In Switzerland, everyone recognizes the name Batlogg.  At the end of the 18th century, Johann Josef Batlogg stood in the way of Napolean's troops.  Alongside his freedom fighters, he defended the Schlappiner Joch against the French.  Bertram Batlogg isn't as popular as his great-grandfather yet, but in the world of science he is very well known. Seven times in the past two years, his name was on a publication in Science and at the same time, three works were published by him in Nature.  Other scientists are happy if they get to publish one work in either of the publications during a life-time.

"I am fascinated by anything new," said the former mountain climber "I wouldn't climb the same mountain 20 times, either."  In the field of research, he has conquered quite a few 8,000 meter high mountains.  Together with his two German colleagues, Jan Hendrik Schoen and Christian Kloc, Batlogg built the first electric powered laser out of plastic at Bell Laboratories.  A few months later the trio presented the world of science with a plastic that conducts electricity at low temperatures without any resistance.  Their most recent coup was just shown to the press:  Crystals that allow themselves to be moved between resistance free and isolated states when desired.  This is something that electronic engineers have been dreaming about when they think about fast and flexible electronics.

Betram Batlogg was born in Bludenz in1950 and also grew up there.  He studied physics at the Technical University in Zurich, Switzerland and graduated in 1979.

He worked in New Jersey until the year 2000 at Bell Laboratories and did research in the area of physical science.  For his works in the area of super conducting electronics he has received international acclaim. One of his earlier colleagues, Jan Hendrik Schoen was found guilty on many counts of scientific falsifications in 2002, whereby Batlogg and all of the other co-authors were found not guilty on all counts.

From 1990 to 1996, Bertram Batlogg was one of the directors of the consortium for Superconducting Electronics in a Research and Development partnership of numerous leading industrial and academic institutes in the USA.

Betram Batlogg has been a professor for Physics of Condensed Matter at the Technical University in Zurich since 2000.