John Wheeler Awarded the 1997 Wolf Prize in Physics

Citation from the Wolf Foundation
Jerusalem, Dec 9, 1996: John Archibald Wheeler, Professor Emeritus at Princeton and Texas universities, was named winner of the 1997 Wolf Prize in Physics, for developing the modern "black hole" theory. Wheeler served on the Princeton faculty from 1938 to 1976. He then "retired" to teach at the University of Texas in 1976, returning to Princeton in 1986. The Israeli-based Wolf Foundation announced today that Wheeler, world renowned scientist and teacher, will be honoured with the $100,000 Prize for "his seminal contributions to black hole physics, to quantum gravity, and to the theories of nuclear scattering and nuclear fission." After recognizing that any large collection of cold matter has no choice but to yield to the pull of gravity and undergo total collapse, Wheeler dubbed the resulting object a "black hole." Black holes have since become a focus in gravitation theory, astrophysics, and elementary particle theory, it was stated by the Wolf Prize Committee.	John A. Wheeler (center) accepts congratulations from his Princeton colleagues Val Fitch and Arthur Wightman. Wheeler was also Wightman's PhD thesis advisor. Click on the picture to get a higher resolution jpeg.

Citation from the Wolf Foundation

Jerusalem, Dec 9, 1996: John Archibald Wheeler, Professor Emeritus at Princeton and Texas universities, was named winner of the 1997 Wolf Prize in Physics, for developing the modern "black hole" theory. Wheeler served on the Princeton faculty from 1938 to 1976. He then "retired" to teach at the University of Texas in 1976, returning to Princeton in 1986.

The Israeli-based Wolf Foundation announced today that Wheeler, world renowned scientist and teacher, will be honoured with the $100,000 Prize for "his seminal contributions to black hole physics, to quantum gravity, and to the theories of nuclear scattering and nuclear fission."

After recognizing that any large collection of cold matter has no choice but to yield to the pull of gravity and undergo total collapse, Wheeler dubbed the resulting object a "black hole." Black holes have since become a focus in gravitation theory, astrophysics, and elementary particle theory, it was stated by the Wolf Prize Committee.

John A. Wheeler (center) accepts congratulations from his Princeton colleagues Val Fitch and Arthur Wightman. Wheeler was also Wightman's PhD thesis advisor.

Click on the picture to get a higher resolution jpeg.