Wigner wanted to be a physicist but his father expected him to join the family business and he believed that a degree in chemical engineering would be useful to his son in the family's leather-tanning factory.
Wigner kinakailangan upang maging isang pisisista ngunit ang kanyang ama inaasahan sa kanya upang sumali sa pamilya ng negosyo at siya sumampalataya na ang isang degree sa chemical engineering ay magiging kapaki-pakinabang sa kanyang anak na lalaki sa pamilya ng katad na-pangungulti pabrika.