Karl Alexander Müller (20 April 1927 – 9 January 2023) was a Swiss physicist and
Nobel laureate. He received the
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...
in Physics in 1987 with
Georg Bednorz for their work in
superconductivity in ceramic materials.
Biography
Müller was born in
Basel
, french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese
, neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...
, Switzerland, on 20 April 1927, to Irma (née Feigenbaum) and Paul Müller. His family immediately moved to
Salzburg
Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label= Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872.
The town is on the site of the Roman settlement of ''Iuvavum''. Salzburg was founded ...
, Austria, where his father was studying music. Alex and his mother then moved to
Dornach, near
Basel
, french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese
, neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...
, to the home of his grandparents. Then they moved to
Lugano
Lugano (, , ; lmo, label=Ticinese dialect, Ticinese, Lugan ) is a city and municipality in Switzerland, part of the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino. It is the largest city of both Ticino and the Italian-speaking southern Switzerland. Luga ...
, in the
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
-speaking part of Switzerland, where he learned to speak Italian fluently. His mother died when he was 11.
In the spring of 1956 Müller married Ingeborg Marie Louise Winkler. They had a son, Eric, in the summer of 1957, and a daughter, Sylvia, in 1960.
Education
After his mother’s death, Müller was sent to school at the Evangelical College in
Schiers
Schiers is a Swiss village in the Prättigau and a municipality in the political district Prättigau/Davos Region in the canton of Graubünden. The first concrete girder bridge ever built, Salginatobel Bridge, is located in Schiers. Designed by R ...
, in the eastern part of Switzerland. Here he studied from 1938 to 1945, obtaining his baccalaureate (Matura).
Müller then enrolled in the Physics and Mathematics Department of the
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zürich). He took courses by
Wolfgang Pauli
Wolfgang Ernst Pauli (; ; 25 April 1900 – 15 December 1958) was an Austrian theoretical physicist and one of the pioneers of quantum physics. In 1945, after having been nominated by Albert Einstein, Pauli received the Nobel Prize in Physics ...
, who made a deep impression on him. After receiving his
Diplom, he worked for one year, then returned to ETH Zürich for a PhD, submitting his thesis at the end of 1957.
Career
Müller joined the
Battelle Memorial Institute in
Geneva
, neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier
, website = https://www.geneve.ch/
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...
, soon becoming the manager of a magnetic resonance group. During this time he became a
lecturer at the
University of Zürich
The University of Zürich (UZH, german: Universität Zürich) is a public research university located in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 f ...
. In 1963 he accepted an offer as a ''research staff member'' at the
IBM Zürich Research Laboratory in
Rüschlikon
Rüschlikon is a municipality in the district of Horgen in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland. It is located on the west shore of Lake Zürich.
Coat of arms
Its coat of arms features a white shield showing a red rose with a yellow center an ...
, where he remained until his retirement. In parallel, he maintained his affiliation with University of Zurich where he was appointed professor in 1970. From 1972 to 1985 Müller was manager of the ZRL physics department. In 1982 he became an
IBM Fellow
An IBM Fellow is an appointed position at IBM made by IBM's CEO. Typically only four to nine (eleven in 2014) IBM Fellows are appointed each year, in May or June. Fellow is the highest honor a scientist, engineer, or programmer at IBM can achiev ...
. He received an honorary doctorate from
Technical University of Munich
The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; german: Technische Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences.
Establis ...
and
University of Geneva
The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin as a theological seminary. It remained focused on theology until the 17th centur ...
. In 1987 (before winning the Nobel Prize) he got an
honorary degree
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...
(''laurea honoris causa'') in Physics from the
University of Pavia
The University of Pavia ( it, Università degli Studi di Pavia, UNIPV or ''Università di Pavia''; la, Alma Ticinensis Universitas) is a university located in Pavia, Lombardy, Italy. There was evidence of teaching as early as 1361, making it one ...
.
Research
For his undergraduate diploma work, Müller studied under G. Busch. He worked on the
Hall Effect
The Hall effect is the production of a voltage difference (the Hall voltage) across an electrical conductor that is transverse to an electric current in the conductor and to an applied magnetic field perpendicular to the current. It was dis ...
in
gray tin, a
semimetal
A semimetal is a material with a very small overlap between the bottom of the conduction band and the top of the valence band.
According to electronic band theory, solids can be classified as insulators, semiconductors, semimetals, or metals ...
.
Between his
undergraduate degree
An undergraduate degree (also called first degree or simply degree) is a colloquial term for an academic degree earned by a person who has completed undergraduate courses. In the United States, it is usually offered at an institution of higher e ...
and beginning his
graduate studies
Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor's) degree.
The organization and stru ...
, he worked for one year in the Department of Industrial Research at ETH on the
Eidophor large-scale display system.
At
IBM his research for almost 15 years centered on SrTiO
3 (
strontium titanate) and related
perovskite
Perovskite (pronunciation: ) is a calcium titanium oxide mineral composed of calcium titanate (chemical formula ). Its name is also applied to the class of compounds which have the same type of crystal structure as (XIIA2+VIB4+X2−3), known a ...
compounds. He studied their
photochromic
Photochromism is the reversible transformation of a chemical species ( photoswitch) between two forms by the absorption of electromagnetic radiation ( photoisomerization), where the two forms have different absorption spectra. In plain language, ...
properties when doped with various
transition-metal ion
An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge.
The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by conve ...
s; their
chemical binding,
ferroelectric
Ferroelectricity is a characteristic of certain materials that have a spontaneous electric polarization that can be reversed by the application of an external electric field. All ferroelectrics are also piezoelectric and pyroelectric, with the ad ...
and soft-mode properties; and the critical and multicritical phenomena of their structural
phase transition
In chemistry, thermodynamics, and other related fields, a phase transition (or phase change) is the physical process of transition between one state of a medium and another. Commonly the term is used to refer to changes among the basic states o ...
s. Important highlights of this research have been published in a book written together with
Tom Kool from the
University of Amsterdam
The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...
(publisher:
World Scientific
World Scientific Publishing is an academic publisher of scientific, technical, and medical books and journals headquartered in Singapore. The company was founded in 1981. It publishes about 600 books annually, along with 135 journals in various ...
).
Death
Müller died on 9 January 2023, at the age of 95 in
Zürich
, neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon
, twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco
Zürich ...
.
Nobel Prize–winning work
In the early 1980s, Müller began searching for substances that would become superconductive at higher temperatures. The highest
critical temperature (''T''
c) attainable at that time was about 23
K. In 1983 Müller recruited Georg Bednorz to IBM, to help systematically test various oxides. A few recent studies had indicated these materials might superconduct, but experts who knew about Müller’s idea thought it was “crazy”. In 1986 the two researchers succeeded in achieving superconductivity in
lanthanum barium copper oxide (LBCO) at a temperature of 35
K. Over the previous 75 years the critical temperature had risen from 11 K in 1911 to 23
K in 1973 where it had remained for 13 years. Thus 35 K was incredibly high by the prevailing standards of superconductivity research. This discovery stimulated a great deal of additional research in
high-temperature superconductivity
High-temperature superconductors (abbreviated high-c or HTS) are defined as materials that behave as superconductors at temperatures above , the boiling point of liquid nitrogen. The adjective "high temperature" is only in respect to previou ...
, leading to the discovery of compounds such as
BSCCO (''T''
c = 107 K) and
YBCO (''T
c = 92 K).
They reported their discovery in the June 1986 issue of ''
Zeitschrift für Physik B''.
Before the end of the year,
Shoji Tanaka at the
University of Tokyo
, abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project b ...
and then
Paul Chu at the
University of Houston
The University of Houston (UH) is a public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the university in Texas with over 47,000 students. Its campus, which is primarily in s ...
had each independently confirmed their result. A couple of months later Chu achieved superconductivity at 93 K in
YBCO, triggering a stampede of scientific interest exemplified by the 1987 "
Woodstock of physics", at which Müller was a featured presenter.
In 1987 Müller and Bednorz were jointly awarded the
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...
in physics—the shortest time between the discovery and the prize award for any scientific Nobel.
Other honors
*Honorary degree,
University of Pavia
The University of Pavia ( it, Università degli Studi di Pavia, UNIPV or ''Università di Pavia''; la, Alma Ticinensis Universitas) is a university located in Pavia, Lombardy, Italy. There was evidence of teaching as early as 1361, making it one ...
, 1987.
*Honorary degree, dr. techn.,
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 1992.
See also
*
Timeline of low-temperature technology
The following is a timeline of low-temperature technology and cryogenic technology (refrigeration down to –273.15 °C, –459.67 °F or 0 K). It also lists important milestones in thermometry, thermodynamics, statistical physics and c ...
References
* including the Nobel Lecture, 8 December 1987 ''Perovskite-Type Oxides – The New Approach to High-Tc Superconductivity''
Online Encyclopædia Britannica biographical article.* K. Alex Mueller and Tom W. Kool: ''“Properties of Perovskites and Other Oxides.”'' World Scientific, 2010.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Muller, K. Alex
1927 births
2023 deaths
Nobel laureates in Physics
Swiss Nobel laureates
ETH Zurich alumni
Academic staff of the University of Zurich
People associated with the University of Zurich
Swiss physicists
Swiss Protestants
Swiss people of Jewish descent
IBM Fellows
Members of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Members of the Polish Academy of Sciences
Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences
Foreign Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences