Family and
other Influences
Family and other Influences
John Bardeen had a hectic start in his life and people were there to support him in every way. There were many people who influenced him along the way.
"My father married twice. My mother had four children. She died of cancer when I was about twelve years old and then a year or so later my father remarried." |
"Bardeen married Jane Maxwell in 1938. They have three children, James Maxwell, William Allen and Elizabeth Ann." |
Father
Mother
"She was an art teacher at the Drew Institute in Chicago, which later became part of the University of Chicago. Her specialty was Oriental Art, particularly Japanese Art, which was just coming to the notice of the West."
-John Bardeen (14)
“When Bardeen was 12, his mother became seriously ill with cancer … John didn't realize she was dying, and was stunned when it happened. His father quickly married his secretary, Ruth Hames … It didn't help Bardeen much -- he was heartbroken and distracted, barely passing French that year.” (15).
The death of his mother inspired him to do well in the future – to make a change.
Brothers and Sisters
"My older brother William went into business and during most of his life worked for the Armour meat packing company. He was originally working in the business office, accounting and so on. Then he went into sales. He worked in sales in several cities in Wisconsin and ended up in Rockwood, Illinois... His last job was head of the branch office of the Armour Company in Rockford, which has since been closed." |
"My younger sister Helen, who was the third child to be born, wanted to go into medicine but my father discouraged her because he thought women would have an expensive medical education and then get married and have a family and not really use it... She went into nursing. She entered Yale Nursing School and married a doctor who graduated from Yale Medical School... Not long after they moved out there, she came down with tuberculosis. They didn't have the drugs then that they do now. She died shortly after her first baby was born." |
"Tom married early. In those days it was thought that you should support your wife if you got married. He was very bright, interested in the same sorts of thing that I was. Electrical engineering, mathematics, physics. I was working at the Gulf Oil Company at the time he got his master's degree. He was working for his doctor's degree, but after he got married he decided he better get a job. So I helped him get a job at the Gulf Oil Company and he spent his career working as a geophysicist at Gulf Oil. He has had a very successful career there... He was responsible for a great deal of their seismic instrumentation over the years." |
"One daughter, Ann, resulted from that [re-]marriage. She's the only one who took up father's profession of medicine. She's an M.D., a specialist in anesthesiology, practicing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin." |
Each of his brothers and sisters had an important role to play in his life. They all affected his thoughts in his childhood and encouraged him to help him on his journey. Along the path, one sibling had even convinced Bardeen to keep quiet about his knowledge until necessary to avoid people using him for benefit.
Wife and Children
Bardeen's family influenced him greatly in the future for they were the ones to be his future. His children taught him to love all children, for the one in the picture is not his own - he is just teaching gifted children, and his wife helped him persevere through troubles in his life.
Scroll over pictures to see captions.
Citation: Hoddeson, Lillian, and Vicki Daitch. True Genius:
Citation: Hoddeson, Lillian, and Vicki Daitch. True Genius:
Professor E.P. Wigner“… under the leadership of Professor E.P. Wigner, that he first became interested in solid state physics” (20).
Only after his assistance, Bardeen became interested in physics very much and this was the start of his work with the transistor. |
Professor John Van FleckIt was Professor John Van Fleck that first introduced Bardeen to quantum physics. (21)
|
11 - Bardeen, John. Interview by
Lillian Hoddeson. Institute for Theoretical Physics, Santa Barbara, CA.
February 13, 1980.
12 - Lundqvist, Stig, ed. "John Bardeen - Biographical." Nobelprize.org. Last modified 1992. Accessed September 29, 2014.
13 - ScienCentral, Inc., and The American Institute of Physics. "Transistorized!" PBS. Last modified. 1999. Accessed November 27, 2014.
14 - Bardeen, John ...
15 - Bardeen, John. Interview by Lillian Hoddeson. Institute for Theoretical Physics, Santa Barbara, CA. May 12, 1977.
16 - ibid
17 - ibid
18 - ibid
19 - ibid
20 - Lundqvist ...
21 - Hoddeson, Lillian, and Vicki Daitch. True Genius: The Life and Science of John Bardeen: The Only Winner of Two Nobel Prizes in Physics. Washington D.C., United States: Joseph Henry Press, 2002.
12 - Lundqvist, Stig, ed. "John Bardeen - Biographical." Nobelprize.org. Last modified 1992. Accessed September 29, 2014.
13 - ScienCentral, Inc., and The American Institute of Physics. "Transistorized!" PBS. Last modified. 1999. Accessed November 27, 2014.
14 - Bardeen, John ...
15 - Bardeen, John. Interview by Lillian Hoddeson. Institute for Theoretical Physics, Santa Barbara, CA. May 12, 1977.
16 - ibid
17 - ibid
18 - ibid
19 - ibid
20 - Lundqvist ...
21 - Hoddeson, Lillian, and Vicki Daitch. True Genius: The Life and Science of John Bardeen: The Only Winner of Two Nobel Prizes in Physics. Washington D.C., United States: Joseph Henry Press, 2002.
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John Bardeen: Physics Mastermind and Father of the Age of Information
Prasnav Naik - Senior Division
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=20426
John Bardeen: Physics Mastermind and Father of the Age of Information
Prasnav Naik - Senior Division