May 23, 1908 Born, Madison, Wisconsin - son of Medical School Dean Charles R. Bardeen and Althea Harmer
1923 University High and Madison Central
1928 B.S. Wisconsin, Electrical Engineering. Western Electric. Edward Bennett electrodynamics course
1929 M.S. Wisconsin, Electrical Engineering. J. H. Van Vleck
1930-33 Geophysicists, Gulf Research and Development Corporation - Leo J. Peters
1936 Ph.D. Princeton, Mathematics and Physics. E. P. Wigner
1935-38 Junior Fellow, Harvard. J. H. Van Vleck and P. W. Bridgman
1938 Married Jane Maxwell, July 18
1939-41 Assistant Professor of Physics, University of Minnesota
1941-45 Principal Physicist, U. S. Naval Ordnance Laboratory (Washington D.C.), magnetism and minesweeping
1945-51 Radar, Bell Telephone Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey
1947 Surface physics - properties of contacts between metals of semi-conductors depend on electron behavior in surface energy levels
1948 Transistors with William B. Shockley and Walter Brattain. Point contact type
1951-75 Professor of Physics and Electrical Engineering, University of Illinois. Louis Ridenour. Xerox Corporation
1952 Transistor literature
March 1953 Fortune article on transistors
Theoretical understanding of semiconductors
Explained why metal-germanium contact gives effect of a PN junction in a emiconductor - in terms of surface energy states
1956 National Academy of Science member
1957 Theory of Superconductivity - vanishing of electrical resistance of some metals at low temperatures
1975 Professor Emeritus, University of Illinois
January 30, 1991 Died, Boston, Massachusetts
Research Areas:
Electrical conduction in semiconductors and metals; surface properties of semiconductors; theory of superconductivity; and diffusion of atoms in solids
Prizes and Honors:
1952 Ballantine Medal, Franklin Institute
1954 Buckley Prize (solid state)
1955 Scott Medal, D.Sc. Union
1956 Nobel Prize for Physics
1960 D.Sc. University of Wisconsin
1962 London Prize
1972 Nobel Prize for Physics
1974 D.Sc. University of Illinois
1977 Presidential Medal of Freedom
1987 Lomonosov Award, Soviet Academy of Sciences
1990 John Bardeen Chair in Physics and Electrical and Computer Engineering Established at University of Illinois