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John Bardeen

American physicist and engineer (1908–1991)

  • Fame64.1
  • Momentum0.0
  • Scientists rank#193
Source-basedStable
  • Fame64.1
  • Momentum0.0
  • Scientists rank#193
  • Wikipedia12.8K
Lived 1908–1991, aged 83United States
United StatesUnited StatesScientistsScientist
  • Wikipedia
    89 languages
    Cross-language footprint
  • Era
    1908–1991
    Aged 83
  • Awards
    16
    recognised works
Summary
Updated 2026-06-21

The only person to win the Nobel Prize in Physics twice — once for inventing the transistor that made modern electronics possible, and once for explaining superconductivity.

Biography

About

Born in Wisconsin in 1908, Bardeen studied electrical engineering before earning a physics Ph.D. from Princeton. After World War II he joined Bell Labs, where in 1956 he shared the first Nobel for the transistor — the invention that would underpin everything from telephones to computers and launch the Information Age. He moved to the University of Illinois and kept working, this time on the puzzle of superconductivity. In 1972 he won again, with Cooper and Schrieffer, for the BCS theory that now powers MRI machines and quantum circuits. He became the first person to take two Nobels in the same…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from John Bardeen

John Bardeen
said
Science is a field which grows continuously with ever expanding frontiers. Further, it is truly international in scope.
— Banquet Speech, John Bardeen, The Nobel Prize in Physics 1972
John Bardeen
saidundated
... I can't work well under the conditions at Bell Labs.
— told to Frederick Seitz as quoted by Lillian Hoddeson in No boundaries: University of Illinois vignettes, University of Illinois Press 2004
via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA
Where to find them

Platforms

By the numbers

Score breakdown

The six component signals behind the Fame score, and their ranks across the leaderboards.

Fame
Stable
64.1
Composite of search demand, mentions, audience & graph footprint.
Score components
Historical24.5
Source confidence65.0
Completeness75.0
Global rank
—
Country rank
—
Category rank
#193
Receipts

Sources

  • Wikidata
    wikidata · wikidata.org
    High confidence
  • Wikipedia
    wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
    High confidence
  • Pantheon 2.0
    database · pantheon.world
    High confidence