Bednorz, Johannes Georg (1950– )

German physicist who, with Alexander Müller, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1987 for his discovery of high-temperature superconductivity in ceramic materials. The discovery of these materials contributed towards the use of superconductors in computers, magnetic levitation trains, and the more efficient generation and distribution of electricity.

Bednorz and Müller showed in 1986 that a ceramic oxide of lanthanum, barium, and copper became superconducting at temperatures above 30 K, much warmer than for any previously known superconductor.

Bednorz was born in North-Rhine Westphalia, in the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1977 he started his doctoral studies at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich. He joined the IBM Zürich Research Laboratories at Rüschlikon in 1982.