The study of the symmetries of physical systems through the analysis of symmetry groups was one of the most important directions in theoretical physics in the 1960’s. As part of this research, in the 1960’s SU(3) symmetry was discovered, which led to the hypothesis of the existence of quarks. Space-time symmetries and their relationships to internal symmetries in particle physics were also studied. Eugene Wigner was one of the most prominent scientists applying the methods of group theory in physics and received the 1963 Nobel Prize “for his contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles”.
Arno Bohm of the Department of Physics at the University of Texas at Austin, working on symmetry issues in particle physics, was fascinated by Wigner’s achievements and decided to create an award associated with Wigner’s name that would honor scientists who have achieved the highest-ranked results in the study of the symmetry of physical systems. This is how the idea of the Wigner Medal was born.
In 1972, a periodic conference called the “International Group Theory Colloquium” was established, where the latest research results on symmetry in physics were presented. The organizer of this conference in 1978 was Arno Bohm, and he believed that the conference would be an excellent opportunity to present a new award. The idea received support from the scientific community, and as a result, the Group Theory and Fundamental Physics Foundation was established to organize and then administer the Wigner Medal.
The efforts of Arno Bohm, John Archibald Wheeler, and the Foundation’s creators were crowned with success, and the first Wigner Medal was presented to Wigner himself in 1978.
The Foundation included some of the most prominent physicists of the period, as well as scientific institutions from around the world (see a copy of the list of the founding members on the following page).
Since then and until 2022, it became a tradition to present the Wigner Medal at the International Group Theory Colloquia, held every two years. In 2022, the International Colloquia on Group Theoretical Methods in Physics ended its cooperation with the Foundation and established the “Wigner-Weyl Prize”, which is not the continuation of the Wigner Medal.
The founding members of The Group Theory and Fundamental Physics Foundation.
Credit: Springer Nature
In 2023, the Foundation and the Organizing Committee of the Workshop on Geometric Methods in Physics decided to cooperate in awarding the Wigner Medal. This cooperation consisted of jointly appointing the Selection Committee of the Wigner Medal and organizing the Wigner Medal presentation ceremony at the Workshop.
In 2024, the Foundation transferred the rights for the Wigner Medal to Texas A&M University, USA, the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study, USA, and the University of Białystok, Poland, and they established the “Wigner Medal Advisory Board”, which administers the Wigner Medal.