Eugene Paul (Jeno Pal) Wigner* (1902-1995)

11/7/1902, Born, Budapest to upper middle-income family of Jewish descent.  While not practicing Jews, Wigner did bar mitzvah.  The family later converted to Lutheranism.
Father, Antal (Tony), of German- Jewish descent managed a family owned leather tanning business.
1907-1912, Privately taught at home and later at an elementary school.



1912-1920, Lutheran Gimnazium, excellent student and was particularly influenced by math teacher, Laslo Ratz. By graduation, widely read in math and physics.  John (Jancsi) Von Neumann was classmate, one year younger.
1919, Following WWI, Communist took over Hungary and Wigners escaped to Austria until communism collapsed.  This accounted for Wigner’s rabid hatred of communism.
1920, Technical Institute, Budapest, studied chemistry at father’s request to prepare for tannery,
1921-25, Technishe Hochschule, Berlin, studied chemical engineering but continued study of math and physics and attend U. Berlin colloquia.
1925, Ph.D., Ch.E., M. Polanyi, physical chemist and fellow Hungarian was advisor and major influence on Wigner.  Joint paper from thesis.
1925, Returned to Budapest but unsuccessfully.
1926, Received offer of assistantship at U. Berlin arranged by Polanyi and began work on group theory as it applied to quantum mechanics.
1927-28, U. Gottingen, Assistant to Hilbert.
Developed theories of parity and time reversal dealing with symmetry principles that were his most important contributions of his career.
1928-30, U. Berlin, Privatdozent in quantum mechanics.
1930-36, Princeton U, shared half- time position with Von Neumann.  Left Germany permanently in 1933 with Nazi rise to power.
1936-38, U. Wisconsin, Full Professor (G. Breit).
1937, Granted U.S. citizenship.
1938-41, Princeton U., T.D Jones Professor of Mathematical Physics.
Sept./1941, Took leave of absence from Princeton, and joined Metallurgical Laboratory at U. Chicago as Director of Theoretical Group. Fermi was Director of Experimental Research program.  Present on 12/2/1942 when nuclear pile went critical under Alonzo Stagg stadium.
1942-45, Used engineering skills to design reactors for plutonium production at Hanford.  Held 37 U.S. patents and became world’s leading authority on nuclear reactor design about which he wrote books.
1945-46, Returned to Princeton U.
1946-47, Accepted appointment as Director R&D Clinton Laboratory (later named Oak Ridge National Laboratory) to design energy producing nuclear reactors.  When AEC was formed in 1947, the laboratory became politicized and Wigner returned to Princeton although remaining a consultant for many years.
1947-71, Princeton U. In these later years, he published 1) on a more rigorous formulation of the Breit-Wigner theory that finally led to R-Matrix theory and 2) on relativistic quantum mechanics and 3) created a new field of study-random matrices.  As a teacher he produced 40 PhDs during his tenure.

1963, Nobel Prize, “Introduction of symmetry theory to quantum physics and chemistry”.


1971, Retired, but remained very active in writing, especially about Civil Defense against nuclear attack which was one of his passions and a member of FEMA.

Wigner, as a theoretical physicist introduced group theory and symmetry principles into physics. As an engineer, he founded the field of nuclear engineering.  Personally he was an incredibly polite person about which stories abound.   Being politically conservative and an anti-communist, he was opposed to the government’s belief in M.A.D., supported Reagan’s S.D.I. and the Viet Nam War. 

1/1/1995, Died, Princeton NJ (92)

John (Janos Lajos) von Neumann (1903-1957)

12/28/1903, Born, Budapest to wealthy, educated parents, oldest of three brothers.
Father, prominent banker who was ennobled by Franz Joseph in 1913 ergo the “von”.
Family, was non-practicing Jews although all three boys were bar mitzvah.  Later converted to Catholicism.
1908-1913, Private tutoring at home. It became obvious he was a child prodigy with a special faculty for rapid mental arithmetic.
1913-1921, Lutheran Gimnazium. Recognized his grasp of math and was tutored at home by Michael Fekete, mathematician at U. Budapest. Wrote joint paper with Fekete at age 18.
1919, Communist takeover of government forced family to flee to Venice.  Returned when Bela Kun regime was driven out.  Accounted for von Neumann’s hatred of both communism and Russia.
1921-23, U. Budapest, Studied chemistry but spent most of his time at U. Berlin. Returned for exams.
1923-25, ETH, Zurich. Obtained chemical engineering degree at father’s insistence.
3/12/1926, U. Budapest, Ph.D. summa cum laude, major in math. Thesis “Axiomatization of set theory. (Published in 1928)
1926-27, U.Gottingen, fellowship under D. Hilbert.
Major works in set theory and logical foundation of math and Hilbert spaces to achieve improved version of math principles underlying Heisenberg’s matrix mechanics.
1927-29, U. Berlin, Privatdozent (youngest in history).  Published initial work on game theory.
1929-1930, U. Hamburg, Privatdozent.
1930-33, Princeton U., Visiting lecturer in quantum theory.  Rotated time with U. Berlin and shared position with Wigner. Recruited by Oswald Veblen to build strong math and theoretical physics department like U. Gottingen or U. Berlin.
1933-1957, Institute for Advanced Studies formed in 1932. Einstein and Veblen, first math professors.
Von Neumann appointed professor on 4/1/1933.
1937, Published work on mathematical economics.

1940-45, The War Years.  Von Neumann was involved either directly or as a consultant in many military projects.
Consultant, Army Ordnance Corps, Ballistics Research Lab-from 1937.
Member, Scientific Advisory Committee- 1940.
Member, National Defense Research Committee-from 1941.
Consultant, Navy Bureau of Ordnance- from 1942.
Consultant, Manhattan Project-from 1943.
Consultant, Los Alamos Laboratory, 1943-45.
Became involved with the ENIAC computer and designed the EDVAC, an improved machine.
1946-57, Returned to IAS and developed its computer capability by designing and building the “Johniac” with government and military funding.  First problem was thermonuclear simulation.
1947, Awarded Medal of Merit by Truman
1954, At security hearings, supported Oppenheimer even though he was not his supporter for directorship of IAS in 1947.
5/15/1955, Received 5-year appointment as a commissioner of AEC, a controversial move not supported by his scientific colleagues.
Late 1955, Diagnosed with cancer.
2/8/1957, Died, Walter Reed Hospital (53)

Because of his vast array of abilities and interests, von Neumann made significant contributions in the fields of mathematics, mathematical physics and computer technology.  By his own estimation his three most important contributions were: theory of operations in Hilbert space, mathematical foundation of quantum theory and development of the ergodic theorem.  He was widely multi-lingual and had absolute recall of anything he had read.  The stories of his ability to solve problems in his head are legend.  An incredibly hard worker, he could exist on little sleep. He dressed impeccably and lived an upscale life style.  As with Wigner, von Neumann was an arch anti-communists and also politically conservative.  He supported the development of the H-Bomb in spite of the opposition of the scientific community.