The Wigner Medal was an award designed “to recognize outstanding contributions to the understanding of physics through Group Theory”. It was administered by The Group Theory and Fundamental Physics Foundation, a publicly supported organization.
The Wigner Medal was unique because it was a truly international award. It was not affiliated with any state or national society. The awarded was chosen by an international selection committee whose members were elected by the Board of Trustees of the Group Theory and Fundamental Physics Foundation and by the Standing Committee of the International Group Theory Colloquium (Wigner Medal Bylaws).
The Wigner Medal was established in 1977/78 and was awarded for the first time at the Integrative Conference on Group Theory and Mathematical Physics (Group7, 1978) to E. P. Wigner and V. Bargmann.
The absence of a legal representative of the Group Theory and Fundamental Physics Foundation since 2020 led the ICGTMP Standing Committee to create a new award, the
Weyl-Wigner Award. This prize is aimed to replace the Wigner Medal and is ruled by the ICGTMP.
In 2023 a new award, which bears the name of «Wigner Medal», has been unilaterally created without the involvement of the Standing Committee of the ICGTMP (these new medals have already been awarded to three scientists). It should not be considered as lying in the continuation of the following genuine Wigner Medals which were awarded between 1978 and 2018.
Wigner medalists:
- 2018 Pavel Winternitz
- 2016 Bertram Kostant
- 2014 Joshua Zak
- 2012 Chester A. Mead
- 2010 Michio Jimbo
- 2006 Susumo Okubo
- 2004 Erdal İnönü
- 2002 Harry J. Lipkin
- 2000 Lochlainn O’Raifeartaigh
- 1998 Marcos Moshinsky
- 1996 Victor Kac and Robert V. Moody
- 1992 Julius Wess and Bruno Zumino
- 1990 Franchesco Iachello
- 1988 Isadore M. Singer
- 1986 Feza Gürsey
- 1984 Yuval Ne’eman
- 1982 Louis Michel
- 1980 Israel M. Gel’fand
- 1978 Valentin Bargmann
- 1978 Eugene P. Wigner