The World of Eugene Paul Wigner

Eugene Wigner was born in 1902 and left us in 1995. He was born in Budapest, Hungary, and was buried at the Princeton cemetery in Princeton, New Jersey next to his second wife, Mary Wheeler Wigner.

In the year 2002, the physics community will celebrate the Wigner Centennial year in various forms. Eugene Wigner was not only a great physicist, but also a very interesting human being. People simply love to talk about him. If you have an interesting story to tell about Wigner, send us the story. If you have a photo with him, send us a copy. We can all share the pleasure of being close to this great human being. This is the purpose of the Wigner Centennial Web Magazine.

When I went to his office in 1985 and asked him whether I could assist him in editing a complete set of Wigner's papers, he refused. He instead insisted that I should work with him on new papers. Indeed, in 1985, Wigner was able to do matrix multiplications faster than I could, even though he became somewhat slower in later years. This was how Wigner's last seven papers were written.

The most important lesson we can learn from Eugene Wigner is the passion toward physics.

Sincerely yours,
Y. S. Kim
Center for Fundamental Physics
University of Maryland


e-mail: yskim@physics.umd.edu
Fax: (301)699-9195
Telephone: (301)405-6024