John Robert Schrieffer

John Robert Schrieffer was an American theoretical physicist who shared the 1972 Nobel Prize in Physics for developing the BCS theory of superconductivity with John Bardeen and Leon Cooper.

John Bardeen: John Bardeen was an American physicist who co-developed the BCS theory of superconductivity and won two Nobel Prizes in Physics. Bardeen recruited Schrieffer to work on superconductivity, and their collaboration produced BCS theory.
BCS theory: BCS theory explains conventional superconductivity through electron pairs that form a coherent quantum state. Schrieffer helped formulate its many-electron wavefunction, completing the theory with Bardeen and Cooper.
Superconductivity research: Superconductivity research studies materials with zero electrical resistance and related quantum phenomena. Schrieffer entered a field struggling to explain superconductivity microscopically.
Condensed matter physics: Condensed matter physics studies the collective properties of large assemblies of atoms and electrons, especially in solids and liquids. BCS theory became a foundational achievement in this field.
Leon Cooper: Leon Cooper is an American physicist whose work on paired electrons helped explain conventional superconductivity. Cooper’s paired-electron insight supplied the key starting point for Schrieffer’s theory.
Cooper pair: A Cooper pair is a correlated pair of electrons that can move through a superconductor without electrical resistance. The paired electrons in BCS theory are the microscopic carriers of its superconducting state.
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign: The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is a public research university in Illinois, United States. Schrieffer worked there with Bardeen when their superconductivity research took shape.
Josephson effect: The Josephson effect is the flow of supercurrent between superconductors separated by a thin barrier. Its predictions and experiments provide a sensitive setting for testing superconducting quantum coherence.
Eugene Wigner: Eugene Wigner was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist whose work on symmetry and nuclear physics reshaped modern physics. Wigner supervised Schrieffer’s doctoral research in theoretical physics at Princeton.
Superconductivity: Superconductivity is a state in which a material has zero electrical resistance and expels magnetic fields below a critical temperature. This is the physical phenomenon Schrieffer’s best-known theory explains.

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