Gian-Carlo Wick (born 15.X 1909) is an Italian theoretical physicist. He was born in Turin. He graduated from the University of Turin (1930). In 1937-38 he worked at the university in Palermo, in 1938—40 at the university in Padua, and in 1940 — 45 he was professor at the University of Rome. Since 1946 he has lived in the United States. In 1946-48 he was professor at the University of Notre Dame, in 1948 — 50 at the University of California (Berkeley), in 1951 — 57 at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, in 1957—65 he was at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, and in 1965 — 77 he was professor at Columbia University.
His work concerned nuclear physics, quantum mechanics, quantum field theory, the measurement problem, elementary-particle physics and the analysis of symmetry principles in physics. He was the first to point out that the nucleons situated at the surface of the nucleus do not make their full contribution to the binding energy. He formulated the foundations of the theory of the coherent scattering of neutrons and predicted (independently of W. Elsasser) the diffraction of neutrons. He proposed a method of obtaining cold neutrons. He extended (1934) Fermi's theory of beta decay to positron decay and suggested the existence of a virtual state of the nucleon. In S-matrix theory he formulated (1950) the theorem that bears his name. He put forward (1958) the idea that the interactions of elementary particles can be described by using the symmetry properties of the processes considered with respect to various transformations and conservation laws.
He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences (1963).