Background
Michael Tinkham studied at Ripon College (Bachelor 1951) in Wisconsin, near where he grew up, and later at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Master"s Degree 1951), where he graduated in 1954 with a Doctor of Philosophy.
Michael Tinkham studied at Ripon College (Bachelor 1951) in Wisconsin, near where he grew up, and later at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Master"s Degree 1951), where he graduated in 1954 with a Doctor of Philosophy.
Bachelor of Arts, Ripon (Wisconsin) College, 1951; Doctor of Science (honorary), Ripon (Wisconsin) College, 1976; Master of Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1951; Doctor of Philosophy, 1954; Master of Arts (honorary), Harvard, 1966; Doctor of Science (honorary), Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zurich, 1997.
He was Rumford Research Professor of Physics and Gordon McKay Research Professor of Applied Physics at Harvard University. He is best known for his work on superconductivity. During 1954/55 he was at the Clarendon Laboratory of Oxford University.
In 1955 he went to the University of California, Berkeley, in 1957 becoming an Assistant Professor, and later a Full Professor.
In 1966 he joined the faculty at Harvard University. During 1978/79 he was a Humboldt United States. Senior Scientist at the University of Karlsruhe.
Professor Tinkham has concentrated on superconductivity and in 1975 published one of the classic textbooks on the subject. More recently he has focused on material properties where sample dimensions are in the nanometer range, including studies of nanowires and carbon nanotubes.
In 1956, Tinkham and a fellow postdoc Rolfe Glover found the direct evidence of an energy gap in the continuous distribution of energy levels in the form of a sharp rise in the absorption spectrum of a superconductor.
The absorption spectrum observed was a direct consequence of the coherence factors of the British Computer Society theory of John Bardeen, and along with other observations, provided the first substantive experimental confirmation of the British Computer Society theory. Tinkham also studied the macroscopic quantum behaviour of superconductors, and examined the conditions under which transitions between different energy levels happen when superconductors are carrying a current.
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Served United States Naval Reserve, 1945-1946. Fellow American Physical Society (chairman division solid state physics 1966-1967, Buckley prize 1974, Richtmyer lecturer 1977), American Association for the Advancement of Science. Member American Academy Arts and Sciences, National Academy Sciences.
Married Mary Stephanie Merin, June 24, 1961. Children: Jeffrey Michael, Christopher Gillespie.