Margaret MacVicar niobium tunneling experiments

MacVicar (Tom's thesis advisor) did the experimental confirmation of the Josephson effect at MIT — grew niobium single crystals, laid down insulating layer, did tunneling experiments in liquid helium. Tom uses the case to launch into MacVicar's career trajectory (UROP founder, Dean of Undergraduate Education, biology requirement, Exxon board, death at 41-42 of brain cancer) and to make the point that MIT physics wouldn't admit its own (the Feynman-to-Princeton aside).

I met him when he was about 30, because of my thesis advisor by 1965, Margaret MacVicar. Ever heard of Margaret MacVicar? The MacVicar Faculty Fellows at MIT. Margaret was a physics student who couldn't get into the physics department at MIT, because they won't admit their own. That's why Feynman went to Princeton, because MIT wouldn't admit him into the physics department. Margaret came to the materials science department, wanted to do a doctoral thesis, went to Bob Rose and said what should I do my thesis on. He says, go up and see Pfeffer, who was the technician up in the lab. Pfeffer trained me in the lab, and Pfeffer was a genius — should have gotten an MIT PhD, but he grew up in the depression, his family couldn't afford to send him to school. Pfeffer showed her how to grow single crystals of niobium, lay down an insulating layer on it, put some electrodes on it, sit it in liquid helium, and do tunneling experiments and show the Josephson effect.

Lateral aside — MacVicar tunneled into niobium two years after Brian Josephson's superconducting tunneling discovery. Tom recalls Josephson at age 27 as a "nervous wreck" after winning the Nobel young.

My thesis advisor did his doctoral thesis on single crystal tungsten. Then Margaret McVicker [MacVicar] — they refer to MacVicar Faculty Fellows — Margaret tunneled into niobium just two years after Brian Josephson discovered superconducting tunneling and won the Nobel Prize for it. He was about 22 or 23 when he did it, won the Nobel Prize when he was 25 or 26, or 27 when I met him. When he was about 29 or 30 he was a nervous wreck. Don't win the Nobel Prize when you're 26. You just can't handle the pressure. You become like a professional sports star — well, maybe not that bad.