Dr. Robert Schrieffer

Dr. Robert Schrieffer is the Chief Scientist at the National High Magnetic Field Research Laboratory and a Nobel Laureate.

Dr. Schrieffer received his Bachelor's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1953 and both his Masters degree and his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in 1954 and 1957, respectively. Since then, he has served on the faculty of the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Santa Barbara. In 1972, Dr. Schrieffer was jointly awarded The Nobel Prize with John Bardeen and Leon Neil Cooper for their theory of superconductivity, usually called the BCS-theory.

When he first heard about the NHMFL, he was working at the University of California at Santa Barbara as the Chancellor's Professor and directing the Institute for Theoretical Physics, but found the draw of the NHMFL to be irresistible.

Dr. Schrieffer came to the laboratory in January of 1990 and, since that time, has been able to see how quickly it has grown. In fact, he considers the knowledge he has gained of how a large organization can work effectively to be his most important lesson. He considers all jobs to be hard but to him, "hard" has nothing to do with whether one enjoys his or her job. Dr. Schrieffer obviously works very hard at his job, but he enjoys working at the laboratory.

Dr. Schrieffer's current research interests involve high temperature superconductivity and magnetism in condensed matter systems.

For further information on Dr. Robert Schrieffer and other scientists, below are some additional resources that may be helpful.

• Hanson, S. L. (1996). Lost Talent: Women in the Sciences. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
• Morse, M. (1995). Women Changing Science. New York: Insight Books.
• Greenspan, K. (1996). The Timetables of Women's History. New York: Simon & Schuster.
• Yount, L. (1999). A to Z of Women in Science and Math. New York: Facts on File.
• Bernstein, L., Winkler, A., Zierdt-Warshaw, L. (1996). Multicultural Women of Science. Maywood, NJ: The Peoples Publishing Group, Inc.
• Bernstein, L., Winkler, A., Zierdt-Warshaw, L. (1998). African and African American Women of Science. Maywood, NJ: The Peoples Publishing Group, Inc.
• Bernstein, L., Winkler, A., Zierdt-Warshaw, L. (1998). Latino Women of Science. Maywood, NJ: The Peoples Publishing Group, Inc.
• Grun, B. (1991). Timetables of History. New York: Simon & Schuster.
• Hellemans, A., & Bunch, B. (1991). The Timetables of Science. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Question & Answer Session with: Dr. Robert Schrieffer