physics

Georg Bednorz

Georg Bednorz is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Georg Bednorz rather than just read about it. In short: Johannes Georg Bednorz (German: [ˈɡeːɔʁk ˈbɛdnɔʁt͡s] ; born 16 May 1950) is a German physicist who, together with K. Alex Müller, discovered high-temperature superconductivity in ceramics, for which they shared the 1987 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Key takeaways

Georg Bednorz belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Georg Bednorz to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Georg Bednorz from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Johannes Georg Bednorz (German: [ˈɡeːɔʁk ˈbɛdnɔʁt͡s] ; born 16 May 1950) is a German physicist who, together with K. Alex Müller, discovered high-temperature superconductivity in ceramics, for which they shared the 1987 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Biography Johannes Georg Bednorz was born on 16 May 1950 in Neuenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia, the fourth child of Anton Bednorz, an elementary school teacher, and his wife Elisabeth, a piano teacher. His parents were both from Silesia in Central Europe, but were forced to move westwards in turbulences of World War II. As a child, his parents tried to get him interested in classical music, but he was more practically inclined, preferring to work on motorcycles and cars. (Although as a teenager he did eventually learn to play the violin and trumpet.) In high school he developed an interest in the natural sciences, focusing on chemistry, which he could learn in a hands-on manner through experiments. In 1968, Bednorz enrolled at the University of Münster to study chemistry. However, he soon felt lost in the large body of students, and opt to switch to the much less popular subject of crystallography, a subfield of mineralogy at the interface of chemistry and physics. In 1972, his teachers Wolfgang Hoffmann and Horst Böhm arranged for him to spend the summer at the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory as a visiting student. The experience here would shape his further career: not only did he meet his later collaborator K. Alex Müller, the head of the physics department, but he also experienced the atmosphere of creativity and freedom cultivated at the IBM lab, which he credits as a strong influence on his way of conducting science. After another visit in 1973, Bednorz came to Zurich in 1974 for six months to do the experimental part of his master’s thesis. Here he grew crystals of SrTiO3, a ceramic material belonging to the family of perovskites. Müller, himself interested in perovskites, urged him to continue his research. After graduating from Münster in 1976, Bednorz started a Ph.D at ETH Zurich under the supervision of Heini Gränicher and Alex Müller. In 1978, his future wife, Mechthild Wennemer, whom he had met in Münster, followed him to Zurich to start her own Ph.D. After obtaining his Ph.D. in 1982, Bednorz joined the IBM lab. There, he joined Müller's ongoing research on superconductivity. The following year, Bednorz and Müller began a systematic study of the electrical properties of ceramics formed from transition metal oxides, and in 1986 they succeeded in inducing superconductivity in a lanthanum barium copper oxide (LaBaCuO, also known as LBCO). The oxide's critical temperature (Tc) was 35 K, a full 12 K higher than the previous record. This discovery stimulated a great deal of additional research in high-temperature superconductivity on cuprate materials with structures similar to LBCO, soon leading to the discovery of compounds such as BSCCO (Tc 107K) and YBCO (Tc 92K). In 1987, Bednorz and Müller were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics "for their important break-through in the discovery of superconductivity in ceramic materials." The same year, Bednorz was appointed an IBM Fellow.

Recognition

Awards

Memberships

Notes

References

External links

Pioneers in Electricity and Magnetism – Johannes Georg Bednorz, National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. Georg Bednorz on Nobelprize.org including the Nobel Lecture, December 8, 1987 Perovskite-Type Oxides – The New Approach to High-Tc Superconductivity

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Georg Bednorz

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Georg Bednorz claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Georg Bednorz before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Georg Bednorz ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Georg Bednorz

In research: Georg Bednorz appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Georg Bednorz in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Georg Bednorz is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1950 births, 20th-century German physicists, 21st-century German physicists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Georg Bednorz outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Georg Bednorz in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Georg Bednorz means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Georg Bednorz out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Georg Bednorz in simple terms?

Why does Georg Bednorz matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Georg Bednorz?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Georg Bednorz.