In Memoriam

The condensed-matter physicist pioneered the study of superconductivity, applications of superconducting devices, and spintronics.

Stuart A. Wolf. a pioneer in superconductivity and a visionary in spintronics, passed away on 16 April 2026.  He is survived by his daughters Lisa
Krieger and Dori Kimchy; sons-in-Law Dan Krieger and Mosha Kimchy; and grandchildren Evan, Kyle, and Alex Krieger and Romi and Maya Kimchy. 

Stu earned his AB from Columbia College in 1964, followed by an MS and PhD in physics from Rutgers University in 1966 and 1969, respectively. His
early career included roles as a Research Associate at Case Western Reserve University. 

Dr. Stu Wolf arrived at NRL in 1971 to work on the development of Naval applications of Josephson Junction technology.  He was instrumental in
fielding prototype SQUID systems for both underwater signal detection and magnetic anomaly search. On a more basic level, Dr. Wolf and colleagues
began studying the evolution a superconducting ultra-thin films as they approached the limit of superconducting behavior.  When high temperature
superconductivity was discovered, Dr. Wolf led a multi-pronged effort to i) study the magnetic field behavior of these new materials, ii) develop a
theoretical framework to understand their superconducting properties, and iii) helping to manage a large NRL led space program to launch superconducting devices into space.  During Dr. Wolf’s NRL career, he was head of a large branch studying both superconducting and magnetic materials.  In 1984, he was elected to Fellow of American Physical Society for “For substantial contributions to the basic understanding of superconductivity, and to applications of superconducting materials.” He received several accolades, including a Meritorious Civilian Service Award from the U.S. Navy in 1984, the Sigma Xi Pure Science Award from NRL in 1991, and the E.O. Hulbert Award, the highest research award by NRL in 1995. 

In 1995, Stu joined DSO in DARPA, where he developed and managed high portfolio programs in nanoelectronics and quantum technologies. He coined "spintronics" that is now an active area of research and development. During his 12 years at DARPA, he managed expansive programs that bridged the gaps between industrial, academic, and government research. 

In 2003, Stu joined at the University of Virginia (UVA) and later became a professor of Departments of Physics, and Materials Science and
Engineering . At UVA, he became a driving force behind several science initiatives and was instrumental in establishing the NanoSTAR center and
the Virginia Nanoelectronics Center. His group made seminal contributions in dilute magnetic semiconductors, multiferroic materials and strongly
correlated oxides, and collaborated broadly with industry, national laboratories and academia. 

After Stu retired from UVA, he remained engaged with science and science policy as a consultant at Institute of Defense Analyses. He has authored
several IDA reports on various programs and initiatives for Office of Under Secretary of Defense (Research and Engineering) Basic Research Office. He also consulted for Intellectual Ventures.

Contributors:

Lisa Krieger, Don Gubser, and Jiwei Liu

Dr. Bruce P. Strauss, a longtime pillar of applied superconductivity and a lifelong servant of its global community, passed away on January 4, 2026.

Bruce was born in 1942 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, to Edward and Solea Strauss. From an early age, he displayed a strong interest and exceptional aptitude in technology. While still in high school, he earned his amateur radio license (call sign K2SZO), reflecting an enduring passion for electronics and communication technologies.

He received his S.B. degree in 1964 and his Sc.D. (Ph.D.) in Materials Science in 1967 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During his doctoral work under Professor Robert Rose, Bruce achieved a landmark result: the fabrication of the first million-filament superconducting composite through repeated extrusion of Cu–Nb conductors. This early accomplishment foreshadowed a career defined by both technical innovation and practical impact. He later earned an MBA from the University of Chicago in 1972 while working at Fermilab, combining scientific excellence with strategic and managerial insight.

Following brief appointments at Avco Everett Research Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory, Bruce joined Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in 1969, where he entered a period of exceptional productivity and influence. He helped build the original 200 GeV proton accelerator ring that still serves as the main injector ring for the Fermilab proton accelerator complex. At Fermilab, he played a central role in the development of
superconducting accelerator magnet technology, particularly the use of multifilamentary NbTi conductors. His leadership helped catalyze the emergence of a global superconducting wire and cable industry. Under Bruce’s guidance, key innovations became foundational technologies for high-energy physics accelerators worldwide.

Bruce sent Bob Remsbottom on the road for approximately five years to help establish a production line for the Rutherford cable used in the Tevatron magnets. Every accelerator magnet built since the Tevatron has used NbTi wire and Rutherford cable technology that Bruce helped pioneer. These advances culminated in the Tevatron, the world’s first large-scale superconducting particle accelerator, which operated from 1983 to 2011 as the highest-energy accelerator of its time. The technologies Bruce helped develop at Fermilab remain the basis for virtually all subsequent superconducting accelerator magnets, including those used in today’s most advanced facilities.

Following his successes in superconducting magnet development at Fermilab, Bruce transitioned to industry, having been recruited by John Steckly to the startup Magnetic Corporation of America. There, he contributed to the commercialization of superconducting magnet systems for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), helping translate accelerator technologies into transformative medical applications.

From 1984 onward, Bruce served as an independent consultant to numerous government agencies, most notably the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). He later joined the DOE Office of High Energy Physics, first as an Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) appointee and subsequently as a federal program manager. Between 1997 and his retirement in 2019, he oversaw critical programs in high-field superconducting materials, advanced accelerator magnets, and U.S. contributions to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). His stewardship helped sustain U.S. leadership in superconducting technology and ensured successful collaboration on one of the most ambitious scientific instruments ever built.

Even after retirement, Bruce remained in high demand as a consultant, continuing to advise major high-energy physics initiatives with his characteristic insight and pragmatism.

Beyond his technical achievements, Bruce’s legacy is inseparable from his extraordinary service to the superconductivity community. He attended the first Applied Superconductivity Conference (ASC) in 1966 and became its Treasurer in 1974—a role he fulfilled with unwavering dedication for more than 50 years. His stewardship was instrumental in establishing ASC as a financially stable and globally respected conference series. Bruce was a co-organizer of the 1974 ASC, where he and David Larbalestier first met. David recalls being invited to Fermilab after the conference and being struck by the sight of a “graveyard” of 20 or 30 dipole magnets that he, Dave Sutter, and many others had been building in the prior two years. Bruce attended every biennial ASC conference except one (2022, due to illness), including the 2024 meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Bruce also served the IEEE Council on Superconductivity (IEEE-CSC) in multiple leadership roles, including Treasurer and President. During his tenure, he strengthened the Council’s financial foundation and expanded its educational and outreach activities, including support for the Applied Superconductivity Educational Foundation. He was deeply committed to mentoring the next generation, frequently advising students and young professionals on navigating scientific careers beyond the classroom. He especially valued participating in panels advising students about “what they don’t teach you in school.” His influence on individuals—and through them, on the field—was profound and far-reaching.

Bruce coached and recruited brilliant young engineers. How many careers did he shape? How many scientists found their path because he recognized their potential and took the time to nurture it? We may never know the full count, but it is undoubtedly substantial.

In recognition of his sustained and transformative contributions, Bruce was elevated to IEEE Fellow in 2005, with the citation “For leadership in low temperature superconducting materials and magnet systems.” He received the IEEE Council on Superconductivity’s Max Swerdlow Award for Sustained Service to the Applied Superconductivity Community in 2012. These honors are bestowed on only a very small fraction of the community,
acknowledging sustained, transformative service, with exceptional and lasting impact on the field.

Bruce’s professional life was marked not only by technical excellence, but also by generosity, mentorship, and a deep commitment to community. He had a remarkable ability to recognize potential in others and guide them toward meaningful careers. The number of scientists and engineers whose paths he shaped is immeasurable, but unquestionably large.

An oral history of Bruce’s life and career, recorded by the IEEE History Center in 2016, captures both his technical contributions and his personal reflections:
https://ieeecsc.org/superconductivity-oral-histories/oral-history-bruce-p-strauss-2016

Bruce Strauss leaves behind a legacy that spans foundational technologies, global scientific infrastructure, and generations of scientists. His impact will continue to be felt wherever superconductivity advances science and society.

Contributors:
Ken Marken, Elie Track, David Larbalestier

Francisco (Paco) de la Cruz passed away quietly on May 19, 2025. The scientific community has lost a legendary scientist and researcher. His family and friends mourn the loss of this kind, loving, and gentle soul. The world is a sadder place with his passing.

Paco was born in 1938 in Barcelona, Spain, during the Spanish Civil War. He was home-schooled by his mother who was forbidden to work professionally as a teacher by Franco’s government. His family moved to Argentina in 1951 for better educational opportunities for Paco and his sister. He started his undergraduate education studying civil engineering at the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba in Córdoba, Argentina. He later transferred to the Institute of Physics in Bariloche, Argentina, now known as the Instituto Balseiro, named after its founder, Jose Balseiro. Paco received his undergrad degree in 1960, a masters in 1961 and a PhD in 1968 from the Instituto Balseiro. After a Post Doc at Brown University, he returned to Bariloche in 1972 where he remained until his passing.

Much of the political turmoil that convulsed Argentina from 1974-1983 did not impact the Instituto Balseiro because of its isolation and remoteness. For all of Paco’s career, it was a quiet place to study, do physics, and raise a family. Which he did extraordinarily well with his wife, Maria Elena, who was also a physicist.

Paco had a long and productive career in low temperature physics. Bariloche Argentina was rural place in the early days without all the supporting infrastructure we take for granted in the United States. Paco used to tell a story, perhaps apocryphal, about John Wheatley, a visitor to the lab, who needed cooling water for a vacuum pump. The nearest water was thirty feet away in a stream. Wheatley got a shovel and dug a ditch. Nothing was easy, you only made progress by hard work and perseverance. Paco had plenty of both.

By the end of his career, he had turned his low temperature lab in Bariloche into a research facility that was highly respected and known around the world. He graduated 22 PhD students who have gone on to enjoy successful and impactful careers.

Paco’s most well-known work is in vortex physics in high Tc superconductors. He, along with his students and collaborators, uncovered many of the fundamental issues in vortex behavior that needed to be understood and overcome for successful commercial applications. We had the good fortune to work with Paco on some of these issues and our time together is something we will always treasure.

Paco has won numerous awards and prizes including the Teofilo Isnardi Award, the Dr. Ricardo Gans Award, a Chevalier of the Academic Palms by the French Government, a Fellow of the Argentine National Academy, a Fellow of the APS, a Member of the Third World Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, the Fundacion Bunge y Born Prize and a member of the US National Academy of Sciences.

Paco is survived by a son, a daughter and his beloved wife Maria Elena. He was lionized professionally and deeply loved by family and friends fortunate enough to have known and worked with him. He will be missed by us all.

David Bishop
Daniel López
Flavio Pardo

Guy Deutscher, a deep and valuable scientist and a very pleasant person, dies at 88

Guy Deutscher was born in Berlin in 1936. The Jewish family decided to leave Germany in 1939, just before World War II, travelling to Paris where the family was arrested during the Vélodrome d'Hiver (Vél d'Hiv) Roundup (1942) but finally Guy and his mother escaped from being deported to Auschwitz and reunited with his father at the end of the war. After the war he remained in Paris where he completed High School in 1953 and in 1959 he obtained the Engineering Degree of Mines, with Metallurgy specialization. After three years of military service he was accepted in the research group of Prof. Pierre Gilles de Gennes who would become Physics Nobel Prize in 1991 at the Paris-Sud University. The group was known as the “Superconductivity group of Orsay”. Guy obtained his PhD (1966) investigating the proximity effects in superconductors. He moved for a year to complete his post-doc with the group led by Bernie Serin (co-discoverer of the isotope effect in superconductors), with Peter Lindenfeld and Bill McLean at Rutgers University (USA) and then he was back to France where he was Associated Professor at Paris-Orsay. Finally, in 1971 he decided to move to Israel at the Tel Aviv University where he was nominated Professor and where he stayed during 54 years for all his scientific career. He kept both French and Israeli nationalities.

His scientific interests were very broad. During his career Guy developed a special interest for the topic of disordered materials where he made many well-known contributions to the physics of granular superconductors, a topic which allowed him to write his first book “Percolation, structures and processes” in 1983.

After the discovery of High Temperature Superconductors (HTS) in 1986 he was the first, in an article published together with the Nobel Prize K.A. Muller in 1987, to stress how relevant was the short coherence length in HTS to generate a granular behavior. This publication has been the most cited one in his scientific career.

During his long scientific career investigating the HTS materials. Guy made many more relevant scientific contributions. For instance, his views about the normal metal – superconductor contacts (Andreev reflections), tunnel junctions, as well as his analysis of pair coherence in the pseudogap and in the overdoped states of HTS, were very insightful to understand the energy scales involved in the electronic excitations of HTS. Certainly, his theoretical insights were always comprehensive but keeping a strong proximity to the experimental works, as it was in his early times at Orsay. Several of his articles in these fields are among those having received more citations in his scientific life. Guy was actively publishing very appealing articles about these topics until his last days.

But Guy was not only interested in fundamental aspects of superconductivity, he was also strongly motivated to analyze how to enhance the performance of HTS materials to achieve a strong impact in electronics and energy applications. For that reason, he was following in detail the developments of vortex pinning issues in HTS, including understanding the origin of the Irreversibility Line and proposing new ideas about how to achieve enhanced critical currents in coated conductors and also in the control of tunnel junctions for electronics. This is clearly ascertained with the in-depth presentation of the topics dealt in his second book: “New superconductors: from granular to high Tc” (World Scientific, 2006), where many aspects of the different challenges of these complex materials are very clearly discussed. Guy was a scientist with strong links to several of the best scientists of his time, with contact and friendship with other colleagues who have strongly influenced the field of superconductivity, such as P.G. de Gennes, V. Ginzburg, K.A. Muller and J. Friedel.

I’m personally deeply indebted to Guy Deutscher for how much I learned from him about superconductivity. I never had the opportunity to chat with another scientist with such a broad culture and a deep understanding of the phenomena as well as such an open vision about how relevant were the experiments. I still remember performing nice walks around the beautiful Lake Orta, in the north of Italy, where Massimo Marezio, another visionary of HTS materials, organized very pleasant meetings of the European Network SCENET. These discussions and pleasant walks were the origin of a long term friendship and many collaborations, common visits and exchanges between the groups of ICMAB in Barcelona and that of Tel Aviv. We published half a dozen of collaborating articles in common where the deep insights of Guy were always key to reach a high impact, achieving more than 400 citations. I’m certainly very grateful for his extraordinary vision which deepened the impact of our work.

More recently, we had the opportunity to become collaborating partners in the scope of the European project FASTGRID, coordinated by Prof. Pascal Tixador from CNRS Grenoble, intending to develop a dc superconducting fault current limiter with HTS. From the Tel Aviv – ICMAB – CNRS collaboration we reached very promising new current limiting elements based on saphire substrates. The innovative work at Tel Aviv demonstrated how sensitive was Guy to promote the use of HTS materials to push clean energy applications.

Guy Deutscher has not only been a very fruitful and active scientist, he was also very active in mentoring young scientists, promoting research around him, undertaking activities to outreach the physics discoveries, and discussing the huge environmental and economic impact of the modern use of non-renewable energy. He wrote very insightful books about these topics, for instance “The Climate Debt: Combining the Science, Politics and Economics of Climate Change” (World Scientific, 2023). He was also the Editor-in-Chief of a series of books in “Applications of Superconductivity and Related Phenomena” and he was an active member of the Commission of the International Agency of Energy involved in analyzing the paths to accelerate the international implementation of HTS power systems in the electrical grid. He was very happy to see in his last days the birth of the “compact fusion revolution” based on powerful HTS magnets, because he was convinced that it is one of the best technological opportunities that human kind has to reverse the entropic evolution of the planet, and so paying in part the climate debt that we leave to our descendants.

Because of his scientific leadership and his merits in creating a superconductivity community (Gordon Center of Energy Studies, Heinrich Hertz-Minerva Center for High-Temperature Superconductivity) he received many awards and honors, for instance, the Incumbent Oren Family Chair of Experimental Solid State Physics at Tel Aviv University (1981), honors from the Israel Physical Society and the French Government (Palmes Academiques - 1986); Chévalier de la Légion d’Honneur - 1999), and The Israel Vacuum Society (IVS) Excellency Award for Research (2012).
Guy leaves an outstanding academic legacy with a strong impact in the field of superconductivity. We certainly leave a very good friend and a highly appreciated colleague. He is followed by his dear wife Aline with whom he shared a long and fruitful life and by his daughter Nathalie and his son Daniel and their families.

Xavier Obradors, Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona (CSIC), Catalonia, Spain

Image courtsey of Roybeckbarkai, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons

AFOSR Program Manager, Quantum Electronic Solids

Dr. Harold Weinstock, was a retired program officer at the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), managing programs in electronics and electronic materials that relate to superconductivity, metamaterials and nanoelectronics. Harold died January 3, 2024, in his home at Greenspring Village, VA, with his wife Linda by his side.

Harold received a BA from Temple University in 1956 and a PhD in Physics from Cornell University in 1962. In 1999 he was awarded an honorary doctorate (DHC) from INSA de Lyon, France. From 1962 to 1965 he was an Assistant Professor of Physics at Michigan State University. He moved to the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) as an Associate Professor of Physics 1965, advancing to Professor in 1973. In 1979 he became Founding Director of its Educational Technology Center.

Harold carried out part-time research from 2000 to 2006 at the University of Maryland on the application of superconducting (SQUID) magnetometry to nondestructive evaluation, a field he initiated during a sabbatical at the Naval Research Laboratory in 1982-1983. Other leaves have been as a Visiting Professor at the University of Leuven, Belgium in 1970; the University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands in 1972-1973; INSA de Lyon, France in 1993 and 1995; and the University of Houston as Distinguished Welch Professor in 1997-98. In Sep-Oct 2002 he was a Guest Professor at the University of Paris VI, Pierre et Marie Curie, to help establish a research program in SQUID nondestructive evaluation. From 1972 to 1986 he was a part-time Visiting Staff Member at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he engaged primarily in research on current-carrying superconductors. He is the author or co-author of over 100 articles on scientific research or educational development and an editor or co-editor of 11 books, mostly on superconductivity.

Harold was a Fellow of the American Physical Society since 1975 and was a Board Member of the Applied Superconductivity Conference (ASC) from 1990 to 2004. He served as Board Chair (1998-2000) and directed the ASC in September 2000 at Virginia Beach, VA, with an attendance of over 1,600 registrants. He also took primary responsibility for the editing of the proceedings of the ASC 2000, which appeared as almost 4,000 pages in the March 2001 issue of the IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity. He has been Director or Co-Director of 8 NATO Advanced Study Institutes (1976 to 1999) in Belgium, France, Norway, the US (2) and Italy (3) and co-directed a NATO Workshop on Advanced Magnetic Materials in Marathon, Greece in June 2000. Other NATO activity includes serving as the lead US delegate on 2 NATO Defense Research Group Long-Term Scientific Studies on High-Temperature Superconductivity (1992-1994) and on Electric Pulsed Power Systems (1996-1998). He co-directed and lectured at a 2005 summer school on superconducting electronics in Italy. He served a 4-year term (2000-2004) as a member of the Board of the European Society for Applied Superconductivity, and on the organizing committees of the European Conference on Applied Superconductivity (EUCAS 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007) and a satellite SQUID Workshop (SQUID 2001).

In 2001, Harold was selected as an Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Fellow, the highest award given by the Air Force for technical excellence and outstanding contributions to the AFRL R&D program. Having joined the IEEE in 2001, he was elevated to Senior Member status in February 2003 and to Fellow status on January 1, 2007. He twice (1987 and 1996) attended the

Nobel prize ceremony and was an invited speaker at a symposium featuring the two physics Nobel laureates at Chalmers University, Gothenburg organized in connection with the 1987 Nobel prize festivities. He was principal organizer of a 2007 workshop in Norway titled "The Road to Room Temperature Superconductivity" and of two winter schools titled “Beyond Moore’s Law” in Kenting, Taiwan in January 2008 and on Cheju Island, Korea in February 2010.

Obituary Roberto Nicolsky (1938-2024)

With deep sorrow, we announce the passing of Roberto Nicolsky, an individual whose life was marked by remarkable achievements and contributions in various fields. Entrepreneur, innovator and an influential researcher, Prof. Nicolsky trained generations of physicists and engineers.

Born in Russia in 1938, the son of a Russian father and Brazilian mother, Roberto Nicolsky came to Brazil at the age of 8 and chose to become Brazilian at the age of 18, following his own path. His academic journey was characterized by an unrelenting pursuit of knowledge, obtaining degrees in physics and economics simultaneously, although he did not complete physics. After his graduation in economics, he began his career at Editora Abril, a large Brazilian publishing company, followed by an experience at a foundry in the interior of São Paulo, Brazil, which later resulted in the acquisition of his own foundry.

In 1964, Roberto achieved Bachelor's degree in Physics at the UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro). After dedicating himself to working in the financial market, he returned to physics research in 1979, working with weak connections and non-equilibrium in superconductors. His commitment to academic excellence led him to earn a master's degree at USP (University of São Paulo, Brazil). He obtained his MSc. in 1981, covering his line of research until then. Even during this phase, he continued to produce heating elements with tubes of high-nickel alloy content, being the sole producer in Brazil.

He became a professor at UFRJ in 1981 until his retirement in 2010. At UFRJ he continued his basic research focusing on superconducting junctions and exploring the use of time-dependent Bogoliubov–de Gennes equations and Andreev reflection in Superconducting junctions, mainly SNS (Superconductor - Normal Metal - Superconductor) junctions.

At UFRJ he received recognition for self-guidance in his doctoral research on Metallic Josephson Junctions: Theory and Applications. In 1991, Roberto obtained the DSc. in Physics. His thesis had shown that all models at that time (models for superconducting metallic Josephson junctions, or SNS, or weak-links, based on phenomenological time dependent Ginzburg-Landau equations) could not explain the complexity of the current-voltage characteristics of metallic junctions in nonequilibrium, because their behavior is determined by the relationship between the microscopic charge carriers at both sides of the superconductor-normal metal interfaces. His research developed a theory for nonequilibrium metallic superconducting junctions, in a configuration with uniform electric field applied in the normal part, as time-dependent and gauge-invariant Bogoliubov-De Gennes solutions. He was able to form wave packets from the nonequilibrium electron and hole solutions of the time-dependent Bogoliubov–de Gennes equations, and after that to obtain a detailed microscopic picture of quasiparticle acceleration and electron-hole (Andreev) scattering. The characteristic curves of experimentally observed CVC’s in microbridges, SNS sandwiches, and point contacts are than obtained computing the time-averaged current density from those wave packets.

The obtained current-voltage characteristics from his theory were used to define a new criterion for determining the metallic or tunneling character of the intrinsic junctions and used the new low voltage negative differential resistance effect to develop superconductive electronics independent of the Josephson AC effect, and based on the characteristics of the Andreev scattering mechanism.

He also dedicated himself to technological research on the use of superconducting junctions for the generation and detection of electromagnetic radiation (radio waves and microwaves ranges) and his results led to the proposal of new devices with superconductor technology. He obtained two patents: one on a "Harmonic Oscillator Using the Negative Differential Resistance of a Superconducting Microbridge (Or SNS Type Josephson Junction)", obtained in 1995, and the other on a "Heterodyne Mixer Using the Nonlinearity of the Microbridge Current-Voltage Characteristic Curves SNS (Superconductor-Normal Metal-Superconductor)", obtained in 1997.

His dedication to advancing science was evidenced by his organization of the Brazilian Congress of Superconductivity in 1998, where he brought the renowned Nobel laureate in Physics Johannes Georg Bednorz to Brazil.

Roberto Nicolsky followed his ideal to integrate scientific research and technological development in Brazil: He founded the LASUP (Laboratory of Superconductor Applications) in the Polytechnic Institute at UFRJ and started a series of Brazilian Schools of Superconductivity for Physics and Engineering students in Brazil. In LASUP Roberto Nicolsky developed research on Fault Current Limiters, Flywheel Energy Storage Systems, and significantly contributed to the development of the Maglev Cobra, an international benchmark in the field of magnetic levitation transportation. After his retirement in 2010, he devoted himself to PROTEC, an institution advocating innovation for Brazilian entrepreneurs, whose legacy continued to influence even after his passing.

Roberto Nicolsky leaves behind a lasting legacy, not only as an exceptional academic but also as a visionary committed to the scientific and technological progress of Brazil. His impact will be felt for generations, and his absence will be deeply mourned by all those whose lives he touched. May his memory endure as a source of inspiration and motivation for us all. May he rest in peace.
 

Moises Levy, the leader and mover of the metamorphosis of the IEEE Technical Committee on Superconductivity to the present IEEE Council on Superconductivity, died on November 15, 2023. He was 93. He is survived by his wife, Nina.

Moises was a highly recognized and admired physicist whose main scientific impact was in ultrasonic measurements of metals, alloys, and superconducting materials. He was born in Concepcion, Panama, on April 8, 1930. Following a family move to California, Levy attended UCLA for a year and then transferred to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where he received his BS. He was drafted into the US Army and returned to UCLA after that service, receiving his PhD in 1963. His thesis topic was “Superconducting Energy Gap of Ta, V, and Nb.” Following several post-docs, he obtained a tenured Professorship at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Moises continued studying ultrasonic properties in superconductors, including high-Tc superconductors, for decades. He was supported at UW-Milwaukee by Max Swerdlow of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. Levy stayed at UW-Milwaukee for over 30 years, where he mentored over 20 graduate students and retired as Professor Emeritus in 1996.

Levy’s academic honors include:

• Fellow of the American Physical Society
• Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers
• Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America
• Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Ultrasonics Society
• IEEE UFFC-S Distinguished Service Award (2010)
• IEEE CSC Max Swerdlow Award (2010) 
• IEEE UFFC-S Rayleigh Award, (2013)

Moises Levy and the IEEE Council on Superconductivity

After several years of publishing the peer reviewed papers from the Applied Superconductivity Conference in the IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, forces within the IEEE moved those papers to a new journal, the IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity. The administrative center for this activity was the IEEE Technical Committee on Superconductivity. This committee had little standing or representative positions within the IEEE Societies and Councils. Moises Levy led and organized a two-year campaign to have the Superconductivity Committee become an IEEE Council. He then led the Council for over seven years, from 1996 to 2005. During his leadership tenure, the Council on Superconductivity initiated the following awards for long-term scientific and leadership achievement: The Award for Continuing and Significant Contributions in the Field of Applied Superconductivity in materials, large-scale applications, and electronics (The award for materials was later named the James Wong Award).  The Max Swerdlow Award for Sustained Service to the Applied Superconductivity Community, and The Carl H. Rosner Entrepreneurship Award.

In addition, under his leadership, the Council also established other annual awards: the Van Duzer Prize for the best paper published in IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity. The Council also awards several fellowships to full-time graduate students pursuing a Ph.D. or equivalent in the tenure in the area of applied superconductivity.

Levy also initiated support for graduate students to attend the Applied Superconductivity Conference by having the Council provide matching travel grants.

His colleagues at the IEEE Council on Superconductivity miss his mentorship and leadership, his sense of style and humor, and especially his love of scotch whiskey, good food, and great company.

Dr. Simon Sze, a visionary in the field of semiconductor physics and technology, and a renowned educator, passed away peacefully on November 6, 2023, at the age of 87. His remarkable life and contributions to the world of electronics and semiconductor devices will be remembered and cherished.

Dr. Sze was born in Nanking, China, and his early life was marked by intellectual curiosity and a passion for science. He earned his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from National Taiwan University, an M.S. at the University of Washington, and went on to complete his Ph.D. at Stanford University, where he made significant contributions to the understanding of electron transport in semiconductor devices. In 1967, Dr. Sze and Dawon Kahng fabricated the world's first floating-gate nonvolatile memory device, which is among the key components used in today's popular consumer technology products and one of the major breakthroughs in semiconductor technology.

Dr. Sze's distinguished career included notable positions at Bell Laboratories and National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan. His groundbreaking work spanned a wide range of areas, including the development of MOSFET technology, semiconductor device physics, and semiconductor device reliability. He was the author of several seminal books, including Physics of Semiconductor Devices, which has become an essential reference in the field and has educated generations of engineers and scientists. He received numerous awards for his outstanding teaching and research, including the Future Science Prize in 2021 and the IEEE EDS J.J. Ebers Award in 1991, which recognized his lifelong contributions to the field.

He is survived by his beloved wife of 62 years Therese, his son Raymond and daughter in law Karen, his daughter Julia, his grandchildren Alyssa, Arianna, Ethan and Jake, and his granddogs Coco, Lola, MeiMei, Pepper and Poe.
To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Published by San Francisco Chronicle on Nov. 7, 2023.

Read more about Dr. Sze: The Enduring Contributions of Dr. Simon Min Sze In Semiconductor Technology

Theodore "Ted" Van Duzer was born in Piscataway Township, New Jersey in 1927. At 17, he joined the Navy as a radio technician, his entre into a career in electrical engineering. With assistance from the GI bill, he earned a Bachelor's at Rutgers University, a Master's at UCLA, and a PhD at UC Berkeley, where he served on the faculty from 1961-2014. 

Ted was co-author of two books, Principles of Superconductive Devices and Circuits and Fields and Waves in Communications Electronics, an IEEE Life Fellow, co-founder of Conductus, and an inductee into the National Academy of Engineering. In spite of his many professional honors, however, of most importance to him was his family and the many lifelong friendships with his PhD students, visiting researchers, and ASC/IEEE colleagues. 

Before attending university, Ted's work took him to Corpus Christi, where he met his wife, Janice Lee Dakin, in the First Presbyterian Church. Their 68-year marriage was a grand romantic adventure with opportunities to live abroad and travel the world over. In 2018, their stories were captured in a book of Janice's travel letters, Dear Friends and Family. Ted's solo trips to India and Pakistan, China and Mongolia, Bhutan and South Africa, his life story and philosophy are captured in his 2022 memoir, The Life and Times of Ted Van Duzer. 

In 2015, Ted and Janice sold their Bay Area home of 50 years and moved into a new house next door to their son Eric in Eureka. The new house was designed and built by close friends and family, and Ted described it as "the house that love built." Ted and his wife became members of the First Presbyterian Church of Eureka and established deep friendships with other congregants. After Janice passed in 2018, Eric moved in to provide care alongside Ted's loving caregivers. Ted was always a kind, encouraging, and non-judgmental father and a loving and devoted husband. He was a curious person who once ate the same meal three times a day for a week to see what it would feel like to be a dog. He created wonderful Halloween costumes from cardboard boxes, hung Christmas trees upside down from the ceiling and produced picture pancakes for special occasions. Central to his life was Ted's deep faith in Jesus Christ and his commitment to a life of service. He will be remembered as a man of great integrity, modesty, charity and generosity. Ted is survived by his children Jeff (Margie), Eric and Leslie; grandchildren Andrew, Nate, Raymond, Richard, and Veronica; and eight great-grandchildren. Ted is the last of six siblings to pass, but a large cadre of nieces and nephews carry forward the family line. A memorial will be held at the First Presbyterian Church of Eureka on December 30, 2023 at 2:00pm. In lieu of flowers or gifts, the family asks that donations be made to the church.

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Alan Lauder, of Kennett Square, died at home on 17 February, 2023 surrounded by his family. He was the husband of Heather Lauder for 58 years.

He was born in South Shields, Co. Durham, England in 1941 to Alan and Dorothy Forster Lauder.

Alan attended South Shields Grammar-Technical School for Boys and Hatfield College at the University of Durham (1959-1965) earning a B.Sc. and Ph.D in Chemistry after which he took a two year post doctoral position at the University of Texas, Austin. He also received an MBA from the University of Delaware in 1973.

He started his career with DuPont in the Organic Chemistry department in 1967. While working at PETLAB he developed a new Perovskite catalyst for which he was awarded multiple patents. Alan went on to work in various departments in the company including Central Research & Development, Chemicals and Pigments, Electronics and ultimately becoming Director and General Manager of DuPont Superconductivity.

After retiring from DuPont, Alan continued to work in the field of Superconductivity as a business advisor to the University of Houston, an advisory board member of the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston (TcSUH), Executive Director of the Coalition for the Commercial Application of Superconductivity and Chairman of the International Superconductivity Industry Summit which involved travel to various countries. He also consulted on business strategy and negotiations and was President of Alan Lauder Inc.

Alan grew up surrounded by a close knit family in South Shields, which is home to some of the world’s best fish and chips. He always maintained a close connection with his family and his British heritage, despite living in the US. His eight nieces have fond and happy memories of visits in the U.S. and the U.K.

He very much enjoyed his college years in Durham, making life long friends, meeting Heather, who he married in 1964 and captaining the University Bridge team. The 2 year post doctoral position at the University of Texas turned into a 57 year stay in the U.S. where Alan continued to enjoy science fiction, playing tennis, duplicate bridge, golf, and crème brûlée.

Alan dearly loved his family and friends. He was extremely proud of the men his sons have become and of their achievements. Some of his greatest pride and joy came from his grandchildren, he was a very creative grandfather playing and inventing games, activities and characters to entertain and educate them at the same time. He loved attending their activities, school concerts and dance recitals.

Alan is survived by his wife Heather, his sons Alan and Duncan, his grandchildren Ashlyn and Owen and his brother John. Also by his two daughters-in-law Kim and Laura, sisters-in-law Marie-Luce, Gwyneth, Ann and Heather, brothers-in-law David and Ian along with eight nieces, cousins and an aunt and uncle.

He will be remembered for his intellect, disarming smile, graciousness, generosity, optimism and love for the good things in life. Service will be held privately at a later date.

In lieu of customary remembrances, the family wishes to acknowledge Alan’s long-standing relationship with the University of Houston by creating an endowed scholarship in his honor. Contributions may be made to the Alan Lauder Memorial Fund, Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston, 3369 Cullen Blvd, Rm 202, Houston, Texas 77204-5002. To make a gift online, visit Donate: Alan Lauder Memorial Fund then select the “Search Funds” tab and enter Alan Lauder Memorial Fund for designation.

George W. Crabtree, a highly influential scientist and longtime Argonne researcher whose work spanned a wide spectrum of topics ranging from superconductivity and magnetism to energy storage research, died on January 23. He was 78.

George was a widely recognized and admired physicist whose main impact was in championing the development of high temperature superconductors and energy efficient batteries.

Early Years at Argonne National Laboratory
George joined Argonne National Laboratory as an intern in 1964, while he was an undergraduate at Northwestern University. Upon graduating in 1967 with a Bachelor’s degree in science engineering, he attended the University of Washington in Seattle where he received his Master’s degree in physics in 1968. He then returned to Argonne to pursue his research in John Ketterson’s group in condensed matter physics, which formed the basis of his PhD from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He received his PhD in 1974 and was promoted to staff physicist at Argonne that same year. His early research at Argonne in the 70’s and early 80’s employed de-Haas van Alphen measurements to map and understand the Fermi surfaces of transition metals, such as Pt, Pd, Nb and Au, and mixed valence materials such as LaSn3 and CeSn3.  One major contribution of this work was the complete Fermi surface description of Nb, which is regarded as a benchmark study to this day. George became a fellow of the American Physical Society in 1984 for these contributions to the study of Fermi surfaces. Later in the 80’s George’s research focused on the electronic properties of magnetic superconductors, in particular, the co-existence of superconductivity and magnetism in ternary rare earth compounds such as ErRh4B4. He also contributed to the early characterization of numerous organic superconductors and contributed to the study of itinerant f-electron behavior in Ce- and U- based heavy Fermion superconductors.

Vortex Matter in High Temperature Superconductors:
Perhaps George’s most important contribution to our understanding of superconductivity was in the area of vortex matter. Soon after the discovery of high temperature superconductors in 1986, George held a leadership role in the National Science Foundation’s Science and Technology Center (1992-2000) comprised of University of Illinois, University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and Argonne to investigate these new superconductors. At Argonne, he built a team of experimentalists (Ulrich Welp, Vitalii Vlasko-Vlasov, and me) and theorists (Valeri Vinokur, and Alexei Koshelev) to investigate the properties of vortex matter in these new superconductors. Vortex matter is made up of superconducting electrons circulating around tubes of magnetic flux. Vortices control the electromagnetic behavior of all type II applied superconductors. Hence, unveiling their properties is crucial for future applications. George and his team extensively investigated the magnetic field and temperature phase diagram of the 90 Kelvin superconductor YBa2Cu3O7-d with various types of induced defects and demonstrated the melting of the vortex lattice and the ubiquity of the vortex liquid state in high temperature superconductors. George also had the early foresight to apply time-dependent Ginzburg Landau simulations to study the dynamic behavior of vortices.

George received the Kamerlingh Onnes Prize with Eli Zeldov in 2003 for “pioneering and seminal experiments which elucidated the vortex phase diagram in high temperature superconductors under various conditions of disorder and anisotropy”. His general work on superconductivity, spanning several decades, also earned him the University of Chicago Award for Distinguished Performance at Argonne National Laboratory in 1982 and 1998 and U. S. Department of Energy Awards for Outstanding Scientific Accomplishment in Solid State Physics in 1982, 1985, 1995 and 1997. He was inducted to the National Academy of Sciences in 2008 and became a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2011.  Recognizing the technological potential of high temperature superconductors, George was instrumental in help launching one of the DoE-BES funded Energy Frontier Research Centers, the Center for Emergent Superconductivity (2009-2018), which was led by Brookhaven National Laboratory with Argonne National Laboratory and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as partners. George served as the Center’s Argonne co-Director, bringing industrial partners, such as SuperPower and American Superconductors, in to collaborate on improving the performance of commercial high temperature superconductors.

Championing Energy Sciences:
George was always very enthusiastic about energy. While superconductivity serves as an efficient way to transport energy without losses, George saw the need for a broader strategy in energy research to meet the challenges of climate change. In 2005, he testified at the House Science Committee, Subcommittees on Energy and Research hearing on “Fueling the Future: On the Road to the Hydrogen Economy.” In 2019, he testified at the US Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Hearing to “Examine Expanded Deployment of Grid-Scale Energy Storage.” He played leadership roles in the strategic planning for DoE-BES’s Basic Research Needs programs on hydrogen, solar energy, energy storage and discovery science, including mesoscale science. “These reports have literally shaped the Basic Energy Sciences (BES) strategic planning and portfolio for the past decade,” said Harriet Kung, deputy director for Science Programs for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

From 2012 until his passing, George served as the Director of the U. S. Department of Energy’s Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR), an innovation hub led by Argonne that focuses on advancing battery science and technology. As director of JCESR, George oversaw experiments on a wide range of beyond lithium-ion battery chemistries, including flow batteries, lithium-oxygen, and lithium-sulfur. As JCESR research integration officer, Lynn Trahey, said, “George saw the fight against climate change as one of the primary issues that not only defined the later stages of his career but that he took on personally.” George also served as the Director of the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) Energy Initiative and as Distinguished Professor of Physics, Electrical, and Mechanical Engineering at UIC. Most recently, he received the 2022 Energy Systems Award from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics for advancing next-generation energy systems that transition from fossil fuels to carbon-free technologies.

George was a truly exceptional scientist and leader with great foresight. He was rarely the one to turn down a request or challenge, and there were many demanded of him. His warm personality and steady demeanor and leadership in contentious scientific and management discussions invariably helped to achieve an effective consensus. He touched the lives of many and enriched their dreams. His curiosity was boundless and his humility was inspiring. When meeting George you would never hear about all his accomplishments. In the early years, as Group Leader of the Superconductivity and Magnetism Group at Argonne, he enjoyed organizing weekend camping events for his group and colleagues to foster comradery by sharing stories around the campfire. In later years, he enjoyed travelling with his wife, Barbara, and dear friends and sharing a good glass of wine with fine food over a great conversation.

George is survived by his wife Barbara; his sister, Elizabeth "Libby" Aten nee Crabtree and her husband John Aten; one stepson; one step-granddaughter and two grandchildren; and many sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law and other extended family members and friends who love him dearly. He was preceded in death by his son, Mark William Crabtree.

This obituary was written by Wai -K. Kwok, who also offered these additional links:
https://www.anl.gov/article/george-crabtree-energy-trailblazer-remembered-as-a-great-listener-and-boundless-explorer-dead-at-78
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/george-crabtree-obituary?id=38855140
https://today.uic.edu/obituary-george-crabtree/

On January 9, 2023 we lost our dear friend and estimated colleague K. Alex Müller, IBM Fellow and Professor of Physics at the University of Zurich, Nobel Prize Winner in Physics in 1987.

Alex was born on April 20, 1927 in Basel, Switzerland. He spent most of his childhood with his mother in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland (Ticino). After her early death he stayed in a boarding school in Schiers located in the Swiss mountains where he also received the Matura.

He studied physics at the ETH Zurich where Prof. Wolfgang Pauli played an essential and influential role throughout his scientific life. There he performed his PhD work under the supervision of Prof. Georg Busch. This work entitled “Paramagnetic Resonance of Fe3+ in SrTiO3 Single Crystals” was the beginning of a long scientific research career in the field of perovskites, ferroelectrics, static and dynamic Jahn-Teller effects, phase transitions, critical and multicritical phenomena. Since his doctoral thesis his main experimental tool was electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) in order to investigate local electronic, magnetic, and structural properties of oxide systems. In the following years Alex concentrated on SrTiO3 and related compounds and published many breakthrough papers on this subject.

His professional career began at the Battelle Memorial Institute in Geneva, where he became the manager of the magnetic resonance group (1958-1963) and a Lecturer at the University of Zurich, receiving the title of Professor in 1970. In 1963, he joined the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory in Rüschlikon, as a research staff member and later became head of the Physics Department from 1971-1985. During this time he deepened his knowledge in the above mentioned topics and became world famous for his research in the field. At the age of only 53 he concluded that the until then achieved honours, he could have finished his scientific career and do administrative work only.

However, things went differently as we all know, mainly influenced by a two years sabbatical stay of Alex at the IBM TJW Research Center in Yorktown Heights, where he had his first encounter with the field of superconductivity. He decided to get deeply acquainted with this topic, being inspired by the discovery that granular Al has a higher superconducting transition temperature than the bulk form. Back to Zurich he even gave lectures on superconductivity at the University of Zurich.

During this time Alex made the interesting observation that superconductivity was very rarely observed in oxides and specifically in oxide perovskites. Yet, the few existing exceptions had unusually high transition temperatures in view of their low density of states at the Fermi level. This inspired him to think of a novel electron pairing mechanism beyond the BCS scheme admitting for unconventionally large electron-lattice interactions. Furthermore, he got involved in the Jahn-Teller polaron predicted by the work of his friend Prof. Harry Thomas and his group at the University of Basel.

At this moment he suggested to J. Georg Bednorz to search for oxide superconductors with Jahn-Teller ions. While the following few years were rather disappointing, they reached the breakthrough in 1986 with the discovery of high temperature superconductivity (HTSC) in ceramic cuprates. A year later both were awarded with the Nobel prize in physics. Furthermore, he received many distinguished awards and honours.

Alex spent the years after this huge achievement with more detailed research in HTSC, but also came back to his former routes, namely ferroelectricity and structural phase transitions in perovskite oxides.

As for HTSC it was important to him to demonstrate that his starting idea of the Jahn-Teller polaron was internationally acknowledged in spite of a strong scientific objection in the community. He founded the research project of isotope effects at the University of Zurich where pioneering results could be achieved supporting the idea of unconventional strong electron lattice interaction as source of the pairing glue.

Besides of being an ingenious researcher and scientist, Alex was also an excellent teacher and lecturer and enjoyed the university life intensively by attending seminars and supporting students. With Alex we lose a very good friend and a highly appreciated colleague, an excellent inspiring scientist, and a devoted teacher.

Annette Bussmann-Holder
Max-Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart, Germany

Hugo Keller
Physics Institute, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

May 5, 2023