Nobel Prize-Winning Physicist Schrieffer Dies in Florida

Nobel Prize-Winning Physicist Schrieffer Dies in Florida
Crown Prince Carl Gustav of Sweden (L) applauds Dr. William H. Stein of the Rockefeller University of New York, after presenting him with the Nobel Prize for Chemistry on Dec. 13, 1972. Dr. Stein is paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair. L-R (back row): Leon Cooper and John Schrieffer, winners for Physics, and Christian Anfinsen and Stanford Moore, winners in Chemistry. (Express Newspapers/Getty Images)

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—John Robert Schrieffer, a physicist who shared in the 1972 Nobel Prize in physics for developing a pioneering theory of superconductivity, has died. He was 88.

Family members say Schrieffer died in his sleep at a nursing facility Saturday in Tallahassee, Florida, where he had been a professor at Florida State University at one time.

Along with colleagues John Bardeen and Leon Cooper, Schrieffer was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for developing the BCS theory. It is considered the first successful microscopic theory of superconductivity—the ability of certain materials to conduct electricity with practically zero resistance.

In 2005, he was sentenced to two years in prison for killing a man and injuring seven other people while driving more than 100 mph.

He is survived by three children.