John Bardeen (1908 - 1991)
John Bardeen was born on May 23rd, 1908 in Madison, Wisconsin. He is the son of Dr.Charles Russell Bardeen and Althea Harmer Bardeen. John lived a very normal life until he was about 12 and his mother got very sick with cancer. When she died it came as a big surprise as his father had downgraded her illness in order to protect his children. Bardeen’s father remarried quickly to his secretary, Ruth Hames, to keep his family together but Bardeen was still very upset and sad at his mother’s death. Bardeen decided to go on a different path than his father and got his masters in electrical engineering, but by the time he graduated jobs were scarce as the great depression was starting. Luckily he found a job with Gulf Oil Company as a geophysicist and stayed there for three years. Bardeen finished his dissertation in 1951, and went to Harvard where he was hired as a junior fellow and paid $1,000 a year. Bardeen married then got to marry his sweetheart, Jane Maxwell in 1938. He was offered a job at the University of Minnesota until world war ll broke out where he transferred to the Naval Ordnance.
Bardeen moved to New Jersey with his wife and three kids after the war where he worked at Bell laboratory for double the amount the University of Minnesota gave him. Then in 1947 Bardeen helped create the first contact point transistor. Shockley, who offered him the job at Bell, resented the fact he missed the invention of the transistor so he left the lab and cut off Bardeen. Bardeen started to look for new a job and the University of Illinois was going to give him just that with a $10,000 pay, so he left Bell with little regret. Illinois also gave him what he had always wanted, the freedom to research whatever he wanted. On November 1st while Bardeen cooked dinner for his family he heard over the radio that him, shockley, and Brattain had won the nobel prize for inventing the transistor. At this ceremony he was scolded for not bringing all his son’s to this event and he promised to bring the entire family next time. In 1957, along with post-doctoral student Leon Cooper and graduate student Bob Schrieffer, Bardeen developed the first theory on how extremely cold metals are able to conduct electricity so efficiently which was called BCS for the last names of each physicist. In 1972 the three men were awarded the nobel prize and Bardeen became known as the only physicist to win two nobel prizes. Bardeen died on January 30th, 1991 in Boston, Massachusetts at the age of 82.
Bardeen moved to New Jersey with his wife and three kids after the war where he worked at Bell laboratory for double the amount the University of Minnesota gave him. Then in 1947 Bardeen helped create the first contact point transistor. Shockley, who offered him the job at Bell, resented the fact he missed the invention of the transistor so he left the lab and cut off Bardeen. Bardeen started to look for new a job and the University of Illinois was going to give him just that with a $10,000 pay, so he left Bell with little regret. Illinois also gave him what he had always wanted, the freedom to research whatever he wanted. On November 1st while Bardeen cooked dinner for his family he heard over the radio that him, shockley, and Brattain had won the nobel prize for inventing the transistor. At this ceremony he was scolded for not bringing all his son’s to this event and he promised to bring the entire family next time. In 1957, along with post-doctoral student Leon Cooper and graduate student Bob Schrieffer, Bardeen developed the first theory on how extremely cold metals are able to conduct electricity so efficiently which was called BCS for the last names of each physicist. In 1972 the three men were awarded the nobel prize and Bardeen became known as the only physicist to win two nobel prizes. Bardeen died on January 30th, 1991 in Boston, Massachusetts at the age of 82.