Brian David Josephson

Brian Josephson fascinates me because he made his defining discovery as a Cambridge PhD student in 1962, predicting what became the Josephson effect, and won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1973 while still remarkably young. The medals stacked up early: the Fritz London Award, the Hughes Medal, the Elliott Cresson Medal. What I find compelling is that a single insight from a student reshaped superconductivity and underpins technology we still rely on. A Fellow of the Royal Society and longtime Cambridge professor, he represents to me the rare case where one elegant idea, arrived at young, defines an entire career. I'd love to know what drove that early leap.

Name (English)

Brian David Josephson

Name (Japanese)

ブライアン・ジョゼフソン

Reading

ぶらいあん・じょぜふそん

Born

January 4, 1940 (age 86)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Capricorn / Dragon

Origin

Cardiff, United Kingdom

Occupation

physicist / university teacher

High school

Cardiff High School

University

Trinity College

Awards & achievements

• Fellow of the Royal Society
• 1973 Nobel Prize in Physics
• 1972 Elliott Cresson Medal
• 1973 Holweck Prize
• 1972 Hughes Medal
• 1982 Faraday Medal
• 1970 Fritz London Award
• Fellow of the Institute of Physics

Motto

Private

• Official sitehttps://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/~bdj10/
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%96%E3%83%A9%E3%82%A4%E3%82%A2%E3%83%B3%E3%83%BB%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A7%E3%82%BC%E3%83%95%E3%82%BD%E3%83%B3

Tags

• physicist
• university teacher

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.