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Superconductivity Oral Histories

“Everyone who believes himself to have made a significant discovery will admit that the first inklings had their origin in something read or heard, and very likely misunderstood. The final result is none the worse because it was reached by stumbling - it is only our pride which is hurt when we fail to measure up to that perfection of progress that the great men of the past always seemed to achieve. Or did they? If we wish to boast of our achievements, let us not point to the unerring pursuit of truth by a logically faultless thinking-machine, but to the even more astonishing way in which truth can be caused to emerge from the toils of error and stupidity.”

(Ref: A. B. Pippard, quoted in "100 Years of Superconductivity”, Ed. H. Rogalla and P.H. Kes, CSC Press, (2011) p 49)
 
Oral histories provide us with a valuable insight into the circumstances under which the application superconductivity and technical superconductors has progressed and the IEEE Council on Superconductivity is actively engaged in selecting and sponsoring interviews with prominent  senior researchers and managers in the field of superconductivity.
 
Below is a listing of the oral histories currently in the collection with a brief biography of each by Sheldon Hochheiser: 
 
Flükiger, working mainly at the University of Geneva and at Karlsruhe, studied the metallurgy and structure of a variety of superconductivity, and then applied that knowledge to the production of superconducting wires and tapes.

Born and raised in Japan, Iwasa earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees at MIT. He has spent his entire career at the Francis Bitter Magnet Lab there, where his work has focused on the the study, development, and design of superconducting magnets.

 

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Levy's research, chiefly at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, focused on the intersection of ultrasonics and superconductivity. He also played a central role in the development and evolution of the IEEE Council on Superconductivity.

Malozemoff spent the 19 years of his career at IBM research, where he was best known for the co-discovery of the “giant flux creep” and the irreversibility line in high temperature superconductors (HTS). He spent the remainder of his career at American Superconductor, where he was in charge, among other activities, of AMSC’s rise to a leading role in high temperature superconducting wire and its applications.

 


Silver is best known for his role in the Invention of the Superconducting Quantum Interference Device , better known as the SQUID, while working at the Ford Motors Scientific Lab. He later continued his work at superconducting electronic devices as a scientist and administrator at the Aerospace Corporation and TRW. 

Van Duzer spent his long career at the University of California-Berkeley developing superconducting devices and circuits. He was also the founding editor of the IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity.