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Franz Joachim Wegner (born 15 June 1940) is emeritus professor for theoretical physics at the University of Heidelberg.
Education
Franz Wegner attained a doctorate in 1968 with thesis advisor Wilhelm Brenig at the Technical University Munich with the thesis, "Zum Heisenberg-Modell im paramagnetischen Bereich und am kritischen Punkt" ("On the Heisenberg model within the paramagnetic range and at the critical point").
Subsequently, he did research with a post-doctoral position at Forschungszentrum Jülich, in the group of Herbert Wagner and at Brown University with Leo Kadanoff. Since 1974 he is a professor at Heidelberg.
Research
The emphasis of his scientific work is statistical physics, in particular the theory of phase transitions and the renormalization group. The eponymous "Wegner exponent" is of fundamental importance for the purpose of describing corrections to asymptotic scale invariance in close proximity to phase transitions. Wegner also "invented" the foundational lattice gauge theoretical models. The method developed from Wegner's foundational work is nowadays intensively used in simulations of quantum chromodynamics.
Accolades
Wegner won the Walter Schottky prize in 1976 for his work on phase transitions and elementary particles. He has also been elected to the Heidelberger Academy of Sciences and won the Max Planck medal among other awards and recognitions.