WIGNER, EUGENE PAUL

WIGNER, EUGENE PAUL (1902–1995), Nobel laureate in physics. Wigner was born in Budapest and was one of a small number of extraordinarily talented Hungarian-born physicists who contributed to the transformation of Newtonian physics. Wigner obtained his doctorate from the Technische Hochschule (later Universitaet) in Berlin in 1925, where his contacts with physicists of equal standing were established at colloquia of the German Physical Society. He worked at a Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, followed by the University of Goettingen, until his recruitment by Princeton University in 1930, a move precipitated by his early perception of the Nazi menace. In 1936–38 he worked at the University of Wisconsin before returning to Princeton. He moved to the University of Chicago (1942–45) to contribute to the Manhattan Project, before becoming director of research and development at the Clinton Laboratories (later Oak Ridge National Laboratory) (1946–48). However, from preference for teaching and research, he returned to Princeton for the rest of his career. His main interests in theoretical physics concerned quantum mechanics and nuclear reactions but later became more philosophical. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1963 (jointly with Maria Goeppert-Mayer and Hans Jensen) for the invariance principle, which concerns the rules governing observable physical events. He was also a practical engineer. His involvement in the Manhattan Project arose from his fear that the Nazis might develop nuclear weapons, and he helped to prepare Einstein's letter to President Roosevelt. He contributed to the design of the first experimental fission reactor in Chicago and the first reactor for plutonium production at Hanford. His honors included the U.S. Medal of Merit (1946), the Fermi Prize (1958), the Atoms for Peace Award (1960), and the U.S. National Medal of Science (1969). In 1970 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society and other learned societies, including the National   Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Art and Sciences. He was a member of the General Advisory Committee to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission from 1952 to 1957, was reappointed to the Committee in 1959, and served on it until 1964. (Michael Denman (2nd ed.)