May 31, 2026
Public lecture by Nobel Laureate Georg Bednorz: “Superconductivity – from phenomenon to key technology of the 21st century”
On Wednesday, 17 June 2026, the Dresden University of Technology will welcome Nobel Laureate in Physics Dr Georg Bednorz for a public lecture. Therein, he will speak on “Superconductivity – from phenomenon to key technology of the 21st century”. The lecture will be held in German; admission is free.
Superconductivity is one of the most fascinating phenomena in modern physics: under certain conditions, materials can conduct electrical current without any loss. Since its discovery more than 100 years ago, the technology has raised great hopes for energy supply, medical technology and numerous industrial applications. For a long time, however, technical challenges prevented its widespread use.
In his lecture, Georg Bednorz traces the development of superconductivity research from its beginnings to today’s high-performance materials. He explains how the discovery of high-temperature superconductivity triggered a paradigm shift and why superconducting technologies could play an important role in the future for the energy transition and the shift towards a sustainable, fully electric society.
Georg Bednorz was born in 1950 and initially studied chemistry, later switching to mineralogy and crystallography at the University of Münster. At the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, he conducted research into novel materials and, together with Karl Alexander Müller, discovered high-temperature superconductivity in ceramic copper oxides in 1986. For this groundbreaking discovery, both scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics as early as 1987. This was the shortest time span between a discovery and the awarding of a Nobel Prize.
Dr Georg Bednorz’s lecture at TU Dresden is part of the series “Nobel Laureates Visiting TU Dresden” organised by the School of Science. Since 2016, the series has been bringing internationally renowned scientists into dialogue with the public and Dresden’s scientific community.
The public lecture series ‘Nobelpreisträger zu Gast an der TU Dresden” 2026 is supported by von Ardenne GmbH, the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, Gesellschaft von Freunden und Förderern der TU Dresden e.V., the cluster of excellence ctd.qmat, Hotel Taschenbergpalais Kempinski and Lohrmanns Brew.
Details:
Public lecture: “Superconductivity – from phenomenon to key technology of the 21st century”
Wednesday, 17 June 2026, 7 pm
Audimax, TU Dresden
Free admission
Please register at: tud.de/mn/nobel
Contact:
Nicole Gierig
Public Relations Officer
School of Science
Tel. 0351 463 39504
Email: