Editing Eugene Wigner

{{short description|Hungarian-American physicist and mathematician (1902–1995)}}
{{eastern name order|Wigner Jenő Pál}}
{{good article}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Eugene Wigner
| image             = Wigner.jpg
| caption           = Wigner in 1963
| birth_name        = Wigner Jenő Pál
| birth_date        = {{Birth date|1902|11|17}}
| birth_place       =[[Budapest]], [[Austria-Hungary]]
| death_date        = {{death date and age|1995|1|1|1902|11|17}}
| death_place       = [[Princeton, New Jersey]], U.S.
| citizenship       = {{ubl|Hungary (by birth)|United States (naturalized 1937)}}
| nationality       = 
| fields            = {{ubl|[[Theoretical physics]]|[[Atomic physics]]|[[Nuclear physics]]|[[Solid-state physics]]}}
| workplaces        = {{ubl|[[University of Göttingen]]|[[University of Wisconsin–Madison]]|[[Princeton University]]|[[Manhattan Project]]|[[University of Chicago]]}}
| alma_mater        = [[Budapest University of Technology and Economics]]<br>[[Technische Universität Berlin]]
| doctoral_advisor  = [[Michael Polanyi]]
| academic_advisors = {{ubl|[[László Rátz]]|[[Richard Becker (physicist)|Richard Becker]]}}
| doctoral_students = {{ubl|[[John Bardeen]]|[[Victor Frederick Weisskopf]]|[[Marcos Moshinsky]]|[[Abner Shimony]]|[[Edwin Thompson Jaynes]]|[[Frederick Seitz]]|[[Conyers Herring]]|[[Fred Tappert|Frederick Tappert]]|[[Joseph O. Hirschfelder|J O Hirschfelder]]}}
| notable_students  = 
| known_for         = {{ubl|[[Bargmann–Wigner equations]]|[[Conservation law (physics)|Law of conservation of]] [[parity (physics)|parity]]|[[Wigner D-matrix]]|[[Wigner–Eckart theorem]]|[[Wigner's friend]]|[[Wigner semicircle distribution]]|[[Wigner's classification]]|[[Wigner distribution function]]|[[Wigner quasiprobability distribution]]|[[Wigner crystal]]|[[Wigner effect]]|[[Wigner energy]]|[[Relativistic Breit–Wigner distribution]]|[[Modified Wigner distribution function]]|Wigner–d'Espagnat inequality|[[Gabor–Wigner transform]]|[[Wigner's theorem]]|[[Jordan–Wigner transformation]]|[[Newton–Wigner localization]]|[[Wigner–Inonu contraction]]|[[Wigner–Seitz cell]]|[[Wigner–Seitz radius]]|[[Thomas–Wigner rotation]]|[[Wigner–Weyl transform]]|[[Wigner–Wilkins spectrum]]|[[6-j symbol]]|[[9-j symbol]]}}
| awards            = {{ubl|[[Medal for Merit]] (1946)|[[Franklin Medal]] (1950)|[[Enrico Fermi Award]] (1958)|[[Atoms for Peace Award]] (1959)|[[Max Planck Medal]] (1961)|[[Nobel Prize in Physics]] (1963)|[[National Medal of Science]] (1969)|[[Albert Einstein Award]] (1972)|[[Wigner Medal]] (1978)}}
| signature         = eugene wigner sig.jpg
| footnotes         = 
| spouse            = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|Amelia Frank|1936|1937|end=died}}
* {{marriage|Mary Annette Wheeler|1941|1977|end=died}}
* {{marriage|Eileen Clare-Patton Hamilton|1979}}}} 
| children          = David Wigner, Martha Wigner
| thesis_title      = Bildung und Zerfall von Molekülen
| thesis_url        = http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/916074283
| thesis_year       = 1925
}}
'''Eugene Paul Wigner''' ({{langx|hu|Wigner Jenő Pál}}, {{IPA|hu|ˈviɡnɛr ˈjɛnøː ˈpaːl|pron}}; November 17, 1902 – January 1, 1995) was a Hungarian-American [[theoretical physicist]] who also contributed to [[mathematical physics]]. He received the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] in 1963 "for his contributions to the theory of the [[atomic nucleus]] and the [[elementary particles]], particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles".<ref name="Prize">{{cite web |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1963/ |title=The Nobel Prize in Physics 1963 |access-date=May 19, 2015 |publisher=Nobel Foundation}}</ref>

A graduate of the Technical Hochschule Berlin (now [[Technische Universität Berlin]]), Wigner worked as an assistant to [[Karl Weissenberg]] and [[Richard Becker (physicist)|Richard Becker]] at the [[Max Planck Institute for Physics|Kaiser Wilhelm Institute]] in Berlin, and [[David Hilbert]] at the [[University of Göttingen]]. Wigner and [[Hermann Weyl]] were responsible for introducing [[group theory]] into physics, particularly the theory of [[symmetry in physics]]. Along the way he performed ground-breaking work in pure mathematics, in which he authored a number of [[mathematical theorem]]s. In particular, [[Wigner's theorem]] is a cornerstone in the [[mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics]]. He is also known for his research into the structure of the [[atomic nucleus]]. In 1930, [[Princeton University]] recruited Wigner, along with [[John von Neumann]], and he moved to the United States, where he obtained citizenship in 1937.

Wigner participated in a meeting with [[Leo Szilard]] and [[Albert Einstein]] that resulted in the [[Einstein–Szilard letter]], which prompted President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] to authorize the creation of the [[Advisory Committee on Uranium]] with the purpose of investigating the feasibility of [[nuclear weapons]]. Wigner was afraid that the [[German nuclear weapon project]] would develop an atomic bomb first. During the Manhattan Project, he led a team whose task was to design [[nuclear reactor]]s to convert [[uranium]] into [[weapons grade plutonium]]. At the time, reactors existed only on paper, and no reactor had yet [[Criticality (status)|gone critical]]. Wigner was disappointed that [[DuPont]] was given responsibility for the detailed design of the reactors, not just their construction. He became director of research and development at the Clinton Laboratory (now the [[Oak Ridge National Laboratory]]) in early 1946, but became frustrated with bureaucratic interference by the [[United States Atomic Energy Commission|Atomic Energy Commission]], and returned to Princeton.

In the postwar period, he served on government bodies, including the [[National Bureau of Standards]] from 1947 to 1951, the mathematics panel of the [[United States National Research Council|National Research Council]] from 1951 to 1954, the physics panel of the [[National Science Foundation]], and the influential General Advisory Committee of the [[United States Atomic Energy Commission|Atomic Energy Commission]] from 1952 to 1957 and again from 1959 to 1964. In later life, he became more philosophical, and published ''[[The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences]]'', his best-known work outside technical mathematics and physics.

==Early life and education==
[[File:Heisenberg,W. Wigner,E. 1928.jpg|thumb|left|[[Werner Heisenberg]] and Eugene Wigner (1928)]]
Wigner Jenő Pál was born in [[Budapest]], [[Austria-Hungary]] on November 17, 1902, to middle class [[Jew]]ish parents, Elisabeth Elsa Einhorn and Antal Anton Wigner, a leather tanner. He had an older sister, Berta, known as Biri, and a younger sister Margit, known as Manci,{{sfn|Szanton|1992|pp=9–12}} who later married British theoretical physicist [[Paul Dirac]].{{sfn|Szanton|1992|pp=164–166}} He was home schooled by a professional teacher until the age of 9, when he started school at the third grade. During this period, Wigner developed an interest in mathematical problems.{{sfn|Szanton|1992|pp=14–15}} At the age of 11, Wigner contracted what his doctors believed to be [[tuberculosis]]. His parents sent him to live for six weeks in a [[sanatorium]] in the Austrian mountains, before the doctors concluded that the diagnosis was mistaken.{{sfn|Szanton|1992|pp=22–24}}

Wigner's family was Jewish, but not religiously observant, and his [[Bar Mitzvah]] was a secular one. From 1915 through 1919, he studied at the secondary grammar school called [[Fasori Gimnázium|Fasori Evangélikus Gimnázium]], the school his father had attended. Religious education was compulsory, and he attended classes in [[Judaism]] taught by a rabbi.{{sfn|Szanton|1992|pp=33–34, 47}} A fellow student was [[János von Neumann]], who was a year behind Wigner. They both benefited from the instruction of the noted mathematics teacher [[László Rátz]].{{sfn|Szanton|1992|pp=49–53}} In 1919, to escape the [[Béla Kun]] [[Hungarian Soviet Republic|communist regime]], the Wigner family briefly fled to Austria, returning to [[Hungary]] after Kun's downfall.{{sfn|Szanton|1992|pp=40–43}} Partly as a reaction to the prominence of Jews in the Kun regime, the family converted to [[Lutheranism]].{{sfn|Szanton|1992|p=38}} Wigner explained later in his life that his family decision to convert to Lutheranism "was not at heart a religious decision but an anti-communist one".{{sfn|Szanton|1992|p=38}}

After graduating from the secondary school in 1920, Wigner enrolled at the [[Budapest University of Technology and Economics|Budapest University of Technical Sciences]], known as the ''Műegyetem''. He was not happy with the courses on offer,{{sfn|Szanton|1992|p=59}}  and in 1921 enrolled at the ''[[Technische Hochschule]] Berlin'' (now [[Technische Universität Berlin]]), where he studied [[chemical engineering]].{{sfn|Szanton|1992|pp=64–65}}  He also attended the Wednesday afternoon colloquia of the [[German Physical Society]]. These colloquia featured leading researchers including [[Max Planck]], [[Max von Laue]], [[Rudolf Ladenburg]], [[Werner Heisenberg]], [[Walther Nernst]], [[Wolfgang Pauli]], and [[Albert Einstein]].{{sfn|Szanton|1992|pp=68–75}} Wigner also met the physicist [[Leó Szilárd]], who at once became Wigner's closest friend.{{sfn|Szanton|1992|pp=93–94}} A third experience in Berlin was formative. Wigner worked at the [[Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry]] (now the [[Fritz Haber Institute]]), and there he met [[Michael Polanyi]], who became, after [[László Rátz]], Wigner's greatest teacher. Polanyi supervised Wigner's [[DSc]] thesis, ''Bildung und Zerfall von Molekülen'' ("Formation and Decay of Molecules").{{sfn|Szanton|1992|pp=76–84}}

==Middle years==
Wigner returned to Budapest, where he went to work at his father's tannery, but in 1926, he accepted an offer from [[Karl Weissenberg]] at the [[Max Planck Institute for Physics|Kaiser Wilhelm Institute]] in Berlin. Weissenberg wanted someone to assist him with his work on [[X-ray]] [[crystallography]], and Polanyi had recommended Wigner. After six months as Weissenberg's assistant, Wigner went to work for [[Richard Becker (physicist)|Richard Becker]] for two semesters. Wigner explored [[quantum mechanics]], studying the work of [[Erwin Schrödinger]]. He also delved into the [[group theory]] of [[Ferdinand Georg Frobenius|Ferdinand Frobenius]] and  [[Eduard Ritter von Weber]].{{sfn|Szanton|1992|pp=101–106}}

Wigner received a request from [[Arnold Sommerfeld]] to work at the [[University of Göttingen]] as an assistant to the great mathematician [[David Hilbert]]. This proved a disappointment, as the aged Hilbert's abilities were failing, and his interests had shifted to logic. Wigner nonetheless studied independently.{{sfn|Szanton|1992|pp=109–112}} He laid the foundation for the theory of symmetries in quantum mechanics and in 1927 introduced what is now known as the [[Wigner D-matrix]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Wigner |first=E. |year=1927 |title=Einige Folgerungen aus der Schrödingerschen Theorie für die Termstrukturen  |language=de|journal=[[Zeitschrift für Physik]] |volume=43 |issue=9–10 |pages=624–652 |doi=10.1007/BF01397327 |bibcode = 1927ZPhy...43..624W |s2cid=124334051 }}</ref> Wigner and [[Hermann Weyl]] were responsible for introducing group theory into quantum mechanics. The latter had written a standard text, ''Group Theory and Quantum Mechanics'' (1928), but it was not easy to understand, especially for younger physicists. Wigner's ''Group Theory and Its Application to the Quantum Mechanics of Atomic Spectra'' (1931) made group theory accessible to a wider audience.{{sfn|Szanton|1992|pp=116–119}}
[[File:Jucys diagram for Wigner 6-j symbol.svg|thumb|[[Jucys diagram]] for the Wigner [[6-j symbol]].  The plus sign on the nodes indicates an anticlockwise reading of its surrounding lines.  Due to its symmetries, there are many ways in which the diagram can be drawn.  An equivalent configuration can be created by taking its mirror image and thus changing the pluses to minuses.]]

In these works, Wigner laid the foundation for the theory of [[symmetry in physics|symmetries]] in [[quantum mechanics]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Wightman |first=A.S. |year=1995 |url=https://www.ams.org/notices/199507/wigner.pdf |title=Eugene Paul Wigner 1902–1995   |journal=[[Notices of the American Mathematical Society]] |volume=42 |issue=7 |pages=769–771}}</ref> [[Wigner's theorem]], proven by him in 1931, is a cornerstone of the [[mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics]]. The theorem specifies how physical [[symmetries]] such as rotations, translations, and [[CPT symmetry]] are represented on the [[Hilbert space]] of [[Quantum state|states]]. According to the theorem, any symmetry transformation is represented by a [[unitary transformation|linear and unitary]] or [[antiunitary operator|antilinear and antiunitary]] transformation of Hilbert space. The representation of a symmetry group on a Hilbert space is either an ordinary [[representation (group theory)|representation]] or a [[projective representation]].{{sfn|Wigner|1931|pp=251–254}}{{sfn|Wigner|1959|pp=233–236}}

In the late 1930s, Wigner extended his research into atomic nuclei. By 1929, his papers were drawing notice in the world of physics. In 1930, [[Princeton University]] recruited Wigner for a one-year lectureship, at 7 times the salary that he had been drawing in Europe. Princeton recruited von Neumann at the same time. Jenő Pál Wigner and János von Neumann had collaborated on three papers together in 1928 and two in 1929. They anglicized their first names to "Eugene" and "John", respectively.{{sfn|Szanton|1992|pp=127–132}} When their year was up, Princeton offered a five-year contract as visiting professors for half the year. The Technische Hochschule responded with a teaching assignment for the other half of the year. This was very timely, since the [[Nazi]]s soon rose to power in Germany.{{sfn|Szanton|1992|pp=136, 153–155}} At Princeton in 1934, Wigner introduced his sister Margit "Manci" Wigner to the physicist [[Paul Dirac]], with whom she remarried.{{sfn|Szanton|1992|pp=163–166}}

Princeton did not rehire Wigner when his contract ran out in 1936.{{sfn|Szanton|1992|pp=171–172}} Through [[Gregory Breit]], Wigner found new employment at the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison|University of Wisconsin]]. There, he met his first wife, Amelia Frank, who was a physics student there. However, she died unexpectedly in 1937, leaving Wigner distraught. He therefore accepted an offer in 1938 from Princeton to return there.{{sfn|Szanton|1992|pp=173–178}} Wigner became a [[naturalized citizen]] of the United States on January 8, 1937, and he brought his parents to the United States.{{sfn|Szanton|1992|pp=184–185}}

==Manhattan Project==
[[File:Eugene Wigner receiving Medal for Merit cph.3a38621.jpg|thumb|Wigner receiving the [[Medal for Merit]] for his work on the Manhattan Project from [[Robert P. Patterson]] (left), March 5, 1946]]
Although he was a professed political amateur, on August 2, 1939, he participated in a meeting with [[Leo Szilard|Leó Szilárd]] and [[Albert Einstein]] that resulted in the [[Einstein–Szilárd letter]], which prompted President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] to authorize the creation of the [[Advisory Committee on Uranium]] with the purpose of investigating the feasibility of [[Nuclear weapon|atomic bombs]].{{sfn|Szanton|1992|pp=197–202}} Wigner was afraid that the [[German nuclear weapon project]] would develop an atomic bomb first, and even refused to have his fingerprints taken because they could be used to track him down if Germany won.{{sfn|Szanton|1992|p=215}} "Thoughts of being murdered," he later recalled, "focus your mind wonderfully."{{sfn|Szanton|1992|p=215}}

On June 4, 1941, Wigner married his second wife, Mary Annette Wheeler, a professor of physics at [[Vassar College]], who had completed her Ph.D. at [[Yale University]] in 1932. After the war she taught physics on the faculty of [[Rutgers University]]'s [[Douglass Residential College|Douglass College]] in New Jersey until her retirement in 1964. They remained married until her death in November 1977.{{sfn|Szanton|1992|pp=205–207}}<ref>{{cite journal|title=Obituary: Mary Wigner|journal=Physics Today|date=July 1978|volume=31|issue=7|pages=58|url=http://www.physicstoday.org/resource/1/phtoad/v31/i7/p58_s2?bypassSSO=1|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130927144256/http://www.physicstoday.org/resource/1/phtoad/v31/i7/p58_s2?bypassSSO=1|url-status=dead|archive-date=2013-09-27|doi=10.1063/1.2995119|bibcode=1978PhT....31g..58.}}</ref> They had two children, David Wigner and Martha Wigner Upton.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Wigner.html |publisher=St Andrews University |title=Wigner Biography |access-date=August 10, 2013 }}</ref>

During the Manhattan Project, Wigner led a team that included [[J. Ernest Wilkins Jr.]], [[Alvin M. Weinberg]], [[Katharine Way]], [[Gale Young]] and [[Edward Creutz]]. The group's task was to design the production nuclear reactors that would convert uranium into weapons grade plutonium.  At the time, reactors existed only on paper, and no reactor had yet [[Criticality (status)|gone critical]]. In July 1942, Wigner chose a conservative 100 MW design, with a [[graphite]] [[neutron moderator]] and water cooling.{{sfn|Szanton|1992|pp=217–218}} Wigner was present at a converted rackets court under the stands at the [[University of Chicago]]'s abandoned [[Stagg Field]] on December 2, 1942, when the world's first atomic reactor, [[Chicago Pile-1|Chicago Pile One (CP-1)]] achieved a controlled [[nuclear chain reaction]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.anl.gov/Science_and_Technology/History/cp1list.html |title=Chicago Pile 1 Pioneers |publisher=[[Los Alamos National Laboratory]] |access-date=August 10, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204040953/http://www.anl.gov/Science_and_Technology/History/cp1list.html |archive-date=February 4, 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
[[File:HD.5A.036 (10555475386).jpg|thumb|left|upright|The [[Chianti]] [[Fiasco (bottle)|fiasco]] purchased by Wigner to help celebrate the first self-sustaining, controlled chain reaction. It was signed by the participants.]]
Wigner was disappointed that [[DuPont]] was given responsibility for the detailed design of the reactors, not just their construction. He threatened to resign in February 1943, but was talked out of it by the head of the [[Metallurgical Laboratory]], [[Arthur Compton]], who sent him on vacation instead. As it turned out, a design decision by DuPont to give the reactor additional load tubes for more uranium saved the project when [[neutron poison]]ing became a problem.{{sfn|Szanton|1992|pp=233–235}} Without the additional tubes, the reactor could have been run at 35% power until the boron impurities in the graphite were burned up and enough plutonium produced to run the reactor at full power; but this would have set the project back a year.{{sfn|Wigner|Weinberg|1992|p=8}} During the 1950s, he would even work for DuPont on the [[Savannah River Site]].{{sfn|Szanton|1992|pp=233–235}} Wigner did not regret working on the bomb,{{sfn|Szanton|1992|p=249}} remarking:<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mehra |first1=Jagdish |title=The Collected Works of Eugene Paul Wigner, Part A, Volume I |date=1993 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-642-08154-5 |page=12 |chapter=Eugene Paul Wigner: A Biographical Sketch}}</ref>
{{blockquote
  | text=In fact, my regret is that it was not done sooner. If we had begun trying seriously to control fission in 1939, we might have had an atomic bomb by the Winter of 1943-1944. At that time Stalin's army was still bottled up in Stalingrad. By the middle of 1945, when we first used the bomb, they had already overrun much of Central Europe. The Yalta Conference would have produced a document much less favourable to Russia, and even Communist China might have been set back. So I do not regret helping to build the bomb.
}}

An important discovery Wigner made during the project was the [[Wigner effect]]. This is a swelling of the graphite moderator caused by the displacement of atoms by [[neutron radiation]].<ref>{{cite journal | doi = 10.1063/1.1707653 | title = Theoretical Physics in the Metallurgical Laboratory of Chicago | year = 1946 | last1 = Wigner | first1 = E. P. | journal = Journal of Applied Physics | volume = 17 | issue = 11 | pages = 857–863|bibcode = 1946JAP....17..857W }}</ref> The Wigner effect was a serious problem for the reactors at the [[Hanford Site]] in the immediate post-war period, and resulted in production cutbacks and a reactor being shut down entirely.{{sfn|Rhodes|1995|p=277}} It was eventually discovered that it could be overcome by controlled heating and annealing.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://users.physics.harvard.edu/~wilson/publications/ppaper848.html |title=A young Scientist's Meetings with Wigner in America |first=Richard |last=Wilson |publisher=Wigner Symposium, Hungarian Academy of Sciences |location=Budapest |date=November 8, 2002 |access-date=May 16, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150521034509/http://users.physics.harvard.edu/~wilson/publications/ppaper848.html |archive-date= May 21, 2015 }}</ref>

Through Manhattan project funding, Wigner and [[Leonard Eisenbud]] also developed an important general approach to nuclear reactions, the Wigner–Eisenbud R-matrix theory, which was published in 1947.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/nuclear-engineering/22-106-neutron-interactions-and-applications-spring-2010/lecture-notes/MIT22_106S10_lec04b.pdf |title=Brief Review of R-Matrix Theory |first=L. C. |last=Leal  |website=MIT OpenCourseWare |access-date=August 12, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131111071906/http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/nuclear-engineering/22-106-neutron-interactions-and-applications-spring-2010/lecture-notes/MIT22_106S10_lec04b.pdf |archive-date= Nov 11, 2013 }}
* The original paper is {{cite journal|last1=Wigner|first1=E. P.|last2=Eisenbud|first2=L.|title=Higher Angular Momenta and Long Range Interaction in Resonance Reactions|journal=Physical Review|date=1 July 1947|volume=72|issue=1|pages=29–41|doi=10.1103/PhysRev.72.29|bibcode = 1947PhRv...72...29W }}</ref>

==Later years==
Wigner was elected to the [[American Philosophical Society]] in 1944 and the United States [[National Academy of Sciences]] in 1945.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Member History - Dr. Eugene P. Wigner |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Eugene+Wigner&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2023-04-03 |website= American Philosophical Society |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230413001342/https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Eugene+Wigner&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |archive-date= Apr 13, 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Eugene P. Wigner |url=http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/deceased-members/49127.html |access-date=2023-04-03 |website=National Academy of Sciences }}</ref> He accepted a position as the director of research and development at the Clinton Laboratory (now the [[Oak Ridge National Laboratory]]) in [[Oak Ridge, Tennessee]] in early 1946. Because he did not want to be involved in administrative duties, he became co-director of the laboratory, with James Lum handling the administrative chores as executive director.{{sfn|Johnson|Schaffer|1994|p=31}} When the newly created [[United States Atomic Energy Commission|Atomic Energy Commission]] (AEC) took charge of the laboratory's operations at the start of 1947, Wigner feared that many of the technical decisions would be made in Washington.<ref name="NAS">{{cite web|last1=Seitz|first1=Frederick|author-link=Frederick Seitz |first2=Erich |author-link2=Erich Vogt |last2=Vogt |first3=Alvin M. |last3=Weinberg |author-link3=Alvin Weinberg |series=Biographical Memoirs |title=Eugene Paul Wigner |url=http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/biomems/ewigner.html|publisher=National Academies Press|access-date=20 August 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029003807/http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/biomems/ewigner.html |archive-date= Oct 29, 2013 }}</ref> He also saw the Army's continuation of wartime security policies at the laboratory as a "meddlesome oversight", interfering with research.<ref name=ORNL-History-RnR>{{cite web|title=ORNL History. Chapter 2: High-Flux Years. Section: Research and Regulations|url=http://web.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/rev25-34/chapter2.shtml|website=ORNL Review|publisher=Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Communications and Community Outreach|access-date=20 August 2013|quote=Oak Ridge at that time was so terribly bureaucratized that I am sorry to say I could not stand it.|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130316204501/http://web.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/rev25-34/chapter2.shtml|archive-date=16 March 2013}}</ref> One such incident occurred in March 1947, when the AEC discovered that Wigner's scientists were conducting experiments with a [[critical mass]] of [[uranium-235]] when the director of the Manhattan Project, [[Major General (United States)|Major General]] [[Leslie R. Groves, Jr.]], had forbidden such experiments in August 1946 after the death of [[Louis Slotin]] at the [[Los Alamos Laboratory]]. Wigner argued that Groves's order had been superseded, but was forced to terminate the experiments, which were completely different from the one that killed Slotin.{{sfn|Hewlett|Duncan|1969|pp=38–39}}

Feeling unsuited to a managerial role in such an environment, he left Oak Ridge in 1947 and returned to Princeton University,{{sfn|Johnson|Schaffer|1994|p=49}} although he maintained a consulting role with the facility for many years.<ref name="NAS"/> In the postwar period, he served on a number of government bodies, including the [[National Bureau of Standards]] from 1947 to 1951, the mathematics panel of the [[United States National Research Council|National Research Council]] from 1951 to 1954, the physics panel of the [[National Science Foundation]], and the influential General Advisory Committee of the [[United States Atomic Energy Commission|Atomic Energy Commission]] from 1952 to 1957 and again from 1959 to 1964.{{sfn|Szanton|1992|p=270}} He also contributed to [[civil defense]].{{sfn|Szanton|1992|pp=288–290}}

Wigner was elected to the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1950.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Eugene Paul Wigner |url=https://www.amacad.org/person/eugene-paul-wigner |access-date=2023-04-03 |website=American Academy of Arts & Sciences |date=9 February 2023 |language=en}}</ref>

Near the end of his life, Wigner's thoughts turned more philosophical. In 1960, he published a now classic article on the philosophy of mathematics and of physics, which has become his best-known work outside technical mathematics and physics, "[[The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences]]".<ref name="unreasonable">{{Cite journal | last1 = Wigner | first1 = E. P. | author-link = Eugene Wigner | doi = 10.1002/cpa.3160130102 | title = The unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences. Richard Courant lecture in mathematical sciences delivered at New York University, May 11, 1959 | journal = Communications on Pure and Applied Mathematics | volume = 13 | issue = 1 | pages = 1–14 | year = 1960 | url = http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/MathDrama/reading/Wigner.html | bibcode = 1960CPAM...13....1W | s2cid = 6112252 | access-date = December 24, 2008 | archive-date = February 28, 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110228152633/http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/MathDrama/reading/Wigner.html | url-status = dead }}</ref> He argued that biology and cognition could be the origin of physical concepts, as we humans perceive them, and that the happy coincidence that mathematics and physics were so well matched, seemed to be "unreasonable" and hard to explain.<ref name="unreasonable" /> His original paper has provoked and inspired many responses across a wide range of disciplines. These included [[Richard Hamming]] in Computer Science,<ref name="hamming">{{Cite journal | last1 = Hamming | first1 = R. W. | author-link = Richard Hamming | title = The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics | journal = The American Mathematical Monthly | volume = 87 | issue = 2 | pages = 81–90 | doi = 10.2307/2321982 | year = 1980 | url = http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/MathDrama/reading/Hamming.html | jstor = 2321982 | hdl = 10945/55827 | access-date = 2015-08-28 | archive-date = 2007-02-03 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070203151259/http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/MathDrama/reading/Hamming.html | url-status = dead | hdl-access = free }}</ref> [[Arthur M. Lesk|Arthur Lesk]] in Molecular Biology,<ref name="lesk">{{Cite journal | last1 = Lesk | first1 = A. M. | title = The unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in molecular biology | doi = 10.1007/BF03025372 | journal = The Mathematical Intelligencer | volume = 22 | issue = 2 | pages = 28–37 | year = 2000 | s2cid = 120102813 }}</ref> [[Peter Norvig]] in data mining,<ref name="norvig">{{Cite journal | last1 = Halevy | first1 = A. | author-link1 = Alon Y. Halevy| last2 = Norvig | first2 = P. | author-link2 = Peter Norvig| last3 = Pereira | first3 = F. | doi = 10.1109/MIS.2009.36 | title = The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Data | journal = IEEE Intelligent Systems | volume = 24 | issue = 2 | pages = 8–12 | year = 2009 | url = http://static.googleusercontent.com/media/research.google.com/en//pubs/archive/35179.pdf| s2cid = 14300215 }}</ref>  [[Max Tegmark]] in Physics,<ref name="tegmark">{{cite journal |title=The Mathematical Universe |year=2008 |first=Max |last=Tegmark |author-link=Max Tegmark |doi=10.1007/s10701-007-9186-9 |journal=Foundations of Physics |volume=38 |issue=2 |pages=101–150 |arxiv=0704.0646|bibcode = 2008FoPh...38..101T |s2cid=9890455 }}</ref> [[Ivor Grattan-Guinness]] in Mathematics,<ref name="ivor">{{Cite journal | last1 = Grattan-Guinness | first1 = I. | title = Solving Wigner's mystery: The reasonable (though perhaps limited) effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences | doi = 10.1007/BF02985373 | journal = The Mathematical Intelligencer | volume = 30 | issue = 3 | pages = 7–17 | year = 2008 | s2cid = 123174309 }}</ref> and [[Vela Velupillai]] in Economics.<ref name="velupillai">{{Cite journal | last1 = Velupillai | first1 = K. V. | title = The unreasonable ineffectiveness of mathematics in economics | doi = 10.1093/cje/bei084 | journal = Cambridge Journal of Economics | volume = 29 | issue = 6 | pages = 849–872 | year = 2005 | url = http://www.economics.nuigalway.ie/downloads/vela/Unreasonable.pdf | citeseerx = 10.1.1.194.6586 | access-date = 2017-10-24 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20050311203539/http://www.economics.nuigalway.ie/downloads/vela/Unreasonable.pdf | archive-date = 2005-03-11 | url-status = dead }}</ref>

Turning to philosophical questions about the theory of quantum mechanics, Wigner developed a thought experiment (later called [[Wigner's friend|Wigner's Friend paradox]]) to illustrate his belief that consciousness is foundational to the [[Measurement in quantum mechanics|quantum mechanical measurement]] process. He thereby followed an ontological approach that sets human's consciousness at the center: "All that quantum mechanics purports to provide are probability connections between subsequent impressions (also called 'apperceptions') of the consciousness".<ref>{{Citation|last=Wigner|first=E. P.|title=Remarks on the Mind-Body Question|date=1995|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-78374-6_20|work=Philosophical Reflections and Syntheses|pages=247–260|place=Berlin, Heidelberg|publisher=Springer Berlin Heidelberg|doi=10.1007/978-3-642-78374-6_20|isbn=978-3-540-63372-3|access-date=2021-12-01}}</ref>

Measurements are understood as the interactions which create the impressions in our consciousness (and as a result modify the wave function of the "measured" physical system), an idea which has been called the "[[consciousness causes collapse]]" interpretation.

[[Hugh Everett III]] (a student of Wigner's) discussed [[Wigner's friend|Wigner's thought experiment]] in the introductory part of his 1957 dissertation as an "amusing, but ''extremely hypothetical'' drama".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Everett|first=Hugh|date=1957-07-01|title="Relative State" Formulation of Quantum Mechanics|url=https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/RevModPhys.29.454|journal=Reviews of Modern Physics|language=en|volume=29|issue=3|pages=454–462|doi=10.1103/RevModPhys.29.454|bibcode=1957RvMP...29..454E|issn=0034-6861}}</ref> In an early draft of Everett's work, one also finds a drawing of the Wigner's Friend situation,<ref>{{Cite book|date=2012-05-20|editor-last=Barrett|editor-first=Jeffrey A.|editor2-last=Byrne|editor2-first=Peter|title=The Everett Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9781400842742|doi=10.1515/9781400842742|isbn=9781400842742}}</ref> which must be seen as the first evidence on paper of the thought experiment that was later assigned to be Wigner's. This suggests that Everett must at least have discussed the problem together with Wigner.

In November 1963, Wigner called for the allocation of 10% of the national defense budget to be spent on [[Bomb shelter|nuclear blast shelters]] and survival resources, arguing that such an expenditure would be less costly than disarmament. Wigner considered a recent [[Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution|Woods Hole]] study's conclusion that a nuclear strike would kill 20% of Americans to be a very modest projection and that the country could recover from such an attack more quickly than Germany had recovered from the devastation of World War II.<ref>Lyons, R. (1963, November 22). Asks Better Civil Defense for Atomic Victory. ''New York Daily News'', p. 6.</ref>

Wigner was awarded the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] in 1963 "for his contributions to the theory of the [[atomic nucleus]] and the [[elementary particles]], particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles".<ref name="Prize" /> The prize was shared that year, with the other half of the award divided between [[Maria Goeppert-Mayer]] and [[J. Hans D. Jensen]].<ref name="Prize" /> Wigner professed that he had never considered the possibility that this might occur, and added: "I never expected to get my name in the newspapers without doing something wicked."{{sfn|Szanton|1992|p=147}} He also won the [[Franklin Medal]] in 1950,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.fi.edu/laureates/eugene-p-wigner |title=Eugene P. Wigner |publisher=The Franklin Institute |access-date=May 19, 2015|date=2014-01-15 }}</ref> the [[Enrico Fermi]] award in 1958,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://science.energy.gov/fermi/award-laureates/1950s/wigner/ |title=Eugene P. Wigner, 1958 |publisher=[[United States Department of Energy]] Office of Science |access-date=May 19, 2015}}</ref> the [[Atoms for Peace Award]] in 1959,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://libraries.mit.edu/archives/research/collections/collections-mc/mc10.html |title=Guide to Atoms for Peace Awards Records MC.0010 |publisher=[[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] |access-date=May 19, 2015 |archive-date=August 5, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150805013236/http://libraries.mit.edu/archives/research/collections/collections-mc/mc10.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> the [[Max Planck Medal]] in 1961,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.dpg-physik.de/preise/preistraeger_mp.html |language=de |title=Preisträger Max Planck nach Jahren |publisher=Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft |access-date=May 19, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923220325/http://www.dpg-physik.de/preise/preistraeger_mp.html |archive-date=September 23, 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref> the [[National Medal of Science]] in 1969,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nsf.gov/od/nms/recip_details.jsp?recip_id=392 |title=The President's National Medal of Science: Recipient Details - Eugene P. Wigner |publisher=[[United States National Science Foundation]] |access-date=May 19, 2015}}</ref> the [[Albert Einstein Award]] in 1972,<ref name="Princeton">{{cite web |title=Eugene P. Wigner |url=https://www.princeton.edu/pr/news/95/q1/0103wigner.html |publisher=[[Princeton University]] Communications |date=January 3, 1995 |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160304222103/https://www.princeton.edu/pr/news/95/q1/0103wigner.html |archive-date= Mar 4, 2016 }}</ref> the Golden Plate Award of the [[Academy of Achievement|American Academy of Achievement]] in 1974,<ref>{{cite web|title= Golden Plate Awardees - Science & Exploration |publisher=[[American Academy of Achievement]]|url=https://achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/#science-exploration |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240216064403/https://achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/ |archive-date= Feb 16, 2024 }}</ref> the eponymous [[Wigner Medal]] in 1978,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://web2.ph.utexas.edu/~bohmwww/wigner/ |title=The Wigner Medal |publisher=[[University of Texas]] |access-date=May 19, 2015}}</ref> and the [[Herzl Award (Hungarian Jewry)|Herzl Prize]] in 1982. In 1968 he gave the [[Josiah Willard Gibbs]] lecture.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ams.org/meetings/lectures/meet-gibbs-lect |title=Josiah Willard Gibbs Lectures |publisher=American Mathematical Society |access-date=May 15, 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Problems of symmetry in old and new physics|journal=Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society |year=1968 |volume=75 |issue=5 |pages=793–815 |mr=1566474|doi = 10.1090/S0002-9904-1968-12047-6|last1=Wigner |first1=Eugene P |doi-access=free }}</ref>

After his retirement from Princeton in 1971, Wigner prepared the first edition of Symmetries and Reflections, a collection of philosophical essays, and became more involved in international and political meetings; around this time he became a leader<ref name="NASBio">{{cite web |last1=Seitz |first1=Frederick |last2=Vogt |first2=Erich |last3=Weinberg |first3=Alvin |title=Eugene Paul Wigner 1902-1995: A biographical memoir |url=http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/wigner-eugene.pdf |website=National Academy of Sciences |publisher=National Academies Press |access-date=9 May 2023}}</ref> and vocal defender<ref>{{cite news |last1=Johnson |first1=Thomas |title='Unification' Science Parley Is Defended |url=https://nyti.ms/3MamNHW |access-date=9 May 2023 |agency=The New York Times |date=9 November 1975}}</ref> of the [[Unification Church]]'s annual [[International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences]].

Mary died in November 1977. In 1979, Wigner married his third wife, Eileen Clare-Patton (Pat) Hamilton (1915-2010), the widow of physicist Donald Ross Hamilton, the dean of the graduate school at Princeton University, who had died in 1972.{{sfn|Szanton|1992|p=305}} In 1992, at the age of 90, he published his memoirs, ''The Recollections of Eugene P. Wigner'' with [[Andrew Szanton]]. In it, Wigner said: "The full meaning of life, the collective meaning of all human desires, is fundamentally a mystery beyond our grasp. As a young man, I chafed at this state of affairs. But by now I have made peace with it. I even feel a certain honor to be associated with such a mystery."{{sfn|Szanton|1992|p=318}} In his collection of essays 'Philosophical Reflections and Syntheses' (1995), he commented: "It was not possible to formulate the laws of quantum mechanics in a fully consistent way without reference to consciousness."{{sfn|Wigner|Mehra|Wightman|1995|p=14}}

Wigner was credited as a member of the advisory board for the [[Western Goals Foundation]], a private domestic intelligence agency created in the US in 1979 to "fill the critical gap caused by the [[COINTELPRO#Program revealed|crippling of the FBI]], the disabling of the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]] and the destruction of crucial government files".<ref name=MM>Staff writer (Jan. 2, 1989). [https://archive.today/20201204105029/https://militarist-monitor.org/western_goals_foundation/ "Western Goals Foundation."] ''Interhemispheric Resource Center/International Relations Center''. Archived from [https://militarist-monitor.org/western_goals_foundation/ the original.]</ref>

Wigner died of [[pneumonia]] at the [[University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro|University Medical Center]] in [[Princeton, New Jersey]] on 1 January 1995.<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |title=Eugene Wigner, 92, Quantum Theorist Who Helped Usher In Atomic Age, Dies|date=January 4, 1995 |first=William J. |last=Broad |access-date=May 19, 2015 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/04/obituaries/eugene-wigner-92-quantum-theorist-who-helped-usher-in-atomic-age-dies.html }}</ref>

==Publications==
* 1958 (with [[Alvin M. Weinberg]]). ''Physical Theory of Neutron Chain Reactors'' University of Chicago Press. {{isbn|0-226-88517-8}}
* 1959. ''Group Theory and its Application to the Quantum Mechanics of Atomic Spectra''. New York: Academic Press. Translation by J. J. Griffin of 1931, ''Gruppentheorie und ihre Anwendungen auf die Quantenmechanik der Atomspektren'', Vieweg Verlag, Braunschweig.
* 1970 ''Symmetries and Reflections: Scientific Essays''. Indiana University Press, Bloomington {{isbn|0-262-73021-9}}
* 1992 (as told to [[Andrew Szanton]]). ''The Recollections of Eugene P. Wigner''. Plenum. {{isbn|0-306-44326-0}}
* 1995 (with [[Jagdish Mehra]] and [[Arthur Wightman]], eds.). ''Philosophical Reflections and Syntheses''. Springer, Berlin {{isbn|3-540-63372-3}}

==See also==
* [[List of things named after Eugene Wigner]]
* [[The Martians (scientists)]]
* [[List of Jewish Nobel laureates]]

===Selected contributions===
'''Theoretical physics'''
{{Div col|colwidth=30em}}
* [[Bargmann–Wigner equations]]
* [[Jordan–Wigner transformation]]
* [[Newton–Wigner localization]] 
* [[Polynomial Wigner–Ville distribution]]
* [[Relativistic Breit–Wigner distribution]] 
* [[Thomas–Wigner rotation]] 
* [[Wigner–Eckart theorem]]
* [[Wigner–Inonu contraction]]  
* [[Wigner–Seitz cell]]  
* [[Wigner–Seitz radius]]
* [[Wigner–Weyl transform]]  
* [[Wigner–Wilkins spectrum]]   
* [[Wigner's classification]]
* [[Wigner quasiprobability distribution]]
* [[Wigner's friend]] 
* [[Wigner's theorem]]
* [[Wigner crystal]]
* [[Wigner D-matrix]]
* [[Wigner effect]]  
* [[Wigner energy]]  
* [[Wigner lattice]]
* [[Wigner's disease]] 
* [[Molecular term symbol#Wigner–Witmer correlation rules|Wigner–Witmer correlation rules]]
{{div col end}}

'''Mathematics'''
* [[Gabor–Wigner transform]]
* [[Modified Wigner distribution function]] 
* [[Wigner distribution function]]
* [[Wigner semicircle distribution]]
* [[Wigner rotation]]
* [[Wigner quasiprobability distribution]]
* [[6-j symbol]]
* [[9-j symbol]]
* [[Wigner 3-j symbols]]
* Wigner–İnönü [[group contraction]]
* [[Wigner surmise]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* {{cite book |last1=Hewlett |first1=Richard G. |author-link=Richard G. Hewlett |last2=Duncan |first2=Francis |title=Atomic Shield, 1947–1952 |series=A History of the United States Atomic Energy Commission |url=http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2013/04/f0/Hewlett%20and%20Duncan%20-%20Atomic%20Shield%20%28complete%29.pdf |access-date=7 March 2015 |publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press |location=University Park, Pennsylvania |year=1969 |isbn=978-0-520-07187-2|oclc=3717478}}
* {{cite book |last1=Johnson |first1=Leland |first2=Daniel |last2=Schaffer |year=1994 |title=Oak Ridge National Laboratory: the first fifty years |url=https://archive.org/details/oakridgenational00john |url-access=registration |location=Knoxville |publisher=University of Tennessee Press |isbn= 978-0-87049-853-4}}
* {{cite book | last = Rhodes | first = Richard | author-link = Richard Rhodes | year = 1995 | title = Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb | publisher = Simon & Schuster | location = New York | isbn = 978-0-684-80400-2| url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/darksunmakingofh00rhod }}
* [[N. Mukunda]] (1995) "Eugene Paul Wigner – A tribute", [[Current Science]] 69(4): 375–85 {{mr|id=1347799}}
* {{cite book |last=Szanton |first=Andrew |author-link=Andrew Szanton |title=The Recollections of Eugene P. Wigner|publisher=Plenum |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-306-44326-8}}
* {{cite book|last=Wigner |first=E. P.|author-link=Eugene Wigner|title=Gruppentheorie und ihre Anwendung auf die Quanten mechanik der Atomspektren|publisher=Friedrich Vieweg und Sohn|location=Braunschweig, Germany|year=1931 |asin=B000K1MPEI|language=de}}
* {{cite book|last=Wigner |first=E. P.|title=Group Theory and its Application to the Quantum Mechanics of Atomic Spectra|publisher=Academic Press|location=New York|year=1959|others=translation from German by J. J. Griffin|isbn=((978-0-12-750550-3))}}
* {{cite book|last1=Wigner |first1=E. P.|first2=Alvin M. |last2=Weinberg |author-link2=Alvin Weinberg |year=1992 |title=The collected works of Eugene Paul Wigner, Volume 5, Part A, Nuclear energy |location=Berlin |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-0-387-55343-6}}
* {{cite book |last1=Wigner |first1=Eugene Paul |first2=Jagdish |last2=Mehra |first3=A. S. |last3=Wightman |year=1995 |title=Volume 7, Part B, Philosophical Reflections and Syntheses |location=Berlin |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-540-63372-3}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
{{wikiquote}}
* [https://manhattanprojectvoices.org/oral-histories/eugene-wigners-interview-1964 1964 Audio Interview with Eugene Wigner by Stephane Groueff] Voices of the Manhattan Project
* {{MacTutor Biography|id=Wigner}}
* {{MathGenealogy|id=36900}}
* {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110709032400/http://geratorp.bravehost.com/dmx/wigner-bio.html |date=July 9, 2011 |title=EPW contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles }}
* {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121005061854/https://www.princeton.edu/~mudd/finding_aids/mathoral/pmc44.htm |date=October 5, 2012 |title=1984 interview with Wigner, in: The Princeton University Mathematics Community in the 1930s. }}
* [https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/4963-1 APS Oral History Interview Transcript with Eugene Wigner 21 November 1963, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives Session 1]
* [https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/4963-2 APS Oral History Interview Transcript with Eugene Wigner 03 December 1963, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives Session 2]
* [https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/4963-3 APS Oral History Interview Transcript with Eugene Wigner 14 December 1963, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives Session 3]
* [https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/4964 APS Oral History Interview Transcript with Eugene Wigner 30 November 1966, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives]
* [https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/4965 APS Oral History Interview Transcript with Eugene Wigner 24 January 1981, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives]
* [https://www.kfki.hu/fszemle/archivum/fsz0702/radnai0702.html Wigner Jenö Iskolás Évei by Radnai Gyula, ELTE, Fizikai Szemle 2007/2 – 62.o. (''Hungarian'')]. Description of the childhood and especially of the school-years in Budapest, with some interesting photos too.
* [https://purl.umn.edu/107714 Interview with Eugene P. Wigner on John von Neumann] at the [[Charles Babbage Institute]], University of Minnesota, Minneapolis – Wigner talks about his association with [[John von Neumann]] during their school years in Hungary, their graduate studies in Berlin, and their appointments to Princeton in 1930. Wigner discusses von Neumann's contributions to the theory of quantum mechanics, Wigner's own work in this area, and von Neumann's interest in the application of theory to the atomic bomb project.
* {{Internet Archive author |sname= Eugene Wigner}}
* {{Nobelprize}} including the Nobel Lecture, December 12, 1963 ''Events, Laws of Nature, and Invariance Principles''

{{Nobel Prize in Physics Laureates 1951–1975}}
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