An Extraordinary Man: Reflections on John Bardeen

APR 01, 1992

Occupying the office next door for 32 years provided a unique perspective on Bardeen. His personal qualities were as admirable as his scientific style.

DOI: 10.1063/1.881347

David Pines

I met John Bardeen in the spring of 1950, when he was still at Bell Labs and I was a graduate student in physics at Princeton. That semester John came once a week to teach a seminar on the physics of semiconductors. Although I was in the midst of my thesis research, I regularly attended his lectures, which I remember as being clear, informative and low key. (The notes for this seminar formed the basis of EE‐PHYS 435, Bardeen’s famous electrical engineering course at Illinois, described in the article by Nick Holonyak on page 36.)

References

1. J. Bardeen, Phys. Rev. 50, 1098 (1938).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
2. Betsy Greytak, private communication.
3. W. Osterhoudt, letter to Betsy Greytak (1991).
4. H. Fröhlich, Phys. Rev. 79, 845 (1950). https://doi.org/PHRVAO
J. Bardeen, Phys. Rev. 79, 167 (1950); https://doi.org/PHRVAO
J. Bardeen, 80, 567 (1950);
J. Bardeen, 81, 829 (1951).
5. J. Bardeen, Encyclopedia of Physics, vol. 15, Springer‐Verlag, Berlin (1956), p. 274.
6. T. D. Lee, D. Pines, Phys. Rev. 88, 960 (1952).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
7. T. D. Lee, F. E. Low, D. Pines, Phys. Rev. 90, 297 (1953).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
8. H. Fröhlich, Proc. R. Soc. London, Ser. A 215, 291 (1952).
9. D. Bohm, D. Pines, Phys. Rev. 92, 609 (1958). https://doi.org/PHRVAO
D. Pines, Phys. Rev. 92, 628 (1953).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
10. J. Bardeen, D. Pines, Phys. Rev. 99, 1140 (1955).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
11. J. Bardeen, Phys. Rev. 52, 688 (1937).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
12. J. Bardeen, L. Cooper, J. R. Schrieffer, Phys. Rev. 10, 1175 (1957).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
13. L. Cooper, Phys. Rev. 10, 1189 (1956).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
14. J. R. Schrieffer, The Theory of Superconductivity, Addison‐Wesley, Reading, Mass. (1964).
15. A. Bohr, B. Mottelson, D. Pines, Phys. Rev. 110, 936 (1958). https://doi.org/PHRVAO
Y. Nambu, G. Jona‐Lasinio, Phys. Rev. 122, 345 (1961).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
16. J. Bardeen, G. Baym, D. Pines, Phys. Rev. 156, 207 (1967).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
17. J. Bardeen, Phys. Rev. Lett. 42, 1498 (1979); https://doi.org/PRLTAO
J. Bardeen, 45, 1978 (1980);
J. Bardeen, 55, 1010 (1985);
J. Bardeen, Phys. Rev. B 39, 3528 (1989).

More about the Authors

David Pines. University of Illinois, Urbana‐Champaign.