John Bardeen

John Bardeen was born in Madison, Wisconsin, on May 23, 1908, son of Dr. Charles R. Bardeen, and Althea Harmer. Dr. Bardeen was Professor of Anatomy, and Dean of the Medical School of the Universityof Wisconsin at Madison. After the death of Althea, when John was about twelve years old, Dr. Bardeen married Ruth Hames, now Mrs. Kenelm McCauley, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

John Bardeen attendedthe University High School at Madison for several years, but graduated from Madison Central High School in 1923. This was followed by a course in electrical engineering at the University of Wisconsin,in which much extra work was taken in mathematics and physics. After being out for a term while working in the engineering department of the Western Electric Company at Chicago, he graduated with aB.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1928. He continued on at Wisconsin as a graduate research assistant in electrical engineering for two years, working on mathematical problems in applied geophysics andon radiation from antennas. It was during this period that he got his first introduction to quantum theory from Professor J.H. Van Vleck.

Professor Leo J. Peters, under whom the research ingeophysics was done, took a position at the Gulf Research Laboratories in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Bardeen followed him there and worked during the next three years (1930-1933) on the development ofmethods for the interpretation of magnetic and gravitational surveys. This was a stimulating period in which geophysical methods were first being applied to prospecting for oil.

Because he felt hisinterests were more in pure than in applied science, Bardeen resigned his position at Gulf in 1933 to take graduate work in mathematical physics at Princeton University. It was here under the leadershipof Professor E.P. Wigner, that he first became interested in solid state physics. Before completing his thesis (on the theory of the work function of metals) he was offered a position as Junior...