Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1974 [PAGE 136]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

126

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

INTRODUCTION O F TRUSTEE-ELECT

[December 20

President Hughes recognized and introduced Mrs. Jane Hayes Rader of Anna, trustee-elect, who was present. The other trustee-elect, Mr. Park Livingston of La Grange, could not be present. Mr. Hughes noted that it had long been the practice of the Board to invite trusteeselect to attend meetings prior to their assumpion of formal office in March, the experience being designed as a part of the orientation to their new responsibilities. MINUTES APPROVED The Secretary presented for approval, the press proofs of the minutes of the Board of Trustees meetings of January 19, February 16, March 15, and April 19, 1972, copies of which had previously been sent to the Board. On motion of Mr. Swain, these minutes were approved as printed on pages 481 to 611 inclusive. RESOLUTION TO JOHN BARDEEN The following resolution was presented in honor of Professor John Bardeen on the occasion of the award of his second Nobel Prize in Physics, The Board of Trustees wishes to congratulate Professor John Bardeen of the Urbana-Champaign campus on the award of the 1972 Nobel Prize for Physics, shared with Professors Leon KT. Cooper of Brown University and John Robert Schrieffer of the University of Pennsylvania. The prize was for the successful theoretical explanation of superconductivity, a state of many metals and alloys in which, at sufficiently low temperatures, electrical current will flow indefinitely without resistance. Superconductivity was discovered experimentally in 1911, Its explanation in terms of quantum and statistical theory has been studied intensively by many distinguished physicists but was not solved satisfactorily until 1956-57 when the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory was developed. It is noteworthy and a source of satisfaction to all associated with the University of Illinois that all three recipients were in the University at the time the research was done. Dr. Bardeen was a Professor of Physics and Electrical Engineering, Dr. Cooper was a post-Ph.D. Research Associate and Dr. Schrieffer was a graduate student whose contributions to the theory were presented as his thesis for the Ph.D. degree in Physics. The BCS theory, as it is called, has been a powerful stimulus for further theoretical and experimental research at Illinois and throughout the world, not only in the understanding of the properties of metals at low temperatures, but in fields as diverse as the structure of the atomic nucleus and the behavior of pulsars and other extraordinary types of stars. Significant practical applications of superconductivity have been suggested or accelerated by the guidance provided by the theory. Special congratulations are due Professor Bardeen in that this is his second Nobel Prize — the first time in history that an individual has received the prize more than once in the same field. In 1956, he shared (with Dr. Walter H. Brattain and Dr. William B, Shockley) the Prize for Physics for the invention of the transistor, at the Bell La!x>ratories. In recognition of Professor Bardeen's achievements and distinguished service, therefore, Be It Resolved by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees that this resolution be incorporated in the minutes of this meeting to loecome a part of the official record, And That a suitable copy be forwarded to him as a permanent record of the University's gratitude and of the esteem in which he is held. On motion of Mr. Swain, the foregoing resolution was adopted.