of Science (1969). He has received honorary degrees from
the University of
Wisconsin, Washington University, Case Institute, University of
Alberta ( Canada ), University of Chicago, Colby College,
University of Pennsylvania,
Yeshiva
University, Thiel College, Notre Dame University, Technische
Universität Berlin, Swarthmore College, Université de
Louvain, Université de Liège, University of
Illinois, Seton Hall, Catholic University and The Rockefeller
University. He is a past vice- president and president of the
American Physical Society, of which he remains a member. He is a
past member of the board of directors of the American Nuclear
Society and still a member; he holds memberships in the American
Philosophical Society, the American Mathematical Society, the
American Association of Physics Teachers, the National Academy of
Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal
Netherlands Academy of Sciences and Letters, the American
Association for the Advancement of Science, the Austrian Academy
of Sciences, he is corresponding member of the Gesellschaft der
Wissenschaften, Gottingen, and foreign member of the Royal
Society of Great Brittain. He was a member of the General
Advisory Committee to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission from
1952-1957, was reappointed to this committee in 1959 and served
on it until 1964.
From Nobel Lectures, Physics 1963-1970, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1972
This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.
Eugene Wigner died on January 1, 1995.
Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1963
Eugene Wigner
