John Bardeen has the unique distinction of being the first--and so far only--person to have won two Nobel Prizes in physics. The first, shared with Walter Brattain and William Shockley, came in 1956 for his role in the discovery of the transistor. Only a few months after receiving this award, Bardeen completed another research project that would lead to his second Nobel Prize in 1972, this one for his part in the development of the BCS theory of superconductivity, named for its three inventors, Bardeen, Leon Cooper, and J. Robert Schrieffer, who shared the Nobel Prize. The BCS theory accounts for the tendency of certain materials to lose all electrical resistance when they are cooled to temperatures close to absolute zero. The theory not only accounted for all known superconductivity phenomena, but also suggested an extensive agenda of new research on the topic.

John Bardeen was born in Madison, Wisconsin...