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Eugene P. Wigner: Is Mankind Bright Enough to Survive?
| Article
# : |
10622 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
Date : |
2 / 1986 |
4,577 Words |
| Author
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John Potjewyd
Dr. John Potjewyd of the World Research Institute for Science
and Technology in New York conducted this interview with
Nobel
Prize winning physicist Eugene Wigner. |
Anyone meeting Professor Eugene P. Wigner will be struck by his sincerity and deep humility. Life is important to him, and he expects everyone whom he meets to invest the same concentration in the moment as he does.
Wigner is the Thomas D. Jones Emeritus Professor of Mathematical Physics at Princeton University. In 1963 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for improving and extending the methods of quantum mechanics.
Recognized as one of the greatest living physicists, Wigner resides in Princeton, New Jersey, close to the Institute for Advanced Studies where so many of the great physicists have worked. It was Wigner, together with his high school friend, John von Neumann, who first brought quantum theory to Princeton in 1930.
Having recently celebrated his 83rd birthday, Wigner remains fit and active, although he readily admits that he can no longer keep up with all of physics and the eighty-four journals which he receives.
A loving husband and devoted father, Wigner naturally extends his passion for life into his family. At the time of this interview, he was especially concerned for his wife who was recovering from a serious knee operation.
At lunch, Wigner pulled out his silver pocket watch to confirm the time remaining before the interviewer's train departed. He then recounted how his father in Hungary had presented it to him in 1917 when he was fifteen years old.
Question: What was it in your early days that really motivated you?
Wigner: I often tell a story about when I was seventeen. My father asked me, "Well, son, what do you want to become when you grow up?" And I said, "Well, Father, if I am honest, I would like to be a scientist, and if possible, a physicist." And he asked me, "How many jobs for physicists are there in our country?" After a little thinking, I said "Four." He said, "Do you think you will get one of those four jobs?" So we decided I would study chemical engineering.
Q: You mentioned in one of your essays that a mathematics teacher, Ratz, had a great influence on you.
W: It was in high school and he was wonderful.
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