1908-1991

American physicist who was awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize for Physics, shared with Walter Brattain and William Shockley, for research on semiconductors and discovery of the transistor effect, which revolutionized the electronics industry. In 1972 Bardeen won a second Nobel Prize with Leon Cooper and J. Robert Schrieffer for their explanation of superconductivity, known as the BSC theory. Bardeen is one of only three people to have received two Nobel Prizes, and the only two-time recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physics.