Welcome to SUPERCONDUCTORS. My name is Joe Eck. I am the author of these web pages. I have been an electronics engineer since leaving college in 1970 and superconductors are a passion of mine. I study them and regularly experiment with esoteric concoctions as part of the search for new high-Tc compounds.
Among my accomplishments are the discovery of:
1. A general method for increasing superconductor transition temperatures
2. ...which has led to the discovery of more than 140 new superconductors, of which
49 transition above room temperature
3. ...of these one displays a record high transition temperature near 216 Celsius
4. ...another is the first to display a one-of-a-kind "resonant" superconductivity
5. ...another is the first high-temperature "reentrant" superconductor.
6. And through my high-temperature discoveries, I found the first direct link
between lattice vibrations and HT superconductivity.
7. I have also created numerous improved versions of the industrial superconductor YBCO,
with Tc's ranging from 100K up to
room temperature. Among these, the best candidate for
commercialization, "Ultra YBCO", was confirmed
by Sharif University in late 2009.
8. Additionally, my discoveries have helped other research teams to find new materials.
My discovery of (Y,Lu)123 and (Y,Tm)123 led to Universidad Nacional de Colombia
finding (Y,Sm)123 in 2006. And my discovery of Y358, led to
Srinakharinwirot University
in Thailand finding 7 new YBCO variants in 2010. It also led to Al-Nahrain University,
in Baghdad, Iraq, finding Y5510 and Y7512 in 2015.
9. In early 2014 I uncovered the strong contribution dielectric constant (relative permittivity)
makes in promoting transition temperatures. This knowledge may help in formulating a theory that
can explain high temperature superconductivity in the copper oxides.
I created SUPERCONDUCTORS in 1999 because there did not seem to be any Internet websites that consolidated superconductor fundamentals "under one roof". There's lots of information out there on the Web. But much of it is gobbledygook to the uninitiated. These pages have been written with the lay person in mind. And, clearly, there was a need. In its first year on the Web SUPERCONDUCTORS logged over 45,000 visitors. In its second year, the visitation rate was nearly twice as high, at 85,000. During the third year, the totals were more than the first two years combined, at over 130,000. And since then, an average of 170,000 people have visited each year.
My highest priority in authoring this website was accuracy. I have gone to great lengths to authenticate the information posted here. Whenever a point was in question, an authority in that particular area was consulted. An effort has also been made to make the pages user-friendly and easy to navigate. You may have noticed that there are no annoying banner ads. Banners could have generated a great deal of revenue for me. However, I have always felt banners are distracting to anyone trying to learn from a website and decided to forego the money.
Another of my avocations is computers. I have been a participant in the SETI@Home parallel computing project for almost as long as I've had this website. And when SETI@Home went into hibernation in April 2020, I began devoting my free CPU time to Einstein@Home.
An ongoing challenge in maintaining an educational website, is determining how technical to make the contents of each page. While SUPERCONDUCTORS was established for beginners, many "beginners" are in college or already have a college education and want information of a higher technical level. The solution deemed most acceptable was to provide frequent hyper-links within each page, through which the reader can obtain additional information.
A local search engine is available to help visitors locate a specific area of interest. This search feature is currently being used by about 1 person in 20 - indicating most people are seeking general, entry-level information. And, daily reports of site searches help improve these pages by revealing deficiencies.
In closing, let me state that a testament to the quality of the information on these pages lies not with me or my credentials. But, rather, with the scores of universities, public schools, libraries, and science/education websites that recommend SUPERCONDUCTORS.ORG. All of the testimonials and plaudits posted on the INDEX and STATS pages arrived without being solicited. For an independent review of this website, click HERE. Or for a VOA video that showcases my research, click HERE. You can also hear extended audio from the VOA interviewer in a podcast on the KGNU Science Show.
