Imre Pázsit given Eugene P. Wigner Reactor Physicist Award from ANS
The award recognizes outstanding contributions toward the advancement in the field of nuclear reactor physics.
Imre Pázsit, an adjunct professor in the U-M Department of Nuclear Engineering & Radiological Sciences, was given the Eugene P. Wigner Reactor Physicist Award from the American Nuclear Society (ANS).
The Eugene P. Wigner Award recognizes an individual that has made outstanding contributions toward the advancement in the field of nuclear reactor physics. Imre Pázsit receives the award for his contributions to the theory of random processes in nuclear reactors and the application of these methods for reactor diagnostics and to detect illicit nuclear materials.
“I feel extremely honored to have received this prestigious prize, which is something of a ‘lifetime achievement’ award given for the full breadth of one’s research,” said Pázsit. “I am thrilled to join a fully illustrious list of former recipients, including Dr. Wigner himself.”
“It is a special circumstance that Dr. Wigner and I were born in the same country,” Pázsit continued, “and I had the privilege of meeting him in Hungary in 1982. He would be happy to know that one of his countrymen is honoring his name.”
Pázsit received his PhD at the Lorand Eötvös University, Budapest, Hungary, in 1975, and his DSc from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1985. From 1975 until 1983 he worked at the Central Research Institute for Physics in Budapest. In 1983 he became a guest researcher at the Swedish national lab Studsvik Energiteknik AB in Nyköping. In 1991 he became the Chair of Reactor Physics at Chalmers University of Technology in Göteborg, Sweden, where he has been a full professor since. He became a NERS adjunct professor in late 2008.
Pázsit has been a member of the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences in Gothenburg since 2004, an ANS Fellow since 2006, and a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA) since 2008. He served as the Executive Editor of Annals of Nuclear Energy from 2013 until 2019 when he became an Honorary Editor. Pázsit received the Order of the Rising Sun, Golden Rays with Neck Ribbon from the Japanese Government in 2016 and the Leó Szilárd Medal from the Hungarian Nuclear Society in 2016 (also shared with E. P. Wigner and E. Teller). He also became a Senior Member of the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management this year.