Müller, K Alexander (1927– )

Swiss physicist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1987 for his work on high-temperature superconductivity in ceramic materials. The discovery of these materials was a significant step towards the use of superconductors in computers, magnetic levitation trains, and the more efficient generation and distribution of electricity. He shared the Nobel Prize with Georg Bednorz.

Superconductivity is the resistance-free flow of electrical current which occurs in many metals and metallic compounds at very low temperatures, within a few degrees of absolute zero (0 K/−273.16°C/−459.67°F). In 1986 Müller and Bednorz showed that a ceramic oxide of lanthanum, barium and copper became superconducting at temperatures above 30 K, much hotter than for any previously known superconductor.

Müller was born in Basel, Switzerland, and studied physics and mathematics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich. After graduating in 1958, he joined the Battelle Memorial Institute in Geneva. While in Geneva he was appointed lecturer (becoming a professor in 1970) at the University of Zürich. In 1963 he joined the IBM Zürich Research Laboratories at Rüschlikon.