The fellowship was established in September 1975 to honor the Nobel laureate and first director of R&D at ORNL, Eugene P. Wigner. The fellowship, a two-year staff position, was designed to attract exceptional scientific scholars who have recently earned doctorate degrees and want to become a member of ORNL's distinguished research team.
Davis joined the Mammalian Genetics and Development section of the Biology Division under the direction of Richard Woychik. Davis obtained his doctorate in human genetics at the University of Utah. For his dissertation, he conducted unique studies in targeted mutagenesis in mouse limb development. He received his bachelor's degree in microbiology from McGill University, Montreal.
Wang joined the Metals and Ceramics Division on March 4 to work with Bill Butler's theory group, where he will continue his research in alloy theory and relativistic electronic structure theory. He earned his doctorate in condensed matter physics at Iowa State University. Afterwards, he became a postdoctoral research associate at Northwestern University and worked on mechanical properties of intermetallic alloys, surface magnetism and magnetocrystalline anisotropy.
Twenty-one of the original 36 Wigner Fellows between 1975 and 1992 are still working at ORNL and 14 are professors at major universities or colleges throughout the United States. One Fellow is deceased.
ORNL, one of DOE's multiprogram national research and development facilities, is managed by Lockheed Martin Energy Research Corporation.