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John Robert Schrieffer

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Scientist

The Resume

    (May 31, 1931-July 27, 2019)
    Born in Oak Park, Illinois
    With John Bardeen and Leon N. Cooper, developed the BCS Theory of superconductivity
    With Bardeen and Cooper, won the Nobel Prize in Physics (1972)

Why he might be annoying:

    While driving a new sports car at over 100 miles per hour, he crashed into a van, killing the driver and injuring seven other people (September 24, 2004)
    At the time of the accident, he had nine recent speeding tickets and his license had been suspended.
    He initially told investigators the accident had been caused by a truck clipping his car, but later admitted he had made the story up.
    He was sentenced to two years in prison for vehicular manslaughter.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He did the work that earned him a Nobel Prize while in graduate school.
    He had his main breakthrough (figuring out how to mathematically model all the electrons in a superconductivity simultaneously) while riding a New York City subway.
    He would entertain audiences at conferences by imitating colleague John Bardeen's droning speeches: 'You are falling asleep.... You are falling asleep.'
    A fellow professor noted, 'He loved to teach physics for people without a background in science. You only do that if you’re truly interested in teaching.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 10 Votes: 90.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 51 Votes: 50.98% Annoying