Public Lecture: Superconductivity

Superconductivity, the ability of certain materials to conduct electricity with no resistance whatsoever, has fascinated scientists since its discovery by Kammerlingh-Onnes in 1911. While much has been understood, the question of predicting which materials will become superconducting, and at what temperatures, remains one of the grand challenges of modern materials theory. This talk will outline the evolution of our understanding as the subject has progressed from its primitive beginnings through the ''bronze age'' marked by the 1986 discovery of high temperature superconductivity in copper-oxide compounds to the present-day ''iron age'' of the Fe-As based superconducting materials. The current status of the theory of the origin of superconductivity will be described.