TRUE GENIUS: The Life and Science of John Bardeen, the Only Winner of Two Nobel Prizes in Physics
Lillian Hoddeson, Vicki Daitch, . . Joseph Henry, $27.95 (482pp) ISBN 978-0-309-08408-6
The fact that he won an unprecedented two Nobel prizes in physics (in 1956 and 1972) may be the only extraordinary thing about John Bardeen. He grew up in a middle-class home in Wisconsin with his doctor father, interior designer mother and four siblings. He apparently worked hard, cared deeply about his family, loved sports, was, by all accounts, a gracious and likable colleague and devoted himself to his graduate students. He was also tenacious in pursuit of answers to complex problems in his discipline. Working with William Shockley and Walter Brattain, Bardeen developed the world's first transistor in 1947 and, ten years later, with J. Robert Schrieffer and Leon Cooper, he created a theory of superconductivity. Hoddeson (
Reviewed on: 07/29/2002
Genre: Nonfiction
Paperback - 488 pages - 978-0-309-09511-2