JOHN BARDEEN AMERICAN PHYSICIST AND ELECTRICAL ENGINEER
Dorinda Livesay IXDS 5403 Media History and Theory Professor David Meyers July 21, 2016
John Bardeen was born May 23, 1908. The second son of Dr. Charles Bardeen, Dean of the University of Wisconsin Medical School and Althea Harmer, a former teacher of the Dewey School in Chicago. At a young age, Bardeen was considered special. Some even said he was brilliant. He was so far ahead of his classmates that he skipped three grades. Bardeen graduated high school at the age of 15 and entered the University of Wisconsin. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a Bachelor of Sciences in Electrical Engineer in 1928 and a Master of Sciences in Electrical Engineer in 1929. While at University of Wisconsin, Bardeen joined the Zeta Psi fraternity and a member of the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society. For a while, Bardeen stayed on at the University of Wisconsin, until he was offered a position at Gulf Research Laboratories as a geophysicist from 1930-33. He worked on development of methods for interpretation of magnetic and gravitational surveys that was applied to prospecting for oil. Over these years, Bardeen soon lost interest in this field.
“ John is the concentrated essence of the brain,� Althea Bardeen
After attending a research seminar in modern physics, it re-sparked his interest in quantum physics. Bardeen decided to apply for a position in Princeton University’s doctoral program in mathematics. His studies in the mathematics field laid the foundation for a career in physics. Bardeen graduated from Princeton University with his Ph.D. in Mathematical Physics in 1936. Before completing his doctoral program, he was offered a position with the Junior Fellow of Society of Fellows at Harvard University in 1935. He worked for the next three years with John Hasbrook Van Vleck and Percy Williams Bridgman in solving cohesion and electrical conduction in metals and level of density of nuclei. His research focused on problems where interaction between electrons, and between electrons and the lattice play a significant role. Bardeen, along with Frederick Seitz, Conyers Herring and a small group of John Slater’s graduate students from MIT, where considered the first generation of American theoretical physicists who were trained to apply quantum mechanics to real solids. In 1938 Bardeen married Jane Maxwell. They were married for 53 years. Also from 1938 to 1941, Bardeen was working as an Assistant Professor in Physics at the University of Minnesota. His first teaching position. Here Bardeen continued his work on the superconductivity. During, his time at University of Minnesota, two of his three children, James and William, were born. From 1941 to 1945, during World War II, Bardeen served as a civilian physicist with the Naval Ordnance Laboratory, which is located in Washington, D.C. While with the NOL, he helped by researching the influence fields of ships for applications to underwater ordnance and mine sweeping (protect ships and submarines from mines and torpedoes). Bardeen’s daughter, Elizabeth was born in 1944.
Near the end of this decade, when they begin enumarating the names of the people who had the greatest impact on the 20th century, the name of John Bardeen,....has to be or perhaps even arguableat, the top of the list...Mr. Bardeen shared two Nobel Prizes and won numerous other honors. But what greater honor can there be when each of us can look all around us and everywhere see the reminders of a man whose genius has made our lives longer, healthier and better.� Chicago Tribune, editorial, Feburary 3, 1991.
After the war, Bardeen joined Bell Laboratory. He was with Bell from 1945 to 1951. He was a member of the Solid State Physics Group along with William Shockley and Walter Brattain. Their goal was to find a replacement of the glass vacuum tube systems with semiconductor technology. Brattain and Bardeen worked very well together that Bardeen served “as the brain” and Brattain served “as the hand”. Also unlike Brattain, who was very talkative, Bardeen was quiet. He was so quiet that he was given the name “Whispering John”. Their close collaborations produced results that extended through all stages of research. This collaboration also extended over into social settings for them. After a period of several unsuccessful attempts, there was a breakthrough in November 1947, which became known the “magic month”. By December 1947, the transistor came to life, which sparked the Electronic Revolution. The invention of the transistor made it possible to development of every electronic device from telephones, to computers, to missiles, etc… This discovery was made possible from the collaboration of Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley and also earned them a Noble Prize in Physics.
John Bardeen, William Shockley and Walter Brattain at Bell Labs, 1948.
“The combined results of serveral people working together is often much more effective than coule be that of an individual scientist working alone.” John Bardeen
Bardeen left Bell Labs in 1951 to join University of Illinois at Urbana – Champaign as a Professor in the Engineer and Physics Department. By accepting this position, Bardeen was able to continue working on the theory of superconductivity. Bardeen help establish two major research programs at the University of Illinois at Urbana – Champaign that focused on superconductivity. The Electrical Engineering Department worked in the areas that dealt with both the experimental and theoretical aspects of the semiconductors. The Physics Department worked with the theoretical side of macroscopic quantum systems in superconductivity and quantum liquids. In 1957, the BCS Theory of superconductivity came to live, a theory that had stumped theorists for four and a half decades. The development of the superconductivity is used in machine like the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR) or its medical sub-tool Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). The discovery earned Bardeen’s second Noble Prize in Physics in 1972 along with Leon Cooper and John Robert Schrieffer. Later, Bardeen focused on understanding the flow of electrons in charge density waves (CDW) through metallic linear chain compounds.
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“I think we discovered something today.” John Bardeen
First person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Throughout John Bardeen’s life, he had earned numerous awards and served on many committees. He published many articles in the Physical Review and Physics Today. But most of all, his contributions to the world has had major impacts on the world today. Morton Weir, University of Illinois Chancellor said, “It is a rare person whose work changes the life of every American, John did.” (Wikipedia.com). His inventions paved the way for computers to microchips, infrared sensors and medical imaging systems. He became the first person to win two Noble Prizes in Physics. Bardeen was honored for his contributions on the United State postage stamp as part of the “American Scientists” and appeared in LIFE Magazine’s “100 Most Influential Americans of the Century”.
In 1947 John Bardeen along with William Shockley and Walter Brattain invented the first transistor, this revolutionised computers, controls and communication.
John Bardeen passed away on January 30, 1991.
References PBS Online (1999), www.pbs.org, ScienCenntral, Inc. and The American Institute of Physics Britannica, www.britannica.com Encyclopedia (2008), www.encyclopedia.com The Nobel Foundation (1956), www.nobelprize.org The Biography, www.biography.com Wikipedia, www.wikipedia.org