What is Brian Josephson birthday?

Brian Josephson was born at 1940-01-04

Where is Brian Josephson's birth place?

Brian Josephson was born in Cardiff

What is Brian Josephson nationalities?

Brian Josephson's nationalities is British

Who is Brian Josephson spouses?

Brian Josephson's spouses is Carol Anne Olivier

What was Brian Josephson universities?

Brian Josephson studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, Trinity College, Cambridge, University of Cambridge, Cardiff High School

What was Brian Josephson notable alumnis?

Brian Josephson's notable alumnis is Trinity College, Cambridge

Who is Brian Josephson's father?

Brian Josephson's father is Abraham Josephson

Who is Brian Josephson's mother?

Brian Josephson's mother is Mimi

How famous is Brian Josephson?

Brian Josephson is famouse as Physicist

Brian Josephson - Physicists, Birthday and Life

Home › British › Brian JosephsonJanuary 4, 194085 views

Brian Josephson Biography Stories Embed this Biography stories

Table of contents

Personal Details
Photo
Overview
Awards
Timeline
FAQ

British Trinity College, Cambridge Scientists Physicists Capricorn Celebrities

Brian Josephson's Personal Details

Brian Josephson is a Welsh theoretical physicist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1973 for his prediction of the Josephson Effect

Information	Detail
Birthday	January 4, 1940
Nationality	British
Famous	Trinity College, Cambridge, Scientists, Physicists
Spouses	Carol Anne Olivier
Known as	Brian David Josephson
Universities	Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College Cambridge University of Cambridge Cardiff High School
Notable Alumnis	Trinity College Cambridge
Birth Place	Cardiff
Gender	Male
Father	Abraham Josephson
Mother	Mimi
Sun Sign	Capricorn
Born in	Cardiff
Famous as	Physicist

// Famous Trinity College, Cambridge

Aleister Crowley

Aleister Crowley was an occultist and ceremonial magician who founded the ethical philosophy of Thelema. This biography of Aleister Crowley provides detailed information about his childhood, life, achievements, works & timeline.

Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton was an English scientist and mathematician, who discovered gravitation and Newtonian Mechanics. Read this biography to find more on his life.

J. J. Thomson

J.J. Thomson was an English physicist and mathematician. This biography profiles his childhood, life, academic career, research and timeline.

Who is Brian Josephson?

Brian Josephson is a Welsh theoretical physicist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1973 for his prediction of the Josephson Effect. Born and brought up in Cardiff, he joined University of Cambridge for his undergraduate studies and remained there until he had earned his PhD. He became interested in superconductivity while he was still an undergraduate student and soon developed the theory of ‘Josephson’s effect’ in 1962, which earned him the Nobel Prize in Physics eleven years later. After a brief spell of postdoctoral studies in the USA, he joined the University of Cambridge and remained there for the rest of his working life. From the end of 1960s, he became interested in supernormal. Trinity College has long association with studies in paranormal; this may have kindled such an interest in him. To the disgust of scientific fraternity he soon began advocating that there may be some truth behind phenomenon like telepathy, psycho kinesis, homeopathy etc. His motto in life is ‘nullius in verba’ ("Take nobody's word for it”) and he has adhered to it very strictly.

// Famous Physicists

Henry Cavendish

Henry Cavendish was a theoretical chemist and physicist, renowned for discovery of hydrogen and calculation of the mass of earth. To know more about his childhood, profile, timeline and career read on

Walter Kohn

Nobel Laureate Walter Kohn was an Austrian-born American theoretical chemist and physicist. Check out this biography to know about his childhood, life, achievements, works & timeline.

Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton was an English scientist and mathematician, who discovered gravitation and Newtonian Mechanics. Read this biography to find more on his life.

Childhood & Early Life

Brian Josephson was born on January 4, 1940, in Cardiff, Wales. His father’s name was Abraham Josephson and his mother’s name was Mimi née Weisbard Josephson. They were Jewish by faith.

He had his schooling at Cardiff High School. During his school years, he was highly influenced by his physics master Emrys Jones, who introduced young Brain to theoretical physics.

When he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1957, he took mathematics as his major. Later he found it rather boring and changed his subject. Ultimately, he graduated with physics in 1960 and enrolled at the same university for his master’s degree. He obtained his MS in 1962.

During his college days, Josephson became known for his intelligence and precision. One of his professors was Nobel Laureate Philip Anderson. He would later say that having Josephson in the class was a ‘disconcerting experience’ because if there was any mistake he would meet him after the class and rectify it politely.

Sometime now, Josephson published a paper on Mössbauer effect, a physical phenomena discovered by Rudolf Mössbauer in 1958. In it, he pointed out certain crucial factors, which other researchers had neglected.

Career

Straight after graduation, he joined Cavendish Laboratory at the Cambridge University as a research scholar. While still an undergraduate student, he had developed an interest in superconductivity. He soon started exploring the properties of a junction between two conductors.

His experimentation led to the discovery of ‘Josephson Effect’. Later the junction between the two conductors became known as ‘Josephson Junction’. His calculations were published in ‘Physics Letters’ on July 1, 1962 under the title of ‘Possible new effects in superconductive tunnelling’.

Josephson received his PhD in 1964. His doctoral thesis was on ‘Non-linear conduction in superconductors’. He then joined University of Illinois, in 1965, as research assistant professor and remained there till 1966.

He returned to Cambridge at the end of 1966. The following year, he was made assistant director of research at the Cavendish Laboratory. Subsequently, he became a member of the Theory of Condensed Matter group of the university and retained the membership till the end of his career.

In 1972, he was made a Reader in Physics. Next in 1974, he was promoted to the post of a full professor, a position he retained until the end of his career.

By late 1960s, Josephson’s interest turned to philosophy of mind and especially in the relationship between body and mind. He did a lot of work this subject, especially after receiving the Nobel Prize in 1973. He now began to believe that there may be some truth behind parapsychological phenomena like telepathy and psychokinesis.

In 1975, he became a faculty member of the Maharishi European Research University in the Netherlands. The following year, he travelled to California to meet a group of physicists from Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, who had been working on different parapsychological phenomena, using ideas from Bell's theorem and quantum entanglement.

In 1978, he organized an interdisciplinary symposium on consciousness at Cambridge University. Later in 1980, he edited and published the proceedings under the title of ‘Consciousness and the Physical World’ along with V.S. Ramchandran.

From 1981 to 1987, he was appointed as a visiting professor at the Computer Science Department of Wayne State University, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and the University of Missouri-Rolla. Simultaneously, he also organized many symposiums and conferences on this subject.

In 1996, he set up ‘Mind–Matter Unification Project’ at the Cavendish Laboratory in order to explore intelligent processes in nature. He also supported other unorthodox causes such as ‘water memory’, a mechanism by which homeopathic remedies claim to work and ‘cold fusion’, a hypothesized type of nuclear reaction that would occur at room temperature.

However, most of these unorthodox ideas were rejected by many established scientists. At the same time, he received support from many eminent scientists like Keith Rennolis, professor of applied statistics, University of Greenwich.

Josephson retired from University of Cambridge in 2007, but continued working on his pet projects. He discarded the criticism of his fellow scientists as prejudice and censured them for rejecting some ideas much too quickly.

Major Works

Brian Josephson’s research on quantum tunneling, which resulted in the discovery of ‘Josephson’s effect’ is the most significant of all his works. According to his theory, current could tunnel through a thin insulating barrier between two weakly coupled superconductors even when no voltage is applied, while application of voltage results in oscillation at high frequency.

Known as ‘Josephson’s Effect’, the discovery was later proven experimentally at Bell Laboratory by Philip Anderson and John Rowell. It also led to many new inventions in the fields of computing and medicine.

Superconducting Quantum Interference Device, used in geology for making highly sensitive measurements and prototype of a faster computer built by IBM in 1980 was developed on the basis of Josephson’s theory of quantum tunneling.

Awards & Achievements

In 1973, Brian Josephson received the Nobel Prize in Physics "for his theoretical predictions of the properties of a supercurrent through a tunnel barrier, in particular those phenomena which are generally known as the Josephson effects”. He shared the prize with Leo Esaki and Ivar Giaever, who worked on the theory independently.

In 1982, he was awarded with Faraday Medal by Institution of Electrical Engineers and in 1984 Sir George Thomson Medal by Institute of Measurement and Control.

Personal Life & Legacy

Brian Josephson married Carol Anne Olivier in 1976. The couple has a daughter.

He is a practitioner of transcendental meditation since early 1970s and believes that meditation could lead to mystical and scientific insights.

// Famous Scientists

Juliane Koepcke

Juliane Koepcke is a German-Peruvian biologist, who was the lone survivor among the 92 passengers and crew of the ill-fated LANSA Flight 508 that crashed in the Peruvian rainforest on 24 December 1971. Know more about her life in this biography.

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was a Russian rocket scientist and a pioneer of astronautics. This biography provides detailed information about his childhood, family, personal life, career, achievements, etc.