Story beyond the "Transistor"
John Bardeen, a inventor of the transistor that led to modern electronics and twice a winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, died yesterday at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. He was 82 years old. 
Dr. Bardeen, a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, was a patient at the hospital when he suffered a heart attack, said Larry Bernard, a university spokesman.
A soft-spoken theoretical physicist, Dr. Bardeen was working with two other scientists, Walter Brattain and William P. Shockley, at the American Telephone and Telegraph Company's Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, N.J., when they developed the first semiconductor transistor in 1947. The invention was announced in June 1948, and its first commercial use was in telephone-switching equipment four years later. Revolutionary Inventions.
Invention of the transistor earned the three men a Nobel Prize in 1956 and transformed science and industry. The tiny devices on silicon chips pushed aside the large, inefficient vacuum tubes for portable radios, computers and the miniaturized electronics required for space flight.
Dr. Bardeen once remarked, "I knew the transistor was important, but I never foresaw the revolution in electronics it would bring."
Speaking of him yesterday, Dr. Robert M. Berdahl, vice chancellor of the University of Illinois, said, "There are very few people who had a greater impact on the whole of the 20th century."
The name "transistor" is derived from a combination of the words "transfer" and "resistor." As its name implies, the device regulates the flow of electric current through a combination of conductivity and resistance. The transistor is most often used to switch electricity on and off, as in making and breaking connections in communications systems or computers.
Dr. Bardeen was the last surviving member of the team responsible for the invention. Dr. Brattain died in 1987, and Dr. Shockley in 1989. Superconductivity Theory
In 1951, Dr. Bardeen joined the faculty at the University of Illinois and soon began the research that made him the first person to receive two Nobel Prizes in the same field. He developed a theory of low-temperature superconductivity in which electricity travels with little or no resistance. This helped researchers develop technologies to make medical diagnoses and made it possible to devise alloys that become superconducting at less extreme temperatures. He considered the superconductivity theory his greatest scientific achievement.
"Superconductivity was more difficult to solve, and it required some radically new concepts," he once said.
His work on superconductivity was done with two graduate students, Leon Cooper, now at Brown University, and J. Robert Schrieffer, now at the University of California at Santa Barbara. The three shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1972.
The morning the second prize was announced, Dr. Bardeen almost missed a champagne celebration in his honor because of a misbehaving spin off of his first prize-winning invention. He was unable to get his electronically controlled garage door to open. Colleagues at the university had to send a car to take him to the campus. Persistence 'Pays Off'
Noting that it had taken nearly two decades to develop the superconductivity theory, Dr. Bardeen told friends, "I'd say you've got to believe in persistence -- it sometimes pays off."
John Bardeen was born May 23, 1908, in Madison, Wis., the son of a dean of the medical school at the University of Wisconsin. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering at the university and, after working three years as a geophysicist at Gulf Research Laboratories in Pittsburgh, earned a doctorate in mathematical physics at Princeton University in 1936.
Later, he held a fellowship at Harvard University, taught at the University of Minnesota and was a physicist with the Naval Ordnance Laboratory during World War II. After the war, he joined the Bell Laboratories as a researcher in solid-state physics. From 1951 until his retirement in 1975, he was a professor of electrical engineering and physics at the University of Illinois.
Dr. Bardeen also served on the President's Science Advisory Committee from 1959 to 1962 and on the White House Science Council in the early 1980's. His honors included the National Medal of Science in 1965, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1976, and the Lomonosov Prize from the Soviet Academy of Sciences in 1988. He received 16 honorary degrees and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and the American Philosophical Society.
Two years ago, the Sony Corporation endowed a $3 million faculty position at the University of Illinois in Dr. Bardeen's honor. Michael P. Schulhof, vice chairman of the Sony Corporation of America, said, "Sony's achievements, from Japan's first transistor radio to the latest digital processors, owe a significant debt to the scientific contributions of Professor Bardeen."
Dr. Bardeen is survived by his wife, the former Jane Maxwell; two sons, James M. of Seattle and William A. of Glen Ellyn, Ill.; a daughter, Elizabeth A. Greytak of Chestnut Hill, Mass., and six grandchildren. Refer more here.
Dr. Bardeen, a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, was a patient at the hospital when he suffered a heart attack, said Larry Bernard, a university spokesman.
A soft-spoken theoretical physicist, Dr. Bardeen was working with two other scientists, Walter Brattain and William P. Shockley, at the American Telephone and Telegraph Company's Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, N.J., when they developed the first semiconductor transistor in 1947. The invention was announced in June 1948, and its first commercial use was in telephone-switching equipment four years later. Revolutionary Inventions.
Invention of the transistor earned the three men a Nobel Prize in 1956 and transformed science and industry. The tiny devices on silicon chips pushed aside the large, inefficient vacuum tubes for portable radios, computers and the miniaturized electronics required for space flight.
Dr. Bardeen once remarked, "I knew the transistor was important, but I never foresaw the revolution in electronics it would bring."
Speaking of him yesterday, Dr. Robert M. Berdahl, vice chancellor of the University of Illinois, said, "There are very few people who had a greater impact on the whole of the 20th century."
The name "transistor" is derived from a combination of the words "transfer" and "resistor." As its name implies, the device regulates the flow of electric current through a combination of conductivity and resistance. The transistor is most often used to switch electricity on and off, as in making and breaking connections in communications systems or computers.
Dr. Bardeen was the last surviving member of the team responsible for the invention. Dr. Brattain died in 1987, and Dr. Shockley in 1989. Superconductivity Theory
In 1951, Dr. Bardeen joined the faculty at the University of Illinois and soon began the research that made him the first person to receive two Nobel Prizes in the same field. He developed a theory of low-temperature superconductivity in which electricity travels with little or no resistance. This helped researchers develop technologies to make medical diagnoses and made it possible to devise alloys that become superconducting at less extreme temperatures. He considered the superconductivity theory his greatest scientific achievement.
"Superconductivity was more difficult to solve, and it required some radically new concepts," he once said.
His work on superconductivity was done with two graduate students, Leon Cooper, now at Brown University, and J. Robert Schrieffer, now at the University of California at Santa Barbara. The three shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1972.
The morning the second prize was announced, Dr. Bardeen almost missed a champagne celebration in his honor because of a misbehaving spin off of his first prize-winning invention. He was unable to get his electronically controlled garage door to open. Colleagues at the university had to send a car to take him to the campus. Persistence 'Pays Off'
Noting that it had taken nearly two decades to develop the superconductivity theory, Dr. Bardeen told friends, "I'd say you've got to believe in persistence -- it sometimes pays off."
John Bardeen was born May 23, 1908, in Madison, Wis., the son of a dean of the medical school at the University of Wisconsin. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering at the university and, after working three years as a geophysicist at Gulf Research Laboratories in Pittsburgh, earned a doctorate in mathematical physics at Princeton University in 1936.
Later, he held a fellowship at Harvard University, taught at the University of Minnesota and was a physicist with the Naval Ordnance Laboratory during World War II. After the war, he joined the Bell Laboratories as a researcher in solid-state physics. From 1951 until his retirement in 1975, he was a professor of electrical engineering and physics at the University of Illinois.
Dr. Bardeen also served on the President's Science Advisory Committee from 1959 to 1962 and on the White House Science Council in the early 1980's. His honors included the National Medal of Science in 1965, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1976, and the Lomonosov Prize from the Soviet Academy of Sciences in 1988. He received 16 honorary degrees and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and the American Philosophical Society.
Two years ago, the Sony Corporation endowed a $3 million faculty position at the University of Illinois in Dr. Bardeen's honor. Michael P. Schulhof, vice chairman of the Sony Corporation of America, said, "Sony's achievements, from Japan's first transistor radio to the latest digital processors, owe a significant debt to the scientific contributions of Professor Bardeen."
Dr. Bardeen is survived by his wife, the former Jane Maxwell; two sons, James M. of Seattle and William A. of Glen Ellyn, Ill.; a daughter, Elizabeth A. Greytak of Chestnut Hill, Mass., and six grandchildren. Refer more here.
Comments
Post a Comment