Bascom Sine Deaver, Jr. is a physicist known for his research into superconductor applications, and is a professor and assistant chairman for undergraduate studies of the physics

Physics

Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...

 department at the University of Virginia

University of Virginia

The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...

. A leading researcher in the field of superconductors, he is noted for his discovery that the magnetic flux

Magnetic flux

Magnetic flux , is a measure of the amount of magnetic B field passing through a given surface . The SI unit of magnetic flux is the weber...

 threading a superconducting ring is quantized

Magnetic flux quantum

The magnetic flux quantum Φ0 is the quantum of magnetic flux passing through a superconductor. The phenomenon of flux quantization was discovered B. S. Deaver and W. M. Fairbank and, independently, by R. Doll and M. Nabauer, in 1961...

, a foundational discovery that led to the development of superconducting quantum interference devices

SQUID

A SQUID is a very sensitive magnetometer used to measure extremely weak magnetic fields, based on superconducting loops containing Josephson junctions....

, superconducting magnetometer

Magnetometer

A magnetometer is a measuring instrument used to measure the strength or direction of a magnetic field either produced in the laboratory or existing in nature...

s, and superconducting tunnel junction diodes

Tunnel diode

A tunnel diode or Esaki diode is a type of semiconductor diode which is capable of very fast operation, well into the microwave frequency region, by using quantum mechanical effects....

 for use in microwave

Microwave

Microwaves, a subset of radio waves, have wavelengths ranging from as long as one meter to as short as one millimeter, or equivalently, with frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz. This broad definition includes both UHF and EHF , and various sources use different boundaries...

 receivers. As a professor, Deaver has overseen 26 Ph.D. students, developed two undergraduate concentrations in optics

Optics

Optics is the branch of physics which involves the behavior and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behavior of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light...

 and computational physics

Computational physics

Computational physics is the study and implementation of numerical algorithms to solve problems in physics for which a quantitative theory already exists...

, and innovated a B.A. degree for students, a program designed to "expose students to the intellectual beauty of physics without sophisticated mathematics."

Early life and education

Deaver received his undergraduate B.S. degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology

Georgia Institute of Technology

The Georgia Institute of Technology is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States...

 in 1952, and his masters at Washington University in St. Louis in 1954.

Career

Between 1954 and 1957 he was a physicist and commissioned lieutenant in the United States Air Force

United States Air Force

The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...

 at the Air Force Special Weapons Center at Kirtland Air Force Base

Kirtland Air Force Base

Kirtland Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located in the southeast quadrant of the Albuquerque, New Mexico urban area, adjacent to the Albuquerque International Sunport. The base was named for the early Army aviator Col. Roy C. Kirtland...

 in New Mexico

New Mexico

New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

. Deaver began his career as a professor at the University of Virginia in 1965, having completed his Ph.D. at Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

 in 1962. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

 as an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow

Sloan Fellows

The Sloan Fellows program is a mid-career master's degree in general management and leadership supported by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. It is targeted at experienced managers who have already demonstrated a significant degree of career success . Alfred P...

 between 1966 and 1968.

Deaver has received a number of awards at the University, including the Alumni Association's Distinguished Professor Award for teaching in 2004. He is a member of the American Physical Society

American Physical Society

The American Physical Society is the world's second largest organization of physicists, behind the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. The Society publishes more than a dozen scientific journals, including the world renowned Physical Review and Physical Review Letters, and organizes more than 20...

, the Virginia Academy of Science

Virginia Academy of Science

-Purpose:The Academy's purpose is "to establish and maintain an association of persons and organizations interested in science and scientific research in all of its branches; to solicit financial and other support; to cooperate with educational institutions, industries, and state agencies in...

, the Raven Society

Raven Society

The Raven Society is the University of Virginia's oldest honorary society. Founded in 1904 by University student William McCully James, and named in honor of the famous poem by Edgar Allan Poe .According to its constitution, one of the Raven Society's main goals is "to bring together the best men...

, Sigma Xi

Sigma Xi

Sigma Xi: The Scientific Research Society is a non-profit honor society which was founded in 1886 at Cornell University by a junior faculty member and a handful of graduate students. Members elect others on the basis of their research achievements or potential...

, Tau Beta Pi

Tau Beta Pi

The Tau Beta Pi Association is the oldest engineering honor society in the United States and the second oldest collegiate honor society in America. It honors engineering students who have shown a history of academic achievement as well as a commitment to personal and professional integrity...

, Sigma Pi Sigma

Sigma Pi Sigma

Sigma Pi Sigma is the National Physics Honor Society. It strives to promote physics at all stages, to promote fraternity between those who excel at physics, and to promote service among its members. It is closely associated with the Society of Physics Students .- External links :*...

, and Omicron Delta Kappa

Omicron Delta Kappa

Omicron Delta Kappa, or ΟΔΚ, also known as The Circle, or more commonly ODK, is a national leadership honor society. It was founded December 3, 1914, at Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, by 15 student and faculty leaders. Chapters, known as Circles, are located on over 300...

. In 2000 he received the George B. Pegram Award, for "Excellence in the Teaching of Physics in the Southeast", from the Southeastern Section of the American Physical Society

American Physical Society

The American Physical Society is the world's second largest organization of physicists, behind the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. The Society publishes more than a dozen scientific journals, including the world renowned Physical Review and Physical Review Letters, and organizes more than 20...

.

In 2008 the physics department announced the establishment of the Bascom S. Deaver Scholarship Fund, the first undergraduate scholarship program in physics at UVA, "in recognition of Prof. Deaver's great impact on [the UVA physics] program."

Patents

Inventor(s)	Year	Patent No.	Invention Title
M. Bol, B.S. Deaver, Jr., and W.M. Fairbank	1969		Superconductive Circuit and Method for Measuring Magnetic Fields and Magnetic Properties of Materials Employing Serially Connected Superconducting Loops
Julia W. P. Hsu, Mark Lee, and Bascom S. Deaver, Jr.	1999		Nanometer Distance Regulation using Electromechanical Power Dissipation