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superconductivity

(Encyclopedia)superconductivity, abnormally high electrical conductivity of certain substances. The phenomenon was discovered in 1911 by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, who found that the resistance of mercury dropped sudd...

BCS theory

(Encyclopedia)BCS theory: see superconductivity. ...

Kosterlitz, John Michael

(Encyclopedia)Kosterlitz, John Michael, 1943–, British physicist, b. Scotland, Ph.D. Oxford, 1969. He was on the faculty at the Univ. of Birmingham, England, from 1974 to 1982, when he became a professor at Brown...

Cooper, Leon Neil

(Encyclopedia)Cooper, Leon Neil, 1930–, American neuroscientist, b. New York City, Ph.D. Columbia, 1954. Cooper was a researcher at the Univ. of Illinois from 1955 to 1957 and at Ohio State Univ. from 1957 to 195...

Giaever, Ivar

(Encyclopedia)Giaever, Ivar, 1929–, Norwegian-American physicist, Ph.D. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1964. He was a researcher at General Electric from 1954 to 1988, when he joined the faculty at his alma ma...

cryotron

(Encyclopedia)cryotron krīˈōtrŏnˌ [key], magnetically controlled electronic switching device that operates at extremely low temperatures; it is designed to supplant, in part, the transistor in special electron...

Schrieffer, John Robert

(Encyclopedia)Schrieffer, John Robert, 1931–2019, American physicist, b., Oak Park, Ill., Ph.D. Univ. of Illinois, 1957. Schrieffer was a professor at the Univ. of Chicago (1957–60), the Univ. of Illinois (1960...

Müller, Karl Alexander

(Encyclopedia)Müller, Karl Alexander, 1927–, Swiss physicist, Ph.D. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, 1958. In 1983, Müller and co-researcher Johannes Georg Bednorz discovered superconductivity in a cerami...

McLennan, Sir John Cunningham

(Encyclopedia)McLennan, Sir John Cunningham, 1867–1935, Canadian physicist, grad. Univ. of Toronto (B.A., 1892; Ph.D., 1900). He taught at the Univ. of Toronto from 1892 to 1932, was professor of physics from 190...

Schawlow, Arthur Leonard

(Encyclopedia)Schawlow, Arthur Leonard shôˈlō [key], 1921–99, American physicist, b. Mount Vernon, N.Y., grad. Univ. of Toronto (Ph.D. 1949). Although his research focused on optics, in particular, lasers and ...

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