IN THE SPOTLIGHTS
In memoriam
In Memoriam : Karl Alex Müller
It is with great sadness that the scientific community lost an eminent physicist , an IBM Fellow and a Nobel Prize laureate who passed away on January 9 , 2023 , in Zollikerberg near Zurich , at the age of 95 .
Karl Alex Müller was born in Basel on April 20 , 1927 . After the early separation of his parents , his mother died when he was only eleven years old . He then spent the next seven years at the Evangelical College in Schiers , Canton Grisons .
K . Alex Müller ’ s scientific career started with the studies of physics at ETH Zurich where he was very impressed by the lectures of Prof . Wolfgang Pauli . His diploma work on the Hall effect in grey tin as well as his PhD thesis , which dealt with the paramagnetic resonance in the newly synthesized perovskite SrTiO3 , were both supervised by Prof . G . Busch . After finalizing his thesis , he became head of the magnetic resonance group at the Battelle Memorial Institute in Geneva . In 1962 he did his habilitation at the University of Zurich . In view of his high scientific impact , the IBM Research Laboratory Zurich offered him in 1963 a research staff position . His leadership skills and strong scientific intuition brought him to lead the physics department in 1971 , a position he held until 1985 . His research focused on SrTiO3 and related perovskite oxides , and his outstanding work made him famous and a leading expert in the field .
In 1970 he was appointed as titular professor at the University of Zurich . A decisive moment in his career occurred in 1982 when he was nominated IBM Fellow . This enabled him to decide freely and independently about his further research areas . He started a project with the ambitious goal to synthesize new superconducting materials together with J . Georg Bednorz . The theoretical ideas developed by his friend Prof . Harry Thomas triggered the interest of K . Alex for complex oxides with Jahn-Teller centers . As a good tandem K . Alex and J . Georg made in 1986 the groundbreaking discovery of high-temperature superconductivity ( HTS ). Both researchers were awarded the 1987 Nobel Prize in Physics for this breakthrough .
Promoted full professor at the University of Zurich , K . Alex Müller continued to work on HTS cuprates developing his favorite viewpoint of a strong electron-lattice interaction based on the formation of polarons or bipolarons to explain the pairing mechanism in this class of materials . Several successful experimental studies on HTS cuprates initiated by him confirmed his early intuitions .
After retiring as full professor he continued his research at the University of Zurich . Very prolific until his advanced age , K . Alex inspired his colleagues and many generations of students by providing original and critical ideas thanks to his extensive scientific knowledge based on an extraordinary memory . Besides his ingenious scientific achievements and engagements , he was also a dedicated teacher with profound interest in the students and their life . Financial support for students was and still is provided by the K . Alex Müller Foundation .
Recipient of many prizes and awards including the EPS Europhysics Prize in 1988 and several honorary doctorates K . Alex was also an honorary member of the Swiss Physical Society since 1991 .
In addition to his great passion for exact natural sciences , he also showed broad interest in natural philosophy and in the Depth Psychology approach of C . G . Jung , as well as in classical music , literature , art , and history .
The legacy of K . Alex Müller lives on , along with the memories of a humble , incredibly talented researcher that left a lasting mark wherever he worked either in Switzerland or in the world . n
l Christophe Rossel , IBM Research Europe - Zurich Laboratory l Hugo Keller , Physics Institute , University of Zurich
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