Kamerlingh Onnes

Superconductivity was discovered by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, a Dutch physicist, and his team in 1911.

Superconductivity was discovered accidentally in 1911 by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, a Dutch physicist, who received the Nobel Prize in 1913 for cooling a series of gases down to the point that they become liquids.

Discovered in 1911 by Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, the original superconductors were chunks of elemental metals, such as mercury and niobium, cooled to a few degrees above absolute zero.

Superconductivity was first discovered in 1911 by Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes in a mercury wire chilled to 4.2° above absolute zero, or 4.2 K. In 1957, physicists John Bardeen, Leon Cooper, and Robert Schrieffer explained the phenomenon: Their “BCS theory” suggested an electron zipping through a superconductor temporarily deforms the material’s structure, pulling another electron behind in its wake without resistance.

At Leiden University, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes and his colleagues raced against others around the world to develop techniques to liquify helium.