Maimonides
87% Profile Match
Segre Collection, AIP Emilio Segre Visual Archives, 1961 (photographer not individually named), reused with AIP's stated permission · 'Portrait of John Bardeen in Lindau' (1961), AIP Emilio Segre Visual Archives, Segre Collection, uploaded to Wikimedia Commons as 'John Bardeen in Lindau.jpg' (original 2422 x 3513) with the AIP statement that American Institute of Physics is the copyright holder and freely gives permission to use the image with the credit line, matching the AIP archive's published copyright guide. Identity: the Commons caption comes from the AIP archive, and a conference name tag reading 'Prof. Dr. Bardeen' is visible in this and in a second 1962 photograph from the Staatsarchiv Freiburg. Downscaled to 827 x 1200; no upscaling. CAVEAT: the AIP repository page (repository.aip.org/bardeen-lindau) returned HTTP 403 to automated requests, so the item's own Copyright Holder line could not be seen directly; the basis rests on the Commons page quoting AIP and the AIP guide. If the lead considers that insufficient, hold this portrait. · CC BY 4.0
physicist · 20th Century
John Bardeen
1908–1991
Known For
scientificengineering
Not yet included in personality matching — the documented evidence doesn't yet cover enough of the personality model. Everything else on this page is fully available.
Trait Constellation
Key Achievements
At Bell Labs he and Walter Brattain discovered the transistor effect in the late 1940s; he shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics with Brattain and William Shockley.
In 1957 he, Leon Cooper and Robert Schrieffer proposed the first successful explanation of superconductivity, the BCS theory, which earned the three the 1972 Nobel Prize in Physics.
He is described as the only winner of two Nobel Prizes in Physics, and at the University of Illinois from 1951 he founded a semiconductor laboratory and a theory group.
Moments That Reveal Them
When Shockley said in January 1948 that he intended to be the only name on the transistor patent, Brattain protested aloud while Bardeen said little and left the room; Bell's lawyers then filed on the Bardeen-Brattain device.
This is consistent with a quiet reluctance to confront a dispute openly. Conflict Tolerance
Leading the superconductivity effort at Illinois, he gave postdoc Cooper and student Schrieffer freedom to pursue their ideas and later sent them to announce the BCS theory at an American Physical Society meeting.
This is consistent with a collaborative style that shares credit with junior colleagues. Collaboration
Turning Points
In 1951, after the rift with Shockley at Bell Labs, he became Professor of Electrical Engineering and Physics at the University of Illinois, where he turned to superconductivity theory.
This is consistent with seeking room to direct his own research. Need for Autonomy
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Sources
- John Bardeen (Q949) -- verified live via the Wikidata API (2026-10-26): English label 'John Bardeen', description 'American physicist and engineer (1908-1991)', born 1908-05-23, died 1991-01-30, citizenship United States, P18 image 'Bardeen.jpg' (280 x 396, Nobel Foundation; not used, see notes). Orientation only; not used as support for any row.
- Nobel Foundation, 'The Nobel Prize in Physics 1972' (summary page) and the award ceremony speech by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, both read in full. CANONICAL SIGNIFICANCE SOURCE: the prize was awarded jointly to John Bardeen, Leon Neil Cooper and John Robert Schrieffer 'for their jointly developed theory of superconductivity, usually called the BCS-theory'; the speech describes the 1957 paper as a complete theoretical explanation that predicted new effects and stimulated theoretical and experimental research. Award-body text: authoritative and admiring.
- Nobel Foundation, 'The Nobel Prize in Physics 1956' (summary page) and the award ceremony speech by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, read: the prize to William Bradford Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain 'for their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect'; the speech explains conductors, insulators and semiconductors and says that the discovery of transistor action in 1948 gave Shockley, Bardeen and Brattain the key to the control mechanism. Award-body text, joint credit stated.
- Nobel Foundation, 'John Bardeen - Biographical' (written at the time of the 1956 award, published in 'Les Prix Nobel', with the later 1972 addendum), read in full: Wisconsin electrical engineering degree, geophysical prospecting at Gulf Research Laboratories, mathematical physics at Princeton under Wigner, Harvard Junior Fellowship, Minnesota, wartime Naval Ordnance Laboratory, Bell Telephone Laboratories (1945-51), Professor of Electrical Engineering and Physics at Illinois from 1951, research fields, and the 1957 BCS proposal 'the first successful explanation of superconductivity'. Institutional biography. Family passages were read and excluded.
- PBS/WGBH 'Transistorized!' site, pages 'Patent Battles' and 'Shockley, Brattain and Bardeen: Clashing Egos to the End', read in full: the January 1948 meetings in which Shockley said he intended to be the only name on the transistor patent; Brattain's and Bardeen's different reactions; Bell Labs lawyers filing on the Bardeen-Brattain device after finding Lilienfeld's earlier patent; Bardeen calling the situation 'intolerable' and later taking a job at the University of Illinois where he could direct his own work; Brattain recalling the staged press photograph. A public-broadcasting history presenting the documented professional rift with Shockley, relying on interviews and archival quotations (Brattain 1974). COUNTER-VOICE on the Bell Labs episode; descriptions of Shockley's later conduct were not used.
- David Pines, 'John Bardeen: genius in action' (Physics World, 1 May 2003, review of Hoddeson and Daitch, 'True Genius'), read in full: Bardeen's modesty, interest in applications and ability to collaborate with experimentalists and theorists; the Bell Labs invention of the transistor with Brattain in 1947; the six years of sustained effort that produced BCS theory with Cooper and Schrieffer, his emphasis on experimental facts, his freedom given to younger colleagues, his consultancy to Xerox on xerography; the review's remark that Shockley was single-handedly responsible for Bardeen leaving Bell Labs in 1951; and the reviewer's criticism that the book covers the Illinois years less well. Review by a former younger colleague: admiring but specific.
- J. Robert Schrieffer, review of Hoddeson and Daitch, 'True Genius: The Life and Science of John Bardeen, the Only Winner of Two Nobel Prizes in Physics' (Physics Today, February 2003), read in full: Bardeen as a modest, quiet man; Bell Labs work with Brattain on the point-contact triode; Shockley, who led the group, thought he should receive major credit because of an earlier (incorrect) suggestion; the move to Illinois, where he founded a semiconductor laboratory and a theory group; bringing together Cooper and Schrieffer; his teaching students to decompose complex problems into simple pieces. Review by a BCS co-laureate: close, admiring and not independent.
- Fermilab 'FermiNews' (27 June 2003), feature on Lillian Hoddeson's biography 'True Genius', read in full: Bardeen as unlike the 'mad scientist' stereotype, nicknamed 'Whispering John', sending his students Cooper and Schrieffer to announce the BCS theory at an American Physical Society meeting, learning from Wigner to reduce problems to their essentials, tackling problems persistently, preferring to work in collaboration and seeking problems that would benefit society; quotes Hoddeson and Bardeen's son. Laboratory news feature based on the biographer's account.
- Kirkus Reviews, review of Hoddeson and Daitch, 'True Genius: The Life and Science of John Bardeen' (15 July 2002), read in full: calls it a serviceable and slow biography; says Bardeen had a gift for decomposing large problems and formulated an elegant theory of surface states that made the transistor practicable; that the transistor material largely duplicates Hoddeson's earlier 'Crystal Fire'; and that the book's ordinary-man emphasis becomes a 'curious disquisition' on genius. Independent trade review; COUNTER-VOICE on the biography's quality, not on the scientist.
- AIP Emilio Segre Visual Archives, Segre Collection, 'Portrait of John Bardeen in Lindau' (1961), the Wikimedia Commons file page 'John Bardeen in Lindau.jpg' (AIP copyright-holder statement), the AIP guide 'Determining Copyright and Permissions'; also the Landesarchiv Baden-Wuerttemberg terms of use for a second candidate photograph. Checked for the portrait only.