True Genius The Life and Science of John Bardeen: The Only Winner of Two Nobel Prizes in Physics (2002) / Chapter Skim
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3 To Be an Engineer
3 To Be an Engineer
Pages 28-44
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From page 28... ...
A year after Althea's death, lohn's French teacher wrote Charles that, although John was "not actually failing now, I have felt all year that he is not in the right class to get the most out of his work." Bardeen's high school records do not hint at his great future accomplishments. At Uni High he received many more marks of "good" and "fair" than of "excellent," even in some mathematics 28
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From page 29... ...
But as he was "a little leery about graduating so young," he and Bill decided to attend Madison Central High School for two years, taking additional mathematics, science, and literature courses not offered at Uni. By the time John had turned fifteen and Bill seventeen, the two had completed every course of interest at Madison Central.
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From page 30... ...
He also lettered on the varsity water polo team. During his junior year, he was mentioned in the Wisconsin Badger Yearbook as having swum "some beautiful races in the 200-yard breast stroke to cop first place." The yearbook swim team photo shows a fit young man standing in a relaxed pose by the pool.
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From page 31... ...
Bardeen found mentors at the university who recognized and encouraged his mathematical talent. The short, round-faced, and genial Warren Weaver, later head of the Rockefeller Foundation's science program, guided Bardeen in an independent mathematics
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From page 32... ...
"The University was strong in applied mathematics," Bardeen recalled, "but there was little interest in atomic physics until Van VIeck arrived." Like Bardeen, John Van VIeck grew up in Madison, where he was born in 1899. His Harvard doctoral thesis, a computation of the energy of the helium atom, had been supervised by Harvard's first theoretical physicist, Edwin C
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From page 33... ...
Developed in Europe during 1925 and 1926, quantum mechanics treated phenomena on the scale of the atom and nucleus, a realm where classical physics breaks down. The revolutionary theory shook the foundations of the classical physics fields of mechanics, electricity, magnetism, optics, and thermodynamics, among others.
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From page 34... ...
" He nevertheless earned an A in the course. Other well-known European theoretical physicists who passed through Madison while Bardeen studied there included Werner Heisenberg and Arnold Sommerfeld.
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From page 35... ...
A popular book on the Gulf Oil Corporation's first half century characterized the old-fashioned oil prospector as one who often "had a muddy nose from sticking it into a handful of black earth and sniffing for oil." He was a man who "studied creeks and water holes for seepages and gas bubbles, held lighted matches to the bubbles to see if they would burn and scuffed the ground for paraffin dirt." The new prospector, on the other hand, used state-of-the-art measurements by instruments, such as magnetometers to measure variations in the magnetic field, gravimeters to measure differences in gravity, or seismographs to measure tiny artificial earthquakes set off to explore the materials below the surface. Because the demand for oil was ever increasing, both for automobiles and for other technologies, companies such as Gulf Oil were investing heavily in geophysical prospecting.
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From page 36... ...
He treats difficult problems in a masterly and often in a unique way." Weaver described Bardeen as "a very independent young man, doing most excellently the work that interests him and at times slighting that which does not appeal to him. " He added that the Wisconsin Mathematics Department judged Bardeen to be "the strongest candidate for such a position we have had in years." Weaver personally thought there was "a real chance that Mr.
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From page 37... ...
When he sought additional mathematics courses, he found that the only advanced courses left for him to take were those taught by Rudolph Langer on the theory of differential equations and analytic functions. Bardeen did not find these subjects particularly interest.
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From page 38... ...
According to legend, the Gulf Oil Corporation emerged from a wildcat well in Texas, which came in on January 10, 1901, "with such fury that it wrecked the drilling rig and covered the surrounding countryside with a lake of oil." The driller and two prospectors borrowed $300,000 from the Pittsburgh banking firm of T Mellon ~ Sons and formed a partnership, the I
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From page 39... ...
Using constantly improving measuring equipment Gulf's geologists kept records of the geophysical properties of each hole drilled, whether or not the workers struck oil. From this information, Bardeen and other scientists on the staff calculated the likelihood of finding oil in a particular location.
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From page 40... ...
Peters described the theory in more detail in a later paper, which won the Society of Exploration Geophysicists' Best Paper Award for 1949. Bardeen balanced his professional life in Pittsburgh with a relaxed social life limited to inexpensive pastimes, such as bowIing.
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From page 41... ...
Van VIeck described Bardeen "as a student of outstanding ability" and one who "easily led the class." He estimated that his former student had a "native ability in mathematical physics comparable with that of many National Research Fellows." Bardeen's "personality is good," Van VIeck wrote, "although he is inclined to be a little reticent." Weaver, by now at the Rockefeller Foundation, said that as a "general rule" he avoided writing recommendations. He was making an exception for Bardeen because he had "never had a student whom I could recommend to the graduate mathematics group at Princeton with as much enthusiasm or with as little reserve."
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From page 42... ...
Bardeen was in their plan. Eckhardt asked Osterhoudt to "drop down and see your friend John Bardeen and try to talk him into staying with us." Dutch found John adamant.
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From page 43... ...
When Bardeen heard that Einstein had accepted a lifetime appointment at Princeton's new Institute for Advanced Study, he thought perhaps he would study with him! The night before John left Pittsburgh, he attended a small dinner party in the apartment of a Gulf colleague, Bruce Reline.
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From page 44... ...
Bruce and Mary Margaret were on the other. lane eyed John surreptitiously.
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