John Bardeen

John Bardeen (May 23 1908 – January 30 1991) was an American physicist. He is the only person to have won two Nobel prizes in Physics, in 1956 for the transistor, along with William Bradford Shockley and Walter Brattain, and in 1972 for a fundamental theory of conventional superconductivity together with Leon Neil Cooper and John Robert Schrieffer, now called BCS theory.

Later life and career

In the fall of 1938, Bardeen started in his new role as assistant professor at the University of Minnesota.

Related Topics:
1938 - University of Minnesota

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 1941, the world was embroiled in war, and Bardeen was convinced by his colleagues to take a leave of absence and work for the Naval Ordnance Laboratory. He would stay there for four years. In 1943 he was invited to join the Manhattan Project, but he refused, since he did not want to uproot his family. He received the Meritorious Civilian Service Award for his service at the NOL.

Related Topics:
1941 - Naval Ordnance Laboratory - 1943 - Manhattan Project - Meritorious Civilian Service Award

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After the end of World War Two, Bardeen started seeking a return to academia, but the University of Minnesota did not realize the importance of the young field of solid-state physics. They offered him only a small raise. Bardeen's expertise in solid-state physics made him invaluable to Bell Labs, which was just starting a solid-state division. Remembering the lack of support he had received previously from the university to pursue his research, he decided to take a lucrative offer from Bell Labs in 1945.

Related Topics:
World War Two - Bell Labs - 1945

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bell Labs

In October 1945 John Bardeen started work at Bell Labs. He moved his family to Summit, New Jersey, a quick bus ride from the Murray Hill research campus. He rekindled his friendship with Walter Brattain, who he had met previously through his brother; Brattain's brother had also been a Princeton graduate student.

Related Topics:
Summit, New Jersey - Walter Brattain

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Returning to academia

Bardeen joined the engineering faculty at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1951. His work together with Leon Cooper (as in "Cooper pairs") and Robert Schrieffer led to the standard theory of superconductivity, named after them, "BCS theory". For this work he has been awarded a Nobel Prize in 1972.

Related Topics:
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign - 1951 - Cooper pairs - BCS theory - Nobel Prize

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Xerox

Bardeen was also an important advisor to Xerox Corporation. Though quiet by nature, he took the uncharacteristic step of urging Xerox executives to keep their California research center, Xerox PARC, afloat when the parent company was suspicious that its research center would amount to little.

Related Topics:
Xerox Corporation - Xerox PARC

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~