Superconductivity Oral Histories

“Everyone who believes himself to have made a significant discovery will admit that the first inklings had their origin in something read or heard, and very likely misunderstood. The final result is none the worse because it was reached by stumbling - it is only our pride which is hurt when we fail to measure up to that perfection of progress that the great men of the past always seemed to achieve. Or did they? If we wish to boast of our achievements, let us not point to the unerring pursuit of truth by a logically faultless thinking-machine, but to the even more astonishing way in which truth can be caused to emerge from the toils of error and stupidity.”

(Ref: A. B. Pippard, quoted in "100 Years of Superconductivity”, Ed. H. Rogalla and P.H. Kes, CSC Press, (2011) p 49)

Oral histories provide us with valuable insight into the circumstances under which the application superconductivity and technical superconductors have progressed and the IEEE Council on Superconductivity is actively engaged in selecting and sponsoring interviews with prominent senior researchers and managers in the field of superconductivity.

Oral Histories were taken by Sheldon Hochheiser and Mary Ann C. Hellrigel of the IEEE History Center ⧉.

Below is a listing of the oral histories currently in the collection ⧉ with a brief biography of each. 

Interviewed but not posted yet: Jack Ekin, Hem Kanithi, Paul Mantsch, Teruo Matsushita, Neil Mitchell, Oleg Mukhanov, Lucio Rossi, Venkat Selvamanickam, David Sutter, Harold Weinstock, Martin N. Wilson, Nobuyuki (Yoshi) Yoshikawa, and Eli Zeldov. Currently the IEEE History Center is focused on interviewing IEEE Fellows.