John Bardeen’s Transistor Triumph Jersey Genius
From smartphones and laptops to electric guitars and space travel, very few staples of everyday life don’t benefit in some way from the invention of the transistor … and it all started here in New Jersey, thanks in large part to a gentleman named John Bardeen. Born in Wisconsin in 1908, Bardeen enjoyed a life of invention and discovery first fostered by his cultured and scholarly parents. His father, Charles Russell, was the first student to graduate from Johns Hopkins Medical School and founded what later became the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. His mother, Althea, was an interior designer who had studied Oriental art at the Pratt Institute. After earning B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Bardeen relocated to New Jersey to pursue graduate studies in mathematical physics at Princeton University, earning his Ph.D. in 1936. In 1945, he accepted a position on the solid-state research team at AT&T Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill. Working alongside team members Walter Brattain, Ph.D., and William Shockley, Ph.D., he helped discover the transistor effect in 1947. As the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame notes,
transistors “detect, specify, rectify and switch electric currents. They are tiny, relatively cheap, highly reliable and use very little power.” Thanks to Bardeen’s co-discovery, items ranging from heartbeat regulators to pocket calculators have been made possible. After leaving AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1951, he taught electrical engineering and physics at the University of Illinois Urbana- Champaign. While there, he established research programs in electrical engineering and physics to study semiconductors and macroscopic quantum systems. He also found time to serve as a consultant for Haloid, later known as the Xerox Corporation, and the General Electric Corporation. Unsurprisingly, his pioneering work earned him a host of accolades. In 1956, he, Brattain and Shockley were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for their work in introducing the transistor to the world. In 1972, he became the first person in history to receive a second
Nobel Prize for Physics, this time shared with L.N. Cooper and J.R. Schrieffer, for their work in developing a low-temperature superconductivity theory. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1974. Three years later, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Bardeen continued to publish scientific papers until his death in 1991 at the age of 83. Three years later, he was inducted posthumously, alongside Shockley and Brattain, into the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame for his work at Bell Laboratories. LIFE later named him among the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. Throughout his career, Bardeen was praised for his collaborative nature and willingness to share accolades with his colleagues. He once remarked, “The combined results of several people working together [are] often much more effective than could be that of an individual scientist working alone.” Nearly 35 years after John Bardeen’s passing, his groundbreaking research and scientific advances are in use around the globe. His contributions to the world of technology are among the many world-changing discoveries that prove the spirit of innovation has always been alive and well in the Garden State.
John Harbour (Johnson & Johnson, Merck, GE) Confidence Through Counsel
“I was a patent attorney for many years, and I retired about two years ago from Johnson & Johnson after 30 years. When I started at J&J in the early 1990s, I was drafting patent applications. Phil was a corporate attorney at the time and a great resource for me in learning to draft agreements and all the various sections that needed to go into them. “License agreements in the early ’90s were complicated enough; I knew certain sections needed to go in there. Phil, being a corporate guy, knew many of the other sections that needed to go in. I’ll always be thankful to him for that. “When you went in and discussed something with Phil, you had confidence that you had touched all the bases. Then, with that
information, you had a great deal of confidence that you understood the landscape well enough to properly apply those issues in the situation you were in. “Phil’s very personal in his understanding of your issue; he’s very personal in delivering the advice that needs to be given. He enjoys working with his clients and solving the issues in front of him. Phil enjoys what he’s doing, and that enjoyment leads to solutions to problems that others may not be able to give.” The above quotes are highlights from John Harbour’s full video testimonial, available at CrowleyLawLLC.com/recommendations .
–John Harbour
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