The Wigner Medal
The purpose of the Wigner Medal shall be to recognize outstanding contributions to the understanding of physics and chemistry through precise mathematical tools in the spirit of Eugene Wigner.
Eugene P. Wigner receiving the first Wigner Medal from Arno R. Bohm in 1978.
Creating Traditions
The efforts of Arno Bohm and the Foundation’s creators were crowned with success and Wigner himself became the first awardee of the Wigner Medal which he received from Arno Bohm, the Chairman of the Foundation at the International Group Theory Colloquium in Austin in 1978.
Since then it has become a tradition to present the Wigner Medal at the International Group Theory Colloquia, held every two years. However, in 2022 the International Colloquia on Group Theoretical Methods in Physics have dropped its cooperation with the Foundation, and since then the Wigner Medal has not been awarded at this conference.
In order to continue the tradition of the Wigner Medal the Foundation and the Organizing Committee of the Workshop on Geometric Methods in Physics decided in 2023 to cooperate in awarding the Wigner Medal. In 2024 the Department of Physics of the Texas A&M University and the Hagler Institute for Advanced Studies joined the cooperation which consists of jointly appointing the Selection Committee of the Wigner Medal and organizing the Wigner Medal presentation ceremony alternatively at the Workshop on Geometric Methods in Physics and at the Texas A&M University.
Wigner Medal 2026
The Wigner Medal 2026 was awarded to Yakir Aharonov and Michael Victor Berry for groundbreaking discoveries in quantum mechanics.
The medals are personalized and on the obverse of a medal there is an image of Eugene Wigner and on the reverse there is engraved the name of the awardee and the citation recounting the awardee’s achievements.
The Selection Committee of the Wigner Medal 2026 consisted of the following members:
- Che-Ming Ko (Chairman) - Department of Physics, Texas A&M University, USA
- Daniel Beltiţă - Romanian Academy, Romania
- Olga Kocharovskaya - Department of Physics, Texas A&M University, USA
- Wolfgang P. Schleich - Ulm University, Germany
- Karol Życzkowski - Jagiellonian University, Poland
and they unanimously selected the awardees (see below).
Yakir Aharonov
2026 Wigner Medal Awardee
Yakir Aharonov is an Israeli physicist specializing in quantum physics. He has been a Professor of Theoretical Physics and the James J. Farley Professor of Natural Philosophy at Chapman University in California since 2008. Yakir Aharonov is known for numerous contributions to the understanding of the basic principles of quantum mechanics. Among them is the Aharonov–Bohm effect, a quantum-mechanical phenomenon that shows how electrically charged particles can be affected by electromagnetic potentials even when they are confined to regions where the electric and magnetic fields are zero. Another important contribution is the gedanken interference experiment proposed by Aharonov and Leonard Susskind, which initiated discussions of superselection rules for fermions and for charged particles. Advances in modern technology have enabled applications of the interference effects discovered by Aharonov in an increasingly wide range of areas, making them more relevant than ever.
Michael Victor Berry
2026 Wigner Medal Awardee
Sir Michael Victor Berry is a British theoretical physicist. He is the Melville Wills Professor of Physics (Emeritus) at the University of Bristol. Berry is best known for the Berry phase, a phenomenon that appears in both quantum mechanics and classical optics, as well as for related concepts such as the Berry connection and Berry curvature. His research focuses on semiclassical physics—including asymptotic methods and quantum chaos—applied to wave phenomena in quantum mechanics and in other fields such as optics.
Wigner Medal awardees
Space does not allow us to discuss the achievements of the winners of the Wigner Medal. It suffices to state that the spectrum of their research subjects is very wide - from mathematics to physics, but always with strong elements of symmetry, very much in the spirit of Wigner.
The Wigner Medals have been awarded to the following scientists:
Michael Victor Berry
Darlene Wiley-Bohm
Chairman of the Wigner Medal Board
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX 78712, U.S.A.
Email:
dwiley@austin.utexas.edu
Piotr Kielanowski
Departamento de Física
Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados
07360 Ciudad de México, Mexico
and
University of Białystok
Faculty of Mathematics
ul. Ciołkowskiego 1M
00-000 Białystok, Poland
Email: piotr.kielanowski@cinvestav.mx
Wolfgang P. Schleich
Universität Ulm
Institut für Quantenphysik
D-89069 Ulm, Germany
Email: wolfgang.schleich@uni-ulm.de
Robert Kennicutt
Department of Physics & Astronomy
Texas A&M University
578 University Drive
College Station, TX 77843-4242
Email: rck@tamu.edu
Christopher A. Fuchs
Department of Physics
University of Massachusetts Boston
100 Morrissey Boulevard
Boston, Massachusetts 02125
Email: qbism.fuchs@gmail.com
Stephen M. Barnett
School of Physics & Astronomy
University of Glasgow
Kelvin Building
Glasgow, G12 8QQ
United Kingdom
Email: stephen.barnett@glasgow.ac.uk