An American physicist instrumental in developing the theories of nuclear fission and black holes has won the Wolf Prize in Physics.
John Archibald Wheeler, 85, received 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," the Jerusalem-based foundation said Monday.
Wheeler is a professor emeritus at Princeton University and the University of Texas at Austin. He worked with Niels Bohr on the eve of World War II to develop the theory of nuclear fission -- the splitting of the atom -- the principle behind the atomic bomb and nuclear power reactors.
Wheeler came up with the name "black holes" for a body in space in which matter is so densely packed that neither light nor matter can escape from its gravitational field.
The Wolf prizes are given annually for outstanding achievements in chemistry, medicine, agriculture, mathematics and the arts.