EUGENE P. WIGNER, 92
WON '63 NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS
Author: AP
Date: Wednesday, January 4, 1995
Page: 19
Section: OBITUARY
PRINCETON, N.J. -- Eugene P. Wigner, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who
played a prominent role in the development of the atomic bomb and nuclear
energy, has died of pneumonia. He was 92.
Mr. Wigner died Sunday at the Medical Center of Princeton.
A professor emeritus in mathematical physics at Princeton University, Mr.
Wigner won the Noble Prize in physics in 1963 for his insight into quantum
mechanics. Mr. Wigner used group theory to organize the quantum energy levels
of electrons in atoms.
Together with fellow Hungarian expatriate Leo Szilard, Mr. Wigner
persuaded Albert Einstein in 1939 to write to President Roosevelt about the
potential to produce vast amounts of energy from uranium.
Mr. Wigner took a leave of absence from Princeton in 1942 to join a team
at the University of Chicago working on the secret project to design reactors
to produce the first plutonium for nuclear weapons.
He retired from active status on the Princeton faculty in 1971.
Mr. Wigner, who immigrated from Hungary in 1930, was awarded his native
country's highest accolade, The Order of Merit, this year for his scientific
contributions.
Mr. Wigner also served as director of Civil Defense Research at Oak Ridge
National Laboratory in Tennessee from 1964 to '65.
Mr. Wigner is survived by his wife, Eileen Hamilton Wigner of Princeton,
three children, two grandchildren and two sisters.
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