Johannes Georg Bednorz (; born 16 May 1950) is a German

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

who, together with K. Alex Müller, discovered

high-temperature superconductivity High-temperature superconductivity (high-c or HTS) is superconductivity in materials with a critical temperature (the temperature below which the material behaves as a superconductor) above , the boiling point of liquid nitrogen. They are "high- ...

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcela ...

s, for which they shared the 1987

Nobel Prize in Physics The Nobel Prize in Physics () is an annual award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions to mankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the ...

Life and work

Bednorz was born in Neuenkirchen,

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

to elementary-school teacher Anton and piano teacher Elisabeth Bednorz, as the youngest of four children. His parents were both from

Silesia Silesia (see names #Etymology, below) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Silesia, Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at 8, ...

in Central Europe, but were forced to move westwards in turbulences of World War II. including the Nobel Lecture, December 8, 1987 ''Perovskite-Type Oxides – The New Approach to High-Tc Superconductivity'' As a child, his parents tried to get him interested in classical music, but he was more practically inclined, preferring to work on motorcycles and cars. (Although as a teenager he did eventually learn to play the violin and trumpet.) In high school he developed an interest in the natural sciences, focusing on

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

, which he could learn in a hands-on manner through experiments. In 1968, Bednorz enrolled at the

University of Münster The University of Münster (, until 2023 , WWU) is a public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. With more than 43,000 students and over 120 fields of study in 15 departments, it is Germany's ...

to study chemistry. However, he soon felt lost in the large body of students, and opt to switch to the much less popular subject of

crystallography Crystallography is the branch of science devoted to the study of molecular and crystalline structure and properties. The word ''crystallography'' is derived from the Ancient Greek word (; "clear ice, rock-crystal"), and (; "to write"). In J ...

, a subfield of

mineralogy Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical mineralogy, optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifact (archaeology), artifacts. Specific s ...

at the interface of chemistry and physics. In 1972, his teachers Wolfgang Hoffmann and Horst Böhm arranged for him to spend the summer at the

IBM Zurich Research Laboratory IBM Research is the research and development division for IBM, an American multinational information technology company. IBM Research is headquartered at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York, near IBM headquarters i ...

as a visiting student. The experience here would shape his further career: not only did he meet his later collaborator K. Alex Müller, the head of the physics department, but he also experienced the atmosphere of creativity and freedom cultivated at the IBM lab, which he credits as a strong influence on his way of conducting science. After another visit in 1973, he came to Zurich in 1974 for six months to do the experimental part of his diploma work. Here he grew crystals of SrTiO₃, a ceramic material belonging to the family of

perovskites A perovskite is a crystalline material of formula ABX3 with a crystal structure similar to that of Perovskite, the mineral perovskite, this latter consisting of calcium titanium oxide (CaTiO3). The mineral was first discovered in the Ural Moun ...

. Müller, himself interested in perovskites, urged him to continue his research, and after obtaining his master's degree from Münster in 1977 Bednorz started a PhD at the

ETH Zurich ETH Zurich (; ) is a public university in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, the university focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. ETH Zurich ran ...

(Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) under supervision of Heini Gränicher and Alex Müller. In 1978, his future wife, Mechthild Wennemer, whom he had met in Münster, followed him to Zürich to start her own PhD. In 1982, after obtaining his PhD, he joined the IBM lab. There, he joined Müller's ongoing research on

superconductivity Superconductivity is a set of physical properties observed in superconductors: materials where Electrical resistance and conductance, electrical resistance vanishes and Magnetic field, magnetic fields are expelled from the material. Unlike an ord ...

. In 1983, Bednorz and Müller began a systematic study of the electrical properties of ceramics formed from

transition metal oxide An oxide () is a chemical compound containing at least one oxygen atom and one other element in its chemical formula. "Oxide" itself is the dianion (anion bearing a net charge of −2) of oxygen, an O2− ion with oxygen in the oxidation state o ...

s, and in 1986 they succeeded in inducing superconductivity in a

lanthanum barium copper oxide Lanthanum barium copper oxide, or LBCO, is an inorganic compound with the formula CuBa0.15La1.85O4. It is a black solid produced by heating an intimate mixture of barium oxide, copper(II) oxide, and lanthanum oxide in the presence of oxygen. T ...

(LaBaCuO, also known as LBCO). The oxide's

critical temperature Critical or Critically may refer to: *Critical, or critical but stable, medical states **Critical, or intensive care medicine *Critical juncture, a discontinuous change studied in the social sciences. *Critical Software, a company specializing in ...

(T_c) was 35 K, a full 12 K higher than the previous record. This discovery stimulated a great deal of additional research in

on cuprate materials with structures similar to LBCO, soon leading to the discovery of compounds such as

BSCCO Bismuth strontium calcium copper oxide (BSCCO, pronounced ''bisko''), is a type of cuprate superconductor having the generalized chemical formula Bi2 Sr2 Ca''n''−1 Cu''n'' O2''n''+4+''x'', with ''n'' = 2 being the most commonly stud ...

(T_c 107K) and

YBCO Yttrium barium copper oxide (YBCO) is a family of crystalline chemical compounds that display high-temperature superconductivity; it includes the first material ever discovered to become superconductivity, superconducting above the boiling point o ...

(T_c 92K). In 1987, Bednorz and Müller were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics "for their important break-through in the discovery of superconductivity in ceramic materials".The Nobel Prize in Physics 1987
nobelprize.org In the same year Bednorz was appointed an

IBM Fellow An IBM Fellow is a position at IBM appointed by the CEO. Typically only four to nine (eleven in 2014) IBM Fellows are appointed each year, in May or June. Fellow is the highest honor a scientist, engineer, or programmer at IBM can achieve. Over ...

Awards and honors

* Thirteenth Fritz London Memorial Award (1987) * Dannie Heineman Prize of the Göttingen Academy (1987) *Robert Wichard Pohl Prize (1987) *Hewlett-Packard Europhysics Prize (1988) *

Marcel Benoist Prize The Marcel Benoist Prize, offered by the Marcel Benoist Foundation, is a monetary prize that has been offered annually since 1920 to a scientist of Swiss nationality or residency who has made the most useful scientific discovery. Emphasis is pl ...

(1986) *

Nobel Prize for Physics The Nobel Prize in Physics () is an annual award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions to mankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prize, Nobel Prizes establi ...

(1987) *

James C. McGroddy Prize for New Materials The James C. McGroddy Prize for New Materials is a prize that has been awarded annually by the American Physical Society since 1975, but was only given that name following its endowment by IBM in 1999. Prior to that it was known as the International ...

(1988) *Minnie Rosen Award (1988) *Viktor Mortiz Goldschmidt Prize * Otto Klung Prize (1987) *

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

foreign associate (2018) *Honorable member of the

Swiss Physical Society The Swiss Physical Society (SPS) (German: Schweizerische Physikalische Gesellschaft / SPG, French: Société Suisse de Physique / SSP) is a Swiss professional society promoting physics in Switzerland. It was founded in May 1908. SPS is involved in ...

since 2011

References

External links

Pioneers in Electricity and Magnetism – Johannes Georg Bednorz
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. * including the Nobel Lecture, December 8, 1987 ''Perovskite-Type Oxides – The New Approach to High-Tc Superconductivity'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Bednorz, Johannes Georg 1950 births Living people People from Steinfurt (district) German experimental physicists 20th-century German physicists IBM employees IBM Fellows ETH Zurich alumni Nobel laureates in Physics German Nobel laureates Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences 21st-century German physicists Fellows of the American Physical Society