TRIBUTE

Marc Feldman: Helped Launch Superconductivity Research

I first met Marc Feldman at an applied superconductivity conference in the late 1980s when, as a new assistant professor at the University, I approached him to ask his advice about research I was pursuing on quantum noise in superconductors.

Ten years my senior, Marc had already established himself as a leader in the field, so it was with hesitation that I approached him with my embryonic ideas. To my relief Marc turned out to be one of the most open and engaging scientists (and people) that I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. This event marked the beginning of our nearly 20-year collaboration and friendship.

We were fortunate to persuade Marc to move to Rochester within a year or so of that first meeting. At the time Rochester had a very large group of five faculty members working in the area of superconducting electronics, and we all were enthusiastic about his arrival.

A prolific and selfless collaborator throughout his entire scientific career, Marc provided the catalyst that rallied our group’s efforts around the emerging field of single flux quantum digital superconducting electronics. This marked the beginning of the heyday of superconductivity research at Rochester.

Throughout his career Marc provided this kind of unifying intellectual focus and leadership. In his own right he shone not only as a brilliant theoretical scientist but also as a creative experimentalist. His greatest strength was his ability to bridge the gap between theory and experimental work, which led to a great number of technical innovations in the field of superconducting electronics.

These range from radio telescope receivers used on every continent and in space to his groundbreaking work that led to the international standard of the volt. His pioneering work on superconducting quantum computers established a new field of research that is now being pursued worldwide and his most recent scientific endeavor, ballistic electronics, may prove to be the key to advancing semiconductor electronics into the terahertz (one-trillion hertz) regime.

Marc’s legacy is not just his own scientific work and the work with his many collaborators worldwide but also the many students whom he taught and mentored throughout his career. Marc loved “doing” scientific research, figuring out how things worked and inventing, and he would often lose himself in the process.

I remember one special car trip that we made together in 1995, returning to the Pittsburgh airport from a conference in rural Pennsylvania. We became so engrossed in our scientific discussions that we missed our turn for the expressway and ended up driving through half of the city of Pittsburgh before finally arriving at the airport just in the nick of time.

That turned out to be the most productive car trip I have ever taken. During the drive we had come up with the basic idea for how to build a superconducting quantum computer, a subject that we worked on together for the next 10 years and which presently is being pursued in at least 20 major research laboratories around the world. I am grateful that I was able to share this creative moment with Marc. I count it as one of my proudest accomplishments, as I know he did, too.

Marc was known for his great intellectual honesty, and he would always follow experimental data or an idea to its logical end. He also never hesitated to speak his mind and he could be disarmingly honest. A voracious reader, he was always willing to engage in lively, good-natured debates on wide-ranging subjects.

Marc will long be remembered by his many colleagues for his enthusiastic observation of, and interest in, the entire world around him. He was a scholar in the true sense.

Marc’s friends all fondly remember some of his unconventional tastes. One was his liking of Swedish clogs, a preference that he acquired while working at Chalmers University in Sweden around 1980. Marc owned summer, winter, indoor, outdoor, and even dress clogs, and his friends in Hopeman Hall will all miss the clip-clop of Marc’s coming and going, which could be heard from 100 feet away.

When Marc was diagnosed with lung cancer in the fall of 2007, he approached the battle with the same logic and resolve that marked his scientific career. Accepting the challenge with grace and dignity, he did not complain but rather worried whether his current students and ongoing projects would be attended to when he was no longer with us. Marc died Dec. 4 at the age of 62.

Marc was devoted to his family, his wife, Susan, and sons, Lucas, 20, and Benjamin, 19. One of Marc’s great passions was his sons’ soccer playing, and he enthusiastically participated both as a coach and as their biggest fan, animatedly following the action up and down the sidelines at their games.

It’s impossible to pay sufficient tribute in a few words. Happily, Marc’s professional legacy will live on both through his enduring scientific contributions and by his lasting influence on his students, collaborators, and colleagues.

Even so, all of us will miss our friend Marc greatly.

—Mark Bocko

Mark Bocko is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University.