James M. Bardeen

James Maxwell Bardeen (May 9, 1939 – June 20, 2022) was an American physicist. He worked on general relativity, particularly in formulating the laws of black hole mechanics. He also discovered the Bardeen vacuum, an exact solution of the Einstein field equation.

Early life and education Bardeen was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 9, 1939. His father, John Bardeen, won the Nobel Prize in Physics twice for inventing the transistor and formulating the theory of superconductivity; his mother, Jane Maxwell Bardeen, worked as a zoologist and a high school teacher. During his childhood, Bardeen resided in Washington, D.C., Summit, New Jersey, and Chicago as part of his father's employment. He attended the University Laboratory High School in Urbana, Illinois. He then studied physics at Harvard University, even though his father wanted him to go into biology. Bardeen was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy in 1965. at Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. In 2012, he was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

Personal life Bardeen married Nancy Thomas in 1968. They met the year before in Paris while he was attending a conference, and remained married until his death. Together, they had two children, William and David.

Bardeen died on June 20, 2022, at a retirement home in Seattle. He was 83, and suffered from cancer prior to his death.