Switzerland
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Karl Alexander Müller
Basel, Switzerland
Archival Overview
Swiss solid-state physicist who, alongside J. Georg Bednorz at IBM Research Zurich, discovered high-temperature superconductivity in ceramic perovskite materials in 1986, winning the Nobel Prize in Physics just one year later.
Biographical Record
Karl Alexander Müller was born in Basel and completed his physics degree and doctoral thesis at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) under Wolfgang Pauli. After early research at the Battelle Memorial Institute in Geneva, he joined the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory in Rüschlikon in 1963, focusing on electron paramagnetic resonance and the ferroelectric and structural properties of perovskite crystals.
In the early 1980s, working in quiet collaboration with young researcher J. Georg Bednorz, Müller pursued the radical hypothesis that brittle, normally insulating ceramic oxides could superconduct at significantly higher temperatures than metallic alloys. In early 1986, they announced superconductivity in a barium-lanthanum-copper oxide at 35 Kelvin—shattering the 75-year-old metallic ceiling and igniting the "Woodstock of Physics." In 1987, Müller and Bednorz were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics with record speed, opening a new frontier in materials science, medical MRI magnets, and power transmission research.
Key Life Milestones
Discovery of High-Temperature Superconductivity
Published the discovery of superconductivity in ceramic cuprates at 35 K, shattering previously accepted theoretical limits.
Nobel Prize in Physics
Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with J. Georg Bednorz in one of the quickest Nobel recognitions in history.
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Final Resting Place
Perpetual MemorialZurich, Switzerland