Hardy Wins $50,000 Killam Prize For High-Temperature Superconductivity Research

Walter Hardy, professor of physics at University of British Columbia (UBC; Vancouver, BC, Canada; 604-822-6431), has been named as one of three 1999 recipients of the $50,000 Killam Prize, which is awarded to Canadians in the natural sciences, health sciences, and engineering by the Canada Council for the Arts.

Among Hardy's breakthroughs is the nature of superconductivity in copper oxides, which have wide-ranging applications in telephone and satellite communications, high-speed computer elements, ultra-sensitive magnetic sensors, and magnetic resonance imaging. In 1987, Hardy became an associate of the Superconductivity Program of the Canadian Institute of Advanced Research, where he and his group began producing the best single crystals of these materials in the world.

Hardy's findings contributed to a major change in the prevalent view of the nature of high-temperature superconductivity. High-temperature superconductors are exotic materials that conduct electricity with no energy losses, at temperatures that can be attained using inexpensive liquid nitrogen.

Hardy; Douglas Bonn, associate professor of physics at UBC; and Ruixing Liang, a material scientist in UBC's physics and astronomy department, used their samples to make the first accurate measurements of the depth to which microwaves penetrate a superconducting crystal.

Hardy also became the first recipient of the Canadian Association of Physicists' Brockhouse Medal for outstanding contributions to condensed matter physics. The medal honours Canadian scientist and UBC alumnus Bertram Brockhouse, who was awarded the 1994 Nobel Prize in Physics. Hardy has earned the medal for his recent microwave studies of high-temperature superconductors. He has received numerous major awards, and in 1980 was elected to the Royal Society of Canada.

For more information, call Walter Hardy at 604-822-6431.