10 ms·
Engineer Who Won the Nobel Prize Twice in Physics
- sizzzzlerz 6y agoI remember a class I took when I was studying for my BSEE. It had to do with the necessity of maintaining a lab notebook, of filling it out properly, and making sure to sign and date entries. The purpose was to maintain a documented history showing how efforts in the lab led from some basic principals to a patentable invention. The example was a few pages taken from Bardeen's notebook at the point where they finally were able to create a working transistor. Who knows when your work is going to change the world!
- timdellinger 6y agoFor what it's worth: US patent law has now changed. The law is no longer "first in invent", it's now "first to file". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_to_file_and_first_to_invent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_to_file_and_first_to_inv...
- yborg 6y agoI'd say this characterization is questionable at best. He worked as an engineer for 4 years and then got a Ph.D. in Physics, as well as working the majority of his life as a physics researcher and teacher. It's like calling a surgeon with an undergraduate degree in Biology a "biologist'.
- mjfl 6y agoWell there's also the fact that the transistor is an applied physics device and not really the discovery of any new fundamental force or particle. Which some would (wrongly, in my opinion) consider engineering.
- cosmojg 6y agoWait, why are these things mutually exclusive? He was both a physicist and an engineer! He literally used his knowledge of physics to physically engineer novel devices. As for your surgeon example, I sure as hell hope my surgeon identifies as a biologist. If someone's slicing me open, they better be up-to-date and involved with the literature. (To your point, after speaking to my fair share of medical doctors, it seems a frightening few actually do this.)
- jollybean 6y agoLucent, AT&T etc. are like NASA in their failure to use these amazing achievements as part of their popular story/narrative. Imagine if the Nike marketing agency had, instead of 'shoes', literally 'space' to work with? It would be like crack for an agency creative. They would make 'Avengers' quality stuff.
- gumby 6y agoThey pushed the narrative very heavily before the breakup. As a regulated monopoly, lobbying the public was an important function.
- gumby 6y agowhat a very strange message to vote down. You can see any number of pre breakup publicity videos touting their contribution to society on Youtube and any history of the Bell system will discuss this topic. The topic itself is not in any way controversial.
- JackFr 6y agoIBM, at this point largely a purveyor of 2nd tier enterprise consulting, has an entire advertising narrative that they have been coasting on for decades.
- SiempreViernes 6y agoWikipedia lists him as a Physicist though, so someone forgot to sneak in a few edits before publishing their article... Anyway, the ultimate "engineering" Physics Nobel prize remains with Nils Gustaf Dalén, who got it for inventing an automatic valve. But probably really got it for being a good friend that had his face blown up in an accident shortly before the winner was to be announced.
- panda-giddiness 6y agoBefore obtaining his Nobel prizes, he first obtained his PhD in physics (under Eugene Wigner, no less). That said, Bardeen taught as a professor of electrical engineering and as a professor of physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign from 1951-1975, so I think it's fair to call him both.
- perl4ever 6y ago>under Eugene Wigner, no less So you could say he was... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wigner%27s_friend https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wigner%27s_friend ?
- qart 6y agoFields of study often have very hazy demarcations. Venki Ramakrishnan got a Nobel Prize in Chemistry, something he finds quite amusing because he has never worked on chemistry. He spends a bit of time explaining his background and his amusement in his book, "Gene Machine".
- forgotpwd16 6y agoBritannica lists him[0] as physicist as well. [0]: https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Bardeen https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Bardeen
- blululu 6y agoIn fairness he did have a PhD in mathematical physics so characterizing him as an engineer instead of a physicist is not quite accurate. That said people in academia routinely downplay the qualifications and abilities of people who work in industry. It’s not hard to imagine colleagues dismissing his work as mere engineering and not real science before he won the Nobel prize. Perhaps calling him an engineer is fair in light of such practices.
- kaesar14 6y agoBardeen was an amazing guy. I love this quote from his Wikipedia article in particular: "Bardeen was a scientist with a very unassuming personality. While he served as a professor for almost 40 years at the University of Illinois, he was best remembered by neighbors for hosting cookouts where he would prepare food for his friends, many of whom were unaware of his accomplishments at the university." Something about a man whose accomplishments have given us computers and the MRI being a friendly neighborhood dad, whose neighbors weren't even aware their hamburgers were being cooked by a man who had changed the course of human civilization, is so appealing to me.
- j7ake 6y agoI think it is appealing because it is in such stark contrast to today's culture of constant self promotion and exaggeration of mediocre achievements.
- vkou 6y agoSelf-promotion and exaggeration of mediocre achievements as the path to success has been around since time immemorial. If you can't do, talk. Julius Caesar didn't become dictator for life by doing a great job repressing the Gauls. He became dictator for life by doing a great job of talking about how bad-ass the Gauls were, and how hard he had to work to repress them.
- Nomentatus 6y agoYup. Napoleon was also a terrific writer who carried a printing press with him as a (just another) General in Italy to be sure his first-hand heavily spun reports of his fighting prowess were the first French citizens would see. Of course, we see more of this now, in a mass civic rather than rural society.
- adolph 6y agoSome to better effect than others. “Are you asking about Vice President Biden?” McChrystal says with a laugh. “Who’s that?” “Biden?” suggests a top adviser. “Did you say: Bite Me?” https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/the-runaway-general-the-profile-that-brought-down-mcchrystal-192609/ https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/the-runa...
- JKCalhoun 6y agoI've always had my eye out for time travelers from our future (I've had my eye out for UFOs as well, with about the same rate of success). It sounds like Bardeen could make the short list. To this point I had been focusing on Edwin Howard Armstrong.... ;-)
- newsbinator 6y agoWhat would be some good ways to distinguish a time traveler from a top-0.01% individual (of whom there are a million people on the planet)?
- wcarss 6y agoHaving fun with this: The elsewhere-mentioned "not making a big deal out of your success" might be a reasonable filter, because while a time traveler might almost unavoidably produce surprising advancements, they also wouldn't necessarily try to draw attention to themselves. You know, lest they fall awry of any wandering time cops. (Maybe not even to hide from them per se, given that for the hypothetical fun of it, we believe we could find them, but just to avoid some kind of prime-directive-rule against egregious self-enrichment, i.e. a "no playing god" kind of thing.)
- andi999 6y agoWinning the lottery to get clean funds.
- JKCalhoun 6y agoI guess I'm too stupid to imagine that even the top 0.01% of individuals could think of some of the really out-of-left-field ideas. The invention of Calculus might be another. That must have really made waves in the press. You know, when two time travelers set out to "invent Calculus" and by some unexplained coincidence they go back to roughly the same time in history. I mean, how does that happen?
- psahgal 6y agoThe Engineering Quad at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is also named "Bardeen Quad" in John Bardeen's honor. I haven't been back to my alma mater in a while, so my memory may be fuzzy, but I remember there was a plaque on the southwest end of the quad commemorating his achievements. I hope it's still there! When I was taking my introduction to semiconductors class in junior year, I thought it was pretty cool that we were studying a subject that one of the university's professors helped invent.
- Turing_Machine 6y agoAt one time, one of the classrooms in the Everitt Lab had a plaque noting that it was the site of the first university lecture on transistors, ever. I assume it's still there, though I haven't been back to the U of I for a while myself. I never met Prof. Bardeen, but those I know who did said he was one of the nicest and most modest, unassuming guys you'd ever want to meet. Edit: An acquaintance of mine was a librarian at the U of I. According to her, even after he retired, he'd come into the Grainger Engineering Library a few times a week to catch up on the latest journals. She said he was always super-nice and polite to the staff. I believe she said he generally just wore a flannel shirt and jeans.
- paulpauper 6y agoMuhc of the low-hanging fruit was picked in the 20th century. Every major branch of physics and engineering came out or was developed out of that century. now it's so much more theoretical and complicated and abstract in trying to tie the loose ends of the 20th century discoveries. As well as making incremental improvements.
- eternalban 6y agoThis is seriously short changing the giants of 19th century.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- kaesar14 6y agoOr, perhaps, someday in the 31st century, they'll be amazed at our startling lack of progress in the 21st century before the cascade of incredible breakthroughs in the years following. Who knows, really, what the "low hanging fruit" on the grand scale of things are.
- bsder 6y ago> Muhc of the low-hanging fruit was picked in the 20th century. Scientists were decrying the end of physics--back in the 1800s. They just had to explain this silly black body thing and they would have it all wrapped up. You are correct, though, in that the breakthroughs come due to the points that don't mesh with our understanding and that the apparatus to reach those point is quite a bit more expensive nowadays. I would point out, though, that you are kind of pointing toward "theoretical" physics--where there is a model that really does mostly work. However, on the condensed matter side of the world, things aren't anywhere nearly so well-explained. We can't fold proteins reliably. We can't engineer and explain superconductors. etc. Look at how long it took simply to engineer a blue LED. While the theoretical physics folks may think they have a handle on the world, the solid-state folks just chuckle and build another vacuum chamber.
- cuspycode 6y agoAlfred Nobel's will states that the prize should go to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." The part about the preceding year didn't work out very well, but when it comes to conferring the greatest benefit to mankind, John Bardeen certainly made the grade. Twice. It doesn't really matter whether he should be primarily categorized as an engineer or a physicist or anything else.
- Crazyontap 6y ago> Their relationship, however, soured when Shockley tried to take most of the credit for the invention. The article mentions BBT and one the constant jokes on it is whose name goes first and who gets the most credit. Guess some scientists really are that way! :)
- williesleg 6y agoNobel prizes are shit. Remember Obama?
- airhead969 6y agoI had a physics for engineers ( irony! ) course lecturer at De Anza College who worked at Bell Labs at the time on the transistor project. Oh yeah, that was the time when I used my HP 48G as a universal remote to turn on all 6 TVs in the lecture hall and people freaked out. }:)
- rsj_hn 6y agoCalling someone who got a PhD in Mathematical Physics from Princeton an "engineer" is a bit rich. Yes, his undergrad degree was in engineering, but we don't call Ed Witten a "historian" because his undergrad degree was in history, most people would focus on the PhD and years spent as a tenured professor in Physics at various universities and research institutes.
- totalZero 6y agoUnless you believe that later work cancels prior work, it's fair to call someone with an undergraduate degree in engineering an "engineer" regardless of their subsequent activities.
- amelius 6y agoI'd say that the big enabling invention was the PN junction diode. From an application point of view it wasn't as important as a transistor of course, but from a theoretical perspective it was a much bigger leap than from diode to transistor. Most texts on semiconductor physics spend much more time explaining the PN junction than explaining transistors.
- dfdz 6y ago"However, his love for physics was intact and urged him to go back to school. Therefore, he enrolled at Princeton University to study physics and mathematics in 1933. There he wrote a thesis on solid-state physics under the guidance of Nobel laureate Eugene Wigner." The title is fairly misleading ...