Eugene Wigner - Middle Years

Middle Years

In the late 1920s, Wigner explored quantum mechanics. A period at Göttingen as an assistant to the great mathematician David Hilbert proved a disappointment, as Hilbert was no longer productive. Wigner nonetheless studied independently. 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. Wigner and Hermann Weyl were responsible for introducing group theory into quantum mechanics. In the late 1930s, he extended his research into atomic nuclei. He developed an important general theory of nuclear reactions, the Wigner–Eisenbud R-matrix theory, published in 1947. By 1929, his papers were drawing notice in the world of physics. In 1930, Princeton University recruited Wigner, which was very timely, since the Nazis soon rose to power in Germany. At Princeton in 1934, Wigner introduced his sister Manci to the physicist Paul Dirac, whom she married.

In 1936, Princeton University did not rehire Wigner, hence he searched for new employment. He found this at the University of Wisconsin. There he met his first wife, Amelia Frank, who was a physics student there. However she died unexpectedly in 1937, naturally leaving Wigner distraught.

On January 8, 1937, Wigner became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Princeton University soon invited Wigner back into its employment, and he rejoined its faculty in Fall 1938. Although he was a professed political amateur, on August 2, 1939, he introduced Leó Szilárd to Albert Einstein for a meeting that resulted in the Einstein-Szilard letter which urged President Franklin D. Roosevelt to initiate US research of atomic bombs. Eventually, in 1940, he played a major role in prompting the U.S. Government to establish the Manhattan Project, which developed the first atomic bomb by 1945. However, by his personal beliefs, Wigner was at heart a pacifist. Wigner was present at a converted squash courts at the University of Chicago's abandoned Stagg Field on December 2, 1942, when the world's first atomic reactor, Chicago Pile One (CP-1) achieved a nuclear chain reaction (a critical reaction). He later contributed to civil defense in the U.S. In 1946, Wigner accepted a position as the Director of Research and Development at the Clinton Laboratory (now the Oak Ridge National Laboratory) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. When his duties there did not work out especially well, Wigner returned to Princeton University.

In 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. They remained married until her death in 1977, and they were the parents of two children.

Wigner was known for his exquisite politeness. It was related that he returned a car to a swindling used car dealer with the words "Go to hell, please".