German-born physicist J. Georg Bednorz, now a Swiss resident, has a particular genius for finding solutions to problems of equipment and technique in physics research. He is the discoverer, with Swiss physicist K. Alex Müller, of ceramic substances that become superconducting, or allow electrical current to flow without resistance, at temperatures higher than possible with any previous superconductors. The discovery promises to lead to a host of new superconduction applications. Bednorz was only thirty-seven and had had his Ph.D. only four years when he shared the 1987 Nobel Prize in Physics with Müller for the research on superconductivity. He has also won a number of other prizes for his work.

Johannes Georg Bednorz was born on May 16, 1950, in Nevenkirchen in what was then West Germany. He graduated from the University of Münster in 1976 and received his doctorate from the Swiss Federal Institute...