While still a graduate student, Brian D. Josephson made a discovery that was to earn him a share of the 1973 Nobel Prize for physics. That discovery concerned the flow of electrons across two superconducting materials separated by a thin nonconducting barrier. Josephson found that his own calculations predicted a far greater flow than would have been expected on the basis of traditional quantum mechanics . His predictions were experimentally confirmed shortly after his announcement of the effect.

Josephson was born in Cardiff, Wales, on January 4, 1940. His parents were Mimi and Abraham Josephson. After graduating from Cardiff High School, Josephson entered Trinity College, Cambridge. He earned his B.A. degree there in 1960 and his M.A. and Ph.D. in 1964. Between 1962 and 1969, he also held an appointment as junior research fellow at Trinity.

Studies Mössbauer and Tunneling Effects

Josephson's first research interest as a graduate student was the...