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{{Short description|British theoretical physicist (born 1940)}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2025}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Brian Josephson
| honorific_suffix  = {{Post-nominals|FRS|size=100%}}
| image             = Brian Josephson, March 2004.jpg
| caption           = Josephson in 2004
| birth_name        = Brian David Josephson
| birth_date        = {{Birth date and age|1940|01|04|df=yes}}
| birth_place       = [[Cardiff]], Wales, UK
| education         = [[Cardiff High School]]
| alma_mater        = [[Trinity College, Cambridge]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]], [[Master of Arts|MA]], [[PhD]])
| known_for         = [[Josephson effect]]
| spouse            = {{Marriage|Carol Olivier|1976|2025|end=died}}<ref name=whoswho/>
| children          = 1<ref name=whoswho>{{Who's Who | title=JOSEPHSON, Prof. Brian David | id = U22529 | volume = 2015 | edition = online [[Oxford University Press]]}}</ref><ref name=Who />
| movement          = [[Transcendental Meditation movement|Transcendental Meditation]]
| awards            = {{Indented plainlist|
* [[Fritz London Memorial Prize]] (1970)
* [[Elliott Cresson Medal]] (1972)
* [[Hughes Medal]] (1972)
* [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] (1973)
* [[Fernand Holweck Medal and Prize]] (1973)
* [[IEE Faraday Medal]]  (1982)}}
| fields            = [[Condensed matter physics]]
| work_institutions = [[University of Cambridge]] (1967–2007)
| thesis_title      = Non-linear conduction in superconductors
| thesis_url        = https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/256712
| thesis_year       = 1964
| doctoral_advisor  = [[Brian Pippard]]
| academic_advisors = [[Philip W. Anderson]]
}}

'''Brian David Josephson''' (born 4 January 1940) is a British [[theoretical physicist]] and emeritus professor at the [[University of Cambridge]].<ref>{{cite web | title=Emeritus Professor Brian Josephson FRS | date=4 February 2014 | publisher=Department of Physics, University of Cambridge | url=https://www.phy.cam.ac.uk/directory/emeritus-professor-brian-josephson-frs | access-date=29 January 2025}}</ref> He shared the 1973 [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] with [[Leo Esaki]] and [[Ivar Giaever]] for his discovery of the [[Josephson effect]], made in 1962 when he was a Ph.D. student at Cambridge.<ref name=britannica>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/306448/Brian-D-Josephson "Brian D. Josephson"], ''Encyclopædia Britannica''.</ref><ref name=Cosmos/>

Josephson has spent his academic career as a member of the Theory of Condensed Matter Group in Cambridge's [[Cavendish Laboratory]]. He has been a Fellow of [[Trinity College, Cambridge]], since 1962, and served as Professor of Physics from 1974 until 2007.<ref name=britannica/>

In the early 1970s, Josephson took up [[Transcendental Meditation]] and turned his attention to issues outside the boundaries of mainstream science. He set up the Mind–Matter Unification Project at Cavendish to explore the idea of intelligence in nature, the relationship between [[quantum mechanics]] and [[consciousness]], and the synthesis of science and Eastern mysticism, broadly known as [[quantum mysticism]].<ref>[http://talks.cam.ac.uk/show/index/12217 "Mind–Matter Unification Project (TCM Group, Cavendish Laboratory)"], University of Cambridge.<br />
Brian Josephson, "Foreword," in Michael A. Thalbourne and Lance Storm (eds.), ''Parapsychology in the Twenty-First Century: Essays on the Future of Psychical research'', McFarland, 2005, pp.&nbsp;[https://books.google.com/books?id=YxDddIkpmnYC&pg=PA1 1–2].<br />
Brian Josephson, "We Think That We Think Clearly, But That's Only Because We Don't Think Clearly," in Patrick Colm Hogan and Lalita Pandit (eds.), ''Rabindranath Tagore: Universality and Tradition'', Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2003, pp.&nbsp;[https://books.google.com/books?id=lyr2gZZnWl8C&pg=PA107 107–115].<br />
Jessica Utts and Brian Josephson, [http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/features/do-you-believe-in-psychic-phenomena-are-they-likely-to-be-able-to-explain-consciousness/92971.article "Do you believe in psychic phenomena? Are they likely to be able to explain consciousness?"], ''Times Higher Education'', 8 April 1996.</ref> He has expressed support for topics such as [[parapsychology]], [[water memory]] and [[cold fusion]], which has made him a focus of criticism from fellow scientists.<ref name=britannica/><ref name=Cosmos>{{cite web| url=https://cosmosmagazine.com/science/physics/brian-josephson-merging-physics-and-the-paranormal/| title=Science history: The man attempting to merge physics and the paranormal| last=Glorfeld| first=Jeff| date=18 March 2019| website=cosmosmagazine.com| access-date=2 September 2024| url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190327033821/https://cosmosmagazine.com/physics/science-history-the-man-attempting-to-merge-physics-and-the-paranormal| archive-date=27 March 2019}}</ref>

== Education ==
Brian David Josephson was born on 4 January 1940 in [[Cardiff]], Wales, to [[Jewish]] parents, Abraham Josephson and Mimi Weisbard.<ref name=Who>''International Who's Who, 1983–84'', Europa Publications Limited, 1983, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=_xJ4R0t9G3oC&q=Brian+Josephson 672].</ref> He attended [[Cardiff High School]],<ref name=whoswho/> where he credits some of the school masters for having helped him, particularly the physics master, Emrys Jones, who introduced him to theoretical physics.<ref>Brian Josephson, [http://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/1277021 "Brian Josephson: The Path to the Discovery"], Cavendish Laboratory bdj50 conference, University of Cambridge, June 2012, from 8:20 mins.</ref> In 1957, he went up to Cambridge, where he initially read mathematics at [[Trinity College, Cambridge]]. After completing [[Cambridge Mathematical Tripos|Maths Part II]] in two years, and finding it somewhat sterile, he decided to switch to physics.<ref name="Waldram2012/01:19mins">John Waldram, [http://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/1276329 "John Waldram: Reminiscences"], Lectures from the Cavendish Laboratory's bdj50 conference, University of Cambridge, 18 July 2012, 01:19 mins.</ref>

Josephson was known at Cambridge as a brilliant but shy student. Physicist John Waldram recalled overhearing [[Nicholas Kurti]], an examiner from Oxford, discuss Josephson's exam results with [[David Shoenberg]], Reader in Physics at Cambridge, and asking: "Who is this chap Josephson? He seems to be going through the theory like a knife through butter."<ref>[http://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/1276329 Waldram 2012], 2:58 mins; for the shyness, Alexei Kojevnikov, [http://www.aip.org/history/ohilist/23362_3.html "Interview with Dr. Philip Anderson"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130514031624/http://www.aip.org/history/ohilist/23362_3.html |date=14 May 2013 }}, Session III, Princeton Physics Department Building, 23 November 1999.</ref> While still an undergraduate, he published a paper on the [[Mössbauer effect]], pointing out a crucial issue other researchers had overlooked. According to one eminent physicist speaking to ''[[Physics World]]'', he wrote several papers important enough to assure him a place in the history of physics even without his discovery of the [[Josephson effect]].<ref name="Physics World">Edwin Cartlidge, [http://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/~bdj10/mm/articles/PWprofile.html "Pioneer of the Paranormal"], ''Physics World'', May 2002.</ref>

Josephson graduated in 1960 and became a research student in Cambridge's [[New Museums Site|Mond Laboratory]] on the old Cavendish site, where he was supervised by [[Brian Pippard]].<ref>For year of graduation, [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/306448/Brian-D-Josephson "Brian D. Josephson"], ''Encyclopædia Britannica''; for the Mond Laboratory, [http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~phylabs/adv/ReprintsPDF/JOS%20Reprints/05%20-%20How%20Josephson%20Discovered%20his%20Effect.pdf Anderson 1970] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607182112/http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~phylabs/adv/ReprintsPDF/JOS%20Reprints/05%20-%20How%20Josephson%20Discovered%20his%20Effect.pdf |date=7 June 2011 }}.</ref> American physicist [[Philip Warren Anderson|Philip Anderson]]—also a future Nobel Prize laureate—spent a year in Cambridge in 1961–1962, and recalled that having Josephson in a class was "a disconcerting experience for a lecturer, I can assure you, because everything had to be right or he would come up and explain it to me after class."<ref>[[Philip Warren Anderson|Philip Anderson]], [http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~phylabs/adv/ReprintsPDF/JOS%20Reprints/05%20-%20How%20Josephson%20Discovered%20his%20Effect.pdf "How Josephson Discovered His Effect"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607182112/http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~phylabs/adv/ReprintsPDF/JOS%20Reprints/05%20-%20How%20Josephson%20Discovered%20his%20Effect.pdf |date=7 June 2011 }}, ''Physics Today'', November 1970.</ref> It was during this period, as a [[Ph.D.]] student in 1962, that he carried out the research that led to his discovery of the Josephson effect; the [[Cavendish Laboratory]] unveiled a plaque on the Mond Building dedicated to the discovery in November 2012.<ref name=plaque>[http://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/1344139 "Unveiling of B D Josephson commemorative plaque"], University of Cambridge, November 2012.</ref> He was elected a Fellow of Trinity College in 1962, and received his Ph.D. in 1964 with a thesis titled ''Non-linear conduction in superconductors''.<ref name=bdjphd>{{cite thesis |degree=PhD |first=Brian David|last=Josephson |title=Non-linear conduction in superconductors |publisher=University of Cambridge |date=1964 |url=http://ulmss-newton.lib.cam.ac.uk/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=35254}}</ref><ref>For the year of his fellowship, see [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/306448/Brian-D-Josephson "Brian D. Josephson"], ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. For the thesis, Brian Josephson, [http://hooke.lib.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/bib_seek.cgi?cat=man&bib=35254 "Non-linear conduction in superconductors"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729151807/https://hooke.lib.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/bib_seek.cgi?cat=man&bib=35254 |date=29 July 2020 }}, Newton Library Catalogue, University of Cambridge.</ref>

== Career ==
Josephson spent a postdoctoral year in the United States (1965–1966) as Research Assistant Professor at the [[University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign]]. After returning to Cambridge, he was made Assistant Director of Research in the [[Cavendish Laboratory]] in 1967, where he remained a member of the Theory of Condensed Matter Group for the rest of his career.<ref>[http://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/ "Cambridge Theory of Condensed Matter group"], University of Cambridge, accessed 14 October 2009.</ref> He was elected a [[List of Fellows of the Royal Society elected in 1970|Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1970]],<ref name=frs>{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151124101944/https://royalsociety.org/people/brian-josephson-11712/|archive-date=24 November 2015|url=https://royalsociety.org/people/brian-josephson-11712/|title=Professor Brian Josephson FRS|publisher=[[Royal Society]]|location=London}}</ref> and was awarded a [[National Science Foundation]] Fellowship by [[Cornell University]] the same year. In 1972, he became Reader in Physics, and in 1974 was appointed Professor of Physics—a position he held until his retirement in 2007.<ref name="Nobel CV">[http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1973/josephson-bio.html "Brian D. Josephson"], in Stig Lundqvist (ed.), ''Nobel Lectures, Physics 1971–1980'', World Scientific Publishing Co., 1992.</ref>

A practitioner of [[Transcendental Meditation]] (TM) since the early 1970s, Josephson became a visiting faculty member in 1975 of the [[Transcendental Meditation in education|Maharishi European Research University]] in the Netherlands, part of the [[Transcendental Meditation movement|TM movement]].<ref>''International Who's Who, 1983–84'', Europa Publications Limited, 1983, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=_xJ4R0t9G3oC&q=Brian+Josephson 672]; Brian Josephson, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkErFDPdrOc&list=PL990F363ECBDDFEC3&index=1 "Intelligence and Physics"] (lecture), Maharishi European Research University, 21 June 1976.</ref> He also held visiting professorships at [[Wayne State University]] in 1983, the [[Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore]] in 1984, and the [[University of Missouri-Rolla]] in 1987.<ref>[http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1973/josephson-bio.html "Brian D. Josephson"], in Lundqvist 1992.</ref>

== Josephson effect ==
[[File:NISTvoltChip.jpg|thumb|One-volt [[National Institute of Standards and Technology|NIST]] Josephson junction array standard with 3020 superconducting junctions]]
[[File:Plaque on the Mond Building, Cambridge, for Brian Josephson.jpg|thumb|alt=photograph|The Cavendish Laboratory unveiled a plaque on the Mond Building in November 2012 for the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the [[Josephson effect]]<ref name=plaque/>]]

Josephson was 22-years-old when he did the work on [[quantum tunnelling]] that earned him the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] in 1973. He discovered that a [[supercurrent]] could tunnel through a thin barrier, predicting, according to physicist Andrew Whitaker, that "at a [[Electrical junction|junction]] of two superconductors, a current will flow even if there is no drop in voltage; that when there is a [[voltage drop]], the current should oscillate at a frequency related to the drop in voltage; and that there is a dependence on any [[magnetic field]]."<ref>Andrew Whitaker, ''The New Quantum Age: From Bell's Theorem to Quantum Computation and Teleportation'', Oxford University Press, 2012, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=BaiRvOSaPkwC&pg=PA273 273].</ref> This became known as the [[Josephson effect]] and the junction as a Josephson junction.<ref>James S. Trefil, "Josephson Effect," ''The Nature of Science'', Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2003, p, [https://archive.org/details/natureofsciencea00tref/page/225 225].<br />
Also see ''A Century of Excellence in Measurements, Standards, and Technology'', National Institute of Standards and Technology Special Publication, 1988, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=5AdRAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA315 315ff].</ref>

Josephson's calculations were published in ''[[Physics Letters]]'' (chosen by Pippard because it was a new journal) in a paper titled "Possible new effects in superconductive tunnelling," received on 8 June 1962 and published on 1 July.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1016/0031-9163(62)91369-0|title=Possible new effects in superconductive tunnelling|journal=Physics Letters|volume=1|issue=7|pages=251–253|year=1962|last1=Josephson|first1=B.D.|bibcode=1962PhL.....1..251J}}</ref><ref>Also see Brian Josephson, "The History of the Discovery of Weakly Coupled Superconductors," in John Roche (ed.), ''Physicists Look Back: Studies in the History of Physics'', CRC Press, 1990, p.&nbsp;[https://books.google.com/books?id=5H3Oo0iicrkC&pg=PA375 375].</ref> They were confirmed experimentally by Philip Anderson and John Rowell of [[Bell Labs]] in Princeton; this appeared in their paper, "Probable Observation of the Josephson Superconducting Tunneling Effect," submitted to ''[[Physical Review Letters]]'' in January 1963.<ref>Philip Anderson and John Rowell, [http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v10/i6/p230_1 "Probable Observation of the Josephson Superconducting Tunneling Effect"], ''Physical Review Letters'', 10(6), 15 March 1963 (received 11 January 1963), pp. 230–232.</ref>

Before Anderson and Rowell confirmed the calculations, the American physicist [[John Bardeen]], who had shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics (and who shared it again in 1972), objected to Josephson's work. He submitted an article to ''Physical Review Letters'' on 25 July 1962, arguing that "there can be no such superfluid flow." The disagreement led to a confrontation in September that year at [[Queen Mary, University of London|Queen Mary College, London]], at the Eighth [[The International Conference on Low Temperature Physics|International Conference on Low Temperature Physics]]. When Bardeen (then one of the most eminent physicists in the world) began speaking, Josephson (still a student) stood up and interrupted him. The men exchanged views, reportedly in a civil and soft-spoken manner.<ref>Donald G. McDonald, [http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/magazine/physicstoday/article/54/7/10.1063/1.1397394 "The Nobel Laureate Versus the Graduate Student]", ''Physics Today'', July 2001, pp. 46–51.<br />
Also see Donald G. McDonald, [https://ieeetv.ieee.org/player/html/viewer?dl=#the-josephson-effect-brian-josephson-debates-john-bardeen "History of the Josephson Effect"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131228165406/https://ieeetv.ieee.org/player/html/viewer?dl=#the-josephson-effect-brian-josephson-debates-john-bardeen |date=28 December 2013 }} (lecture), IEEE.TV.</ref><!--can't find this; making invisible for now: Reportedly the audience felt unable to take sides, although an eminent physicist from Stanford made up his mind that "Stanford should make young Josephson an offer!"<ref>Steven Strogatz, ''Sync, the emerging science of spontaneous order'', p.145 et seq, Hyperion, New York, 2003.</ref>--> See also: {{section link|John Bardeen|Josephson effect controversy}}.

Whitaker writes that the discovery of the Josephson effect led to "much important physics," including the invention of [[SQUID]]s (superconducting quantum interference devices), which are used in geology to make highly sensitive measurements, as well as in medicine and computing.<ref>Whitaker 2012, pp.&nbsp;[https://books.google.com/books?id=BaiRvOSaPkwC&pg=PA273 273–274].<br />
Donald G. McDonald, [http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/magazine/physicstoday/article/34/2/10.1063/1.2914434 "Superconducting electronics"], ''Physics Today'', February 1981.<br />
Anthony J. G. Hey and Patrick Walters, ''The New Quantum Universe'', Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp.&nbsp;[https://books.google.com/books?id=cTk-eVzT1oMC&pg=PA154 154–155].<br />
Gabrielle Walker, [https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg13117764.900-technology-how-squids-were-found-where-crystals-meet.html "Technology: How SQUIDs were found where crystals meet"], ''New Scientist'', 1776, 6 July 1991.<br />
Donald G. McDonald, [https://www.physics.umd.edu/courses/Phys798S/anlage/Phys798SAnlageSpring06/Josephson%20Physics%20Today%205153075.pdf "The Nobel Laureate Versus the Graduate Student]", ''Physics Today'', July 2001 (pp. 46–51), p. 51.<br />
Alexandre T. Filippov, "Josephson Solitons," ''The Versatile Soliton'', Springer, 2010, p.&nbsp;[https://books.google.com/books?id=zaRDAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA213 213ff].</ref> [[IBM]] used Josephson's work in 1980 to build a prototype of a computer that would be up to 100 times faster than the [[IBM System/370|IBM 3033 mainframe]].<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/306448/Brian-D-Josephson "Brian D. Josephson"], ''Encyclopædia Britannica'': "Applying Josephson's discoveries with superconductors, researchers at International Business Machines Corporation had assembled by 1980 an experimental computer switch structure, which would permit switching speeds from 10 to 100 times faster than those possible with conventional silicon-based chips, increasing data processing capabilities by a vast amount."<br />
W. Anacker, [http://www.w2agz.com/Library/Superconductivity/Anacker,%20IBM%20Josephson%20Project%20IBMJ.Res.Dev.24-2-107-112.pdf "Josephson Computer Technology: A IBM Research Project"], ''IBM Journal of Research and Development'', 24(2), March 1980. For speeds, p. 108.<br />
H. Nakagawa, et al., [https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?tp=&arnumber=133870&refinements%3D4294967269%26ranges%3D1991_1991_p_Publication_Year%26matchBoolean%3Dtrue%26pageNumber%3D2%26searchField%3DSearch_All%26queryText%3D%28p_Authors%3ANakagawa%29 "Fabrication process for Josephson computer ETL-JC1 using Nb tunnel junctions"], ''IEEE Transactions on Magnetics'', 27(2), 3109–3112, March 1991.</ref><!--making invisible until checked and page numbers added: Strogatz writes that [[NIST]] defines a standard Volt using an array of 19,000 Josephson junctions in series. He also says that a mathematical similarity between synchronized clock pendulums and arrays of Josephson junctions led to developments in [[Chaos theory]] and to improved understanding of synchrony in quantum mechanical and biological systems.<ref>Steven Strogatz, ''Sync, The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order'', Chapters 6 and 7, Hyperion, New York, 2003.</ref>-->

Josephson was awarded several important prizes for his discovery, including the 1969 [[Research Corporation]] Award for outstanding contributions to science,<ref name=Sullivan17Dec1969>Brian Sullivan, [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1913&dat=19691217&id=WH0gAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-mcFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2623,5911644 "Physics is Often a Young Man's Game"], Associated Press, 17 December 1969.</ref> and the [[Hughes Medal]] and [[Holweck Prize]] in 1972. In 1973, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics, sharing the $122,000 award with two other scientists who had also worked on quantum tunnelling. Josephson was awarded half the prize "for his theoretical predictions of the properties of a supercurrent through a tunnel barrier, in particular those phenomena which are generally known as the Josephson effects".<ref>[http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1973/index.html "The Nobel Prize in Physics 1973"], Nobelprize.org; for $122,000, see [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3958218 "From Stockholm, with Love"], ''Science News'', 104(17), 27 October 1973 (pp. 260–261), p. 260.</ref> The other half of the award was shared equally by Japanese physicist [[Leo Esaki]] of the Thomas Watson Research Center in Yorktown, New York, and Norwegian–American physicist [[Ivar Giaever]] of General Electric in Schenectady, New York.<ref name=Nobel1973>{{Cite web|title=The Nobel Prize in Physics 1973|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1973/index.html|url-status=live|publisher=[[Nobel Foundation]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110621141041/http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1973/index.html |archive-date=2011-06-21|access-date=2008-10-09}}</ref>

== Parapsychology ==
=== Early interest and Transcendental Meditation ===
Josephson became interested in [[philosophy of mind]] in the late 1960s and, in particular, in the [[mind–body problem]], and is one of the few scientists to argue that parapsychological phenomena ([[telepathy]], [[psychokinesis]] and other paranormal themes) may be real.<ref>Alison George, [https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19225812.200-lone-voices-special-take-nobodys-word-for-it.html "Lone voices special: Take nobody's word for it"], ''New Scientist'', 9 December 2006 (pp. 56–57), p. 56.</ref> In 1971, he began practising Transcendental Meditation (TM).<ref>Bob Oates, ''Celebrating the Dawn: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and the TM technique'', Putnam, 1976, p. 204; Emily J. McMurray, Jane Kelly Kosek, and Roger M. Valade, ''Notable Twentieth-Century Scientists'', Gale Research, 1995, p. 1044.<br />
For celebrities and TM, Lola Williamson, ''Transcendent in America'', NYU Press, 2010, p. 93.</ref>

Winning the Nobel Prize in 1973 gave Josephson the freedom to work in less orthodox areas, and he became increasingly involved—including during science conferences, to the irritation of fellow scientists—in talking about meditation, telepathy, and higher states of consciousness.<ref>Eliot Marshall, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3084815 "For Winners, a New Life of Opportunity – and Perils"], ''Science'', 294(5541), 12 October 2001 (pp. 293, 295), p. 295.</ref> In 1974, he angered scientists during a colloquium of molecular and cellular biologists in Versailles by inviting them to read the ''[[Bhagavad Gita]]'' (5th – 2nd century BCE) and the work of [[Maharishi Mahesh Yogi]], the founder of the TM movement, and by arguing about special states of consciousness achieved through meditation. "Nothing forces us," one scientist shouted at him, "to listen to your wild speculations." Biophysicist [[Henri Atlan]] wrote that the session ended in uproar.<ref>Henri Atlan, ''Enlightenment to Enlightenment: Intercritique of Science and Myth'', SUNY Press, 1993, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=8p1cAi_aj5EC&pg=PA20 20–21].</ref>

In May that year, Josephson addressed a symposium held to welcome the Maharishi to Cambridge.<ref>"Josephson on transcendental meditation," ''New Scientist'', 16 May 1974, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=5nE6m-bQOvcC&pg=PA416 416]; Stuart Halperin, "The birth of Creative Intelligence," ''New Scientist'', 23 May 1974, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=e9x3yQmr2fwC&pg=PA459 459].</ref> The following month, at the first Canadian conference on psychokinesis, he was one of 21 scientists who tested claims by [[Matthew Manning]], a Cambridgeshire teenager who said he had psychokinetic abilities; Josephson apparently told a reporter that he believed Manning's powers were a new kind of energy.<ref>David F. Marks, ''The Psychology of the Psychic'', Prometheus Books, 2000, p. 200.<br />
A. R. G. Owen; J. L. Whitton, [http://www.islandnet.com/~sric/NHRF/NHJ/New_Horizons_Journal_vol_1_no_5_January_1975.pdf "Report on Demonstration and Experiments performed during the Conference"], Proceedings of the First Canadian Conference on Psychokinesis, ''New Horizons'', 1(5), January 1975, p. 191ff.</ref> He later withdrew or corrected the statement.<ref>Matthew Manning, ''One Foot in the Stars'', Thorsons, 1999, pp. 60–61.</ref>

Josephson said that Trinity College's tradition of interest in the paranormal meant that he did not dismiss these ideas out of hand.<ref>Josephson 2005, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=YxDddIkpmnYC&pg=PA1 1].</ref> Several presidents of the [[Society for Psychical Research]] had been fellows of Trinity, and the [[Perrott-Warrick Fund]], set up in Trinity in 1937 to fund parapsychology research, is still administered by the college.<ref>Former presidents of the Society who were fellows or members of Trinity include [[Henry Sidgwick]] (1838–1900); [[John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh|John William Strutt]] (1842–1919), [[Cavendish Professor of Physics]] and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1904; [[Frederic William Henry Myers|F. W. H. Myers]] (1843–1901); [[Edmund Gurney]] (1847–1888); [[Arthur Balfour]] (1848–1930), who became prime minister; his brother [[Gerald Balfour, 2nd Earl of Balfour|Gerald Balfour]] (1853–1945); and [[C. D. Broad]] (1887–1971), [[Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy|Knightbridge Professor of Moral Philosophy]].<br />
Wendy E. Cousins, "Colored Inklings: Altered States of Consciousness and Literature," in Etzel Cardeña and Michael Winkelman (eds.), ''Altering Consciousness: Multidisciplinary Perspectives'', Volume 1, ABC-CLIO, 2011, p. 296.<br />
Jenny Bourne Taylor, "Psychology at the fin de siècle," in Gail Marshall, ''The Cambridge Companion to the Fin de Siècle'', 2007, pp. 26–27.</ref> He continued to explore the idea that there is intelligence in nature, particularly after reading [[Fritjof Capra]]'s ''[[The Tao of Physics]]'' (1975),<ref>For higher consciousness and meditation, see Brian Josephson, [https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-93104-8_1 "A Theoretical Analysis of Higher States of Consciousness and Meditation"], ''Current Topics in Cybernetics and Systems'', 1978, pp. 3–4; for Fritjof Capra, [https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19225812.200-lone-voices-special-take-nobodys-word-for-it.html George (''New Scientist'') 2006], p. 56.</ref> and in 1979 took up a more advanced form of TM, known as the [[Transcendental Meditation technique#TM-Sidhi program|TM-Sidhi program]]. According to [[Philip W. Anderson|Anderson]], the TM movement produced a poster showing Josephson levitating several inches above the floor.<ref>For the TM-Sidhi program, Brian Josephson in Pamela Weintraub, ''The Omni Interviews'', Ticknor & Fields, 1984, p. 317.<br />
For the poster, Jeremy Bernstein, ''Three Degrees Above Zero: Bell Laboratories in the Information Age'', CUP Archive, 1987, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=N6s8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA142 142].<br />
Also see Bruce Schechter, ''The Path of No Resistance: The Story of the Revolution in Superconductivity'', Simon & Schuster, 1989, p. 163.</ref> Josephson argued that meditation could lead to mystical and scientific insights, and that, as a result of it, he had come to believe in a creator.<ref>For mystical and scientific insights, Paul Davies, ''The Mind of God'', Simon & Schuster, 1993, p. 227.<br />
For belief in a creator, Brian Josephson, "There Need Be No Ultimate Conflict Between Science and Religion," in Henry Margenau and Roy Abraham Varghese (eds.), ''Cosmos, Bios, Theos'', Open Court Publishing, 1992, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=5yCl6iGSfK0C&pg=PA50 50].</ref>

=== Fundamental Fysiks Group ===
{{external media
| float  = right
| width  = 225px
| image1 = [https://web.archive.org/web/20110721043540/http://technoccult.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Jack-Sarfatti.jpg Fundamental Fysiks Group] in 1975. Left to right: [[Jack Sarfatti]], Saul-Paul Sirag, [[Nick Herbert (physicist)|Nick Herbert]], and [[Fred Alan Wolf]] (seated)
}}

Josephson became involved in the mid-1970s with a group of physicists associated with the [[Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory]] at the [[University of California, Berkeley]], who were investigating paranormal claims. They had organized themselves loosely into the [[Fundamental Fysiks Group]], and had effectively become the [[SRI International|Stanford Research Institute's]] (SRI) "house theorists," according to historian of science [[David Kaiser (physicist)|David Kaiser]]. Core members in the group were Elizabeth Rauscher, George Weissmann, John Clauser, Jack Sarfatti, Saul-Paul Sirag, Nick Herbert, Fred Alan Wolf, Fritjof Capra, Henry Stapp, Philippe Eberhard and Gary Zukav.<ref>David Kaiser, [http://shass.mit.edu/multimedia/video-2011-kaiser-how-hippies-saved-physics "How the Hippies Saved Physics"], MIT School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, 2010, from 20:00 mins; for house theorists, from 23:20 mins.</ref>

There was significant government interest at the time in [[quantum mechanics]] – the American government [[Stargate Project (U.S. Army unit)|was financing research]] at SRI into telepathy – and physicists able to understand it found themselves in demand. The Fundamental Fysiks Group used ideas from quantum physics, particularly [[Bell's theorem]] and [[quantum entanglement]], to explore issues such as [[action at a distance]], [[clairvoyance]], [[precognition]], [[remote viewing]] and [[psychokinesis]].<ref>[http://shass.mit.edu/multimedia/video-2011-kaiser-how-hippies-saved-physics Kaiser 2010], from 20:00 mins.</ref>

In 1976, Josephson travelled to California at the invitation of one of the Fundamental Fysiks Group members, [[Jack Sarfatti]], who introduced him to others including laser physicists [[Russell Targ]] and [[Harold E. Puthoff|Harold Puthoff]], and quantum physicist [[Henry Stapp]]. The ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]'' covered Josephson's visit.<ref>David Kaiser, ''How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival'', W. W. Norton & Company, 2011, pp. 144, 173; [http://shass.mit.edu/multimedia/video-2011-kaiser-how-hippies-saved-physics Kaiser 2010], from 32:00 mins.<br />
Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff, [http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v251/n5476/pdf/251602a0.pdf "Information transmission under conditions of sensory shielding"], ''Nature'', 17 October 1974; [http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v251/n5476/pdf/251559a0.pdf "Investigating the paranormal"], ''Nature'', 18 October 1974.<br />
Martin Gardner, ''Science: Good, Bad, and Bogus'', Prometheus Books, 1989, p. 95.</ref>

Josephson co-organised a symposium on consciousness at Cambridge in 1978, publishing the proceedings as ''Consciousness and the Physical World'' (1980),<ref>Brian Josephson and V.S. Ramachandran (eds.), [https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/245189 ''Consciousness and the Physical World''], Pergamon Press, 1980.</ref> with neuroscientist [[V. S. Ramachandran]]. A conference on "Science and Consciousness" followed a year later in Cordoba, Spain, attended by physicists and [[Carl Jung|Jungian]] psychoanalysts, and addressed by Josephson, [[Fritjof Capra]] and [[David Bohm]] (1917–1992).<ref>Yasuo Yuasa, ''Overcoming Modernity: Synchronicity and Image-Thinking'', SUNY Press, 2009, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=WwbzHst12DYC&pg=PA179 179].<br />
Henri Atlan, ''Enlightenment to Enlightenment: Intercritique of Science and Myth'', SUNY Press, 1993, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=8p1cAi_aj5EC&pg=PA22 22ff].<br />
Brian Josephson, "Conscious Experience and its Place in Physics," paper presented at ''Colloque International Science et Conscience'', Cordoba, 1–5 October 1979, in Michel Cazenave (ed.), ''Science and Consciousness: Two Views of the Universe'', Edited Proceedings of the France-Culture and Radio-France Colloquium, Cordoba, Spain, Pergamon Press, 1984.</ref>

By 1996, Josephson had set up the Mind–Matter Unification Project at the Cavendish Laboratory to explore intelligent processes in nature.<ref>Matthew Segall, [https://web.archive.org/web/19970625082350/http://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/research/mind_matter.html "Mind Matter Unification/The Foundations of Quantum Mechanics"], Theory of Condensed Matter group, Cavendish Laboratory, 26 March 1996.<br />
Brian Josephson, [https://web.archive.org/web/19970427102719/http://www.phy.cam.ac.uk/www/research/mm/top.html "Mind–Matter Unification Project"], Cavendish Laboratory, 27 April 1997.<br />
Brian Josephson, [http://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/~bdj10/ Homepage], Cavendish Laboratory.</ref> In 2002, he told ''Physics World'': "Future science will consider quantum mechanics as the phenomenology of particular kinds of organised complex system. Quantum entanglement would be one manifestation of such organisation, paranormal phenomena another."<ref name="Physics World" />

=== Reception and views on the scientific community ===
Josephson delivered the Pollock Memorial Lecture in 2006, the [[Hermann Staudinger]] Lecture in 2009 and the Sir [[Nevill Francis Mott|Nevill Mott]] Lecture in 2010.<ref>[http://nsw.royalsoc.org.au/awards/pollock.htm "The Pollock Memorial Lecture"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140302213547/http://nsw.royalsoc.org.au/awards/pollock.htm |date=2 March 2014 }}, The Royal Society of New South Wales and the University of Sydney; [http://www.frias.uni-freiburg.de/de/veranstaltungen/staudinger-lectures/staudinger-josephson "4th Hermann Staudinger Lecture with Nobel Laureate Brian D. Josephson, 28 October 2009"], Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies; [http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/physics/news/seminar-programme/sirnevillmottlectureseries/ "2010 Professor Brian Josephson: Which way for Physics?"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140605053303/http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/physics/news/seminar-programme/sirnevillmottlectureseries/ |date=5 June 2014 }}, Loughborough University.</ref>

[[File:cmglee Cambridge Wikimedia Meetup 23 tour Brian Josephson.jpg|thumb|upright|Josephson on a Cambridge Wikimedia walk in September 2014]]

Matthew Reisz wrote in ''[[Times Higher Education]]'' in 2010 that Josephson has long been one of physics' "more colourful figures."<ref>Matthew Reisz, [http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=411401 "He didn't see that coming, or did he?"], ''Times Higher Education'', 19 April 2010.<br />
Also see Mark Jackson, [http://theconversation.com/the-not-so-noble-past-of-the-nobel-prizes-18939 "The not-so-noble past of the Nobel Prizes"], ''The Conversation'', 6 October 2013.</ref> His support for unorthodox causes has attracted criticism from fellow scientists since the 1970s, including from [[Philip W. Anderson|Philip Anderson]].<ref>Burton Feldman, ''The Nobel Prize: A History of Genius, Controversy, and Prestige'', Arcade Publishing, 2001, p. 199; also see [[Robert L. Park]], ''Superstition: Belief in the Age of Science'', Princeton University Press, 2009, p. 156.</ref> Josephson regards the criticism as prejudice, and believes that it has served to deprive him of an academic support network.<ref>[https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19225812.200-lone-voices-special-take-nobodys-word-for-it.html Alison George (''New Scientist'') 2006], p. 57.</ref>

Josephson has repeatedly criticised "science by consensus," arguing that the scientific community is too quick to reject certain kinds of ideas. "Anything goes among the physics community – cosmic wormholes, time travel," he argues, "just so long as it keeps its distance from anything mystical or New Age-ish." Referring to this position as "pathological disbelief,"<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Josephson|first1=Brian|title=Pathological Disbelief: Lecture at 54th. Nobel Laureates' meeting at Lindau|url=https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/247336|access-date=16 April 2015|date=30 June 2004}}</ref> he holds it responsible for the rejection by academic journals of papers on the paranormal.<ref>[https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19225812.200-lone-voices-special-take-nobodys-word-for-it.html Alison George (''New Scientist'') 2006], p. 56; Brian Josephson, "Pathological Disbelief"], lecture, Nobel Laureates' meeting, Lindau, 30 June 2004.</ref> He has compared parapsychology to the theory of [[continental drift]], proposed in 1912 by [[Alfred Wegener]] (1880–1930) to explain observations that were otherwise inexplicable, which was resisted and ridiculed until evidence led to its acceptance after Wegener's death.<ref>Josephson 2005, [https://books.google.com/books?id=YxDddIkpmnYC&pg=PA1 pp. 1–2]; for Wegener, also see J. W. Grove, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41820616 "Rationality at Risk: Science against Pseudoscience"], ''Minerva'', 23(2), June 1985 (pp. 216–240), p. 218.</ref>

Science writer [[Martin Gardner]] criticised Josephson in 1980 for complaining to ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'', along with three other physicists, about an article by [[John Archibald Wheeler|J. A. Wheeler]] that ridiculed parapsychology.<ref>Olivier Costa de Beauregard, Richard D. Mattuck, Brian D. Josephson and Evan Harris Walker, [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1980/jun/26/parapsychology-an-exchange/ "Parapsychology: An Exchange"], ''New York Review of Books'', 27, 26 June 1980, pp. 48–51. The other three physicists were [[Evan Harris Walker]] (1935–2006), [[Olivier Costa de Beauregard]] (1911–2007) and Richard D. Mattuck.</ref> Several physicists complained in 2001 when, in a [[Royal Mail]] booklet celebrating the Nobel Prize's centenary, Josephson wrote that Britain was at the forefront of research into telepathy.<ref>Brian Josephson, [http://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/~bdj10/stamps/text.html "Physics and the Nobel Prizes"], Royal Mail, 2001: "Physicists attempt to reduce the complexity of nature to a single unifying theory, of which the most successful and universal, the quantum theory, has been associated with several Nobel prizes, for example those to Dirac and Heisenberg. Max Planck's original attempts a hundred years ago to explain the precise amount of energy radiated by hot bodies began a process of capturing in mathematical form a mysterious, elusive world containing 'spooky interactions at a distance', real enough however to lead to inventions such as the laser and transistor.<br />"Quantum theory is now being fruitfully combined with theories of information and computation. These developments may lead to an explanation of processes still not understood within conventional science such as telepathy, an area where Britain is at the forefront of research.</ref> Physicist [[David Deutsch]] said the Royal Mail had "let itself be hoodwinked" into supporting nonsense, although another physicist, [[Robert Matthews (scientist)|Robert Matthews]], suggested that Deutsch was skating on thin ice given the latter's own work on [[Many-worlds interpretation|parallel universe]]s and [[Quantum mechanics of time travel|time travel]].<ref>{{cite news|last=McKie|first=Robin|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/sep/30/robinmckie.theobserver|title=Royal Mail's Nobel guru in telepathy row|work=The Observer|date=30 September 2001|access-date=13 October 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Matthews|first=Robert|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/4767204/Time-travel.html|title=Time Travel|work=The Daily Telegraph|date=8 November 2001|access-date=13 October 2020}}<!-- Thursday --></ref>

In 2004, Josephson criticised an experiment by the [[Committee for Skeptical Inquiry]] to test claims by Russian schoolgirl [[Natasha Demkina]] that she could see inside people's bodies using a special kind of vision. The experiment involved her being asked to match six people to their confirmed medical conditions (plus one with none); to pass the test she had to make five correct matches, but made only four.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36GQou1gBGM "Body Shock: The Girl With X-Ray Eyes"], Discovery Channel, 2004 (for a display from Demkina's perspective, see [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0-si-E6rV0 part 2], from 04:00 mins; for the second, more controlled, experiment, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0-si-E6rV0 part 2], from 10:30 mins and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYVCnN0JcsY part 3]).<br />
[[Andrew A. Skolnick]], [http://www.livescience.com/109-natasha-demkina-girl-normal-eyes.html "Natasha Demkina: The Girl with Very Normal Eyes"], ''LiveScience'', 28 January 2005.</ref> Josephson argued that this was statistically significant, and that the experiment had set her up to fail. One of the researchers, [[Richard Wiseman]], professor of psychology at the [[University of Hertfordshire]], responded by highlighting that the conditions of the experiment had been agreed to before it started, and the potential significance of her claims warranted a higher than normal bar.<ref>Phil Baty, [http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/scientists-fail-to-see-eye-to-eye-over-girls-x-ray-vision/192922.article "Scientists fail to see eye to eye over girl's 'X-ray vision'"], ''Times Higher Education'', 10 December 2004.<br />
Brian Josephson, [http://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/~bdj10/propaganda/ "Scientists' unethical use of media for propaganda purposes"], Cavendish Laboratory, 2004.<br />
Brian Josephson, [http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/comment/letters/distorted-visions-2/193120.article "Distorted visions 2"], ''Times Higher Education'', 17 December 2004.<br />
Also see [[Rupert Sheldrake]], [http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/comment/letters/distorted-visions-1/193119.article "Distorted visions 1"], ''Times Higher Education'', 17 December 2004.</ref> Keith Rennolis, professor of applied statistics at the [[University of Greenwich]], supported Josephson's position, asserting that the experiment was "woefully inadequate" to determine any effect.<ref>Keith Rennolls, [http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/comment/letters/distorted-visions-3/193121.article "Distorted visions 3"], ''Times Higher Education'', 17 December 2004.</ref>

Josephson's reputation for promoting unorthodox causes was cemented by his support for the ideas of [[water memory]] and [[cold fusion]], both of which are rejected by mainstream scientists. Water memory is purported to provide a possible explanation for [[homeopathy]]; it is dismissed by a majority of scientists as [[pseudoscience]], although he has expressed support for it since attending a conference at which French immunologist [[Jacques Benveniste]] first proposed it.<ref>[https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19225812.200-lone-voices-special-take-nobodys-word-for-it.html George (''New Scientist'') 2006], p. 56.<br />
Brian Josephson, [http://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/~bdj10/water.memory/ns/homeopathy.html "Molecule memories"], letters, ''New Scientist'', 1 November 1997.<br />
Brian Josephson, [http://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/~bdj10/water.memory/comment2.html "Molecular memory"], ''The Independent'', 22 March 1999.<br />
Dana Ullman, ''The Homeopathic Revolution'', North Atlantic Books, 2007, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=BXZlprZRTJoC&pg=PA130 130ff].</ref> Cold fusion is the hypothesis that nuclear reactions can occur at room temperature. When [[Martin Fleischmann]], the British chemist who pioneered research into it, died in 2012, Josephson wrote a supportive obituary in the ''Guardian'', and had published in ''Nature'' a letter complaining that its obituary had failed to give Fleischmann due credit.<ref>Brian Josephson, [https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/aug/31/martin-fleischmann "Martin Fleischmann obituary"], ''The Guardian'', 31 August 2012.<br />
Brian Josephson, [http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v490/n7418/full/490037c.html "Fleischmann denied due credit"], ''Nature'', 490, 4 October 2012, p. 37 (also available [http://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/~bdj10/articles/Nature_re_Fleischmann.html here]).<br />
For background on cold fusion, see [[Thomas F. Gieryn]], ''Cultural Boundaries of Science: Credibility on the Line'', University of Chicago Press, 1999, pp. [https://archive.org/details/culturalboundari0000gier/page/183 183–232].</ref> [[Antony Valentini]] of Imperial College London withdrew Josephson's invitation to a 2010 conference on the [[de Broglie–Bohm theory]] because of his work on the paranormal, although it was reinstated after complaints.<ref>[http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=411401 Reisz (''Times Higher Education'')], 19 April 2010.<br />
Antony Valentini, [http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/comment/letters/private-email-public-mob/411594.article "Private email, public mob"], ''Times Higher Education'', 13 May 2010.<br /> [https://web.archive.org/web/20100703133417/http://physicsworld.com/cws/event/15126 "21st-century directions in de Broglie-Bohm theory and beyond"], ''Physics World'', July 2010.</ref>

Josephson's defense of paranormal claims and of cold fusion have led him to being described as an exemplar of a sufferer of the hypothetical [[Nobel disease]].<ref name="Sciencemediacenter">{{cite web |last1=Winter |first1=David |title=The nobel disease |url=https://sciblogs.co.nz/the-atavism/2011/10/08/the-nobel-disease/ |website=Sciblogs |publisher=Science Media Center |access-date=19 May 2020}}</ref><ref name="LilienfeldSI">{{cite journal |last1=Basterfield |first1=Candice |last2=Lilienfeld |first2=Scott |authorlink2=Scott Lilienfeld |last3=Bowes |first3=Shauna |last4=Costello |first4=Thomas |authorlink4=Tom Costello (journalist) |title=The Nobel disease: When intelligence fails to protect against irrationality |journal=Skeptical Inquirer |date=2020 |volume=44 |issue=3 |pages=32–37}}</ref>

== Recognition ==
=== Memberships ===
{| class="wikitable"
! Country
! Year
! Institute
! Type
! {{Reference column heading}}
|-
| {{Flag|United Kingdom}}
| 1970
| [[Royal Society]]
| [[Fellow of the Royal Society|Fellow]]
| <ref>{{Cite web|title=Brian Josephson|url=https://royalsociety.org/people/brian-josephson-11712/|url-status=live|publisher=[[Royal Society]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241223181008/https://royalsociety.org/people/brian-josephson-11712/|archive-date=2024-12-23|access-date=2025-11-08}}</ref>
|}

=== Awards ===
{| class="wikitable"
! Country
! Year
! Institute
! Award
! Citation
! {{Reference column heading}}
|-
| {{Flag|Switzerland}}
| 1970
| [[IUPAP]]
| [[Fritz London Memorial Prize]]
| "For predicting effects that have provided concrete examples of macroscopic quantum phenomena"
| <ref>{{Cite web|title=Fritz London Memorial Prize|url=https://physics.duke.edu/fritz-london-memorial-prize|publisher=[[Duke University]]|access-date=2023-10-10}}</ref>
|-
| {{Flag|United States}}
| 1972
| [[Franklin Institute]]
| [[Elliott Cresson Medal]]
| "For the Josephson effect and theory of matter at low temperatures"
| <ref>{{Cite web|title=Brian David Josephson|url=https://fi.edu/en/awards/laureates/brian-david-josephson|url-status=live|publisher=[[Franklin Institute]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240729075212/https://fi.edu/en/awards/laureates/brian-david-josephson|archive-date=2024-07-29|access-date=2025-10-31}}</ref>
|-
| {{Flag|United Kingdom}}
| 1972
| [[Royal Society]]
| [[Hughes Medal]]
| "Particularly for his discovery of the remarkable properties of junctions between superconducting materials"
| <ref>{{Cite web|title=Hughes Medal|url=https://royalsociety.org/medals-and-prizes/hughes-medal/|publisher=[[Royal Society]]|access-date=2025-10-31}}</ref>
|-
| {{Flag|Sweden}}
| 1973
| [[Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]]
| [[Nobel Prize in Physics]]{{Efn|Other half awarded to [[Leo Esaki]] and [[Ivar Giaever]]}}
| "For his theoretical predictions of the properties of a supercurrent through a tunnel barrier, in particular those phenomena which are generally known as the Josephson effects"
| <ref name=Nobel1973/>
|-
| {{Flag|United Kingdom}}
| 1973
| [[Institute of Physics]]
| [[Fernand Holweck Medal and Prize]]
|
| <ref>{{Cite web|title=Fernand Holweck Medal and Prize recipients|url=https://www.iop.org/about/awards/international-bilateral-awards/fernand-holweck-medal-and-prize-recipients|url-status=live|publisher=[[Institute of Physics]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251004190534/https://www.iop.org/about/awards/international-bilateral-awards/fernand-holweck-medal-and-prize-recipients|archive-date=2025-10-04|access-date=2025-10-31}}</ref>
|-
| {{Flag|United Kingdom}}
| 1982
| [[Institution of Electrical Engineers]]
| [[IEE Faraday Medal]]
|
| <ref>{{Cite web|title=The Faraday Medallists|url=https://www.theiet.org/membership/library-and-archives/the-iet-archives/iet-history/awards-and-prizes-index/the-faraday-medallists|website=www.theiet.org|access-date=2025-10-31}}</ref>
|}

== Selected works ==
{{refbegin|2}}
*(2012). "Biological Observer-Participation and Wheeler's 'Law without Law'," in Plamen L. Simeonov, Leslie S. Smith and Andrée C. Ehresmann (eds.), ''Integral Biomathics'', Springer, pp.&nbsp;[https://books.google.com/books?id=0WIF7C_Ce4oC&pg=PA244 244–252].
*(2005). "Foreword," in Michael A. Thalbourne and Lance Storm (eds.), ''Parapsychology in the Twenty-First Century'', McFarland, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=YxDddIkpmnYC&pg=PA1 1–2].
*(2003). "We Think That We Think Clearly, But That's Only Because We Don't Think Clearly," in Patrick Colm Hogan and Lalita Pandit (eds.), ''Rabindranath Tagore: Universality and Tradition'', Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, pp.&nbsp;[https://books.google.com/books?id=lyr2gZZnWl8C&pg=PA107 107–115].
*(2003). [https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0312012 "String Theory, Universal Mind, and the Paranormal"], arXiv, physics.gen-ph, 2 December 2003.
*(2002). [http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0303264701001733 "'Beyond quantum theory: A realist psycho-biological interpretation of reality' revisited"], ''Biosystems'', 64(1–3), January, pp.&nbsp;43–45.
*(2000). [http://physicsworldarchive.iop.org/index.cfm?action=summary&doc=13%2F10%2Fphwv13i10a21%40pwa-xml&qt= "Positive bias to paranormal claims"], ''Physics World'', October.
*(1999). [http://physicsworldarchive.iop.org/index.cfm?action=summary&doc=12%2F2%2Fphwv12i2a19%40pwa-xml&qt=%28Brian%20Josephson%20%3Cin%3E%20%28name%29%29 "What is truth?], ''Physics World'', February.
*(1997). [http://physicsworldarchive.iop.org/index.cfm?action=summary&doc=10%2F9%2Fphwv10i9a14%40pwa-xml&qt=%28Brian%20Josephson%20%3Cin%3E%20%28name%29%29 "Skeptics cornered"], ''Physics World'', September.
*(1997). "What is Music a Language For?" in Paavo Pylkkänen, Pauli Pylkkö, and Antti Hautamäki (eds.), ''Brain, Mind and Physics'', IOS Press, pp.&nbsp;[https://books.google.com/books?id=IdEpIXyXew4C&pg=PA262 262–265].
*(1996). [http://physicsworldarchive.iop.org/index.cfm?action=summary&doc=9%2F12%2Fphwv9i12a29%40pwa-xml&qt=%28Brian%20Josephson%20%3Cin%3E%20%28name%29%29 "Consciously avoiding the X-factor"], ''Physics World'', December.
*with Jessica Utts (1996). [http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/features/do-you-believe-in-psychic-phenomena-are-they-likely-to-be-able-to-explain-consciousness/92971.article "Do you believe in psychic phenomena? Are they likely to be able to explain consciousness?"], ''Times Higher Education'', 8 April.
*with Tethys Carpenter (1996). "What can Music tell us about the Nature of the Mind? A Platonic Model," in Stuart R. Hameroff, Alfred W. Kaszniak and Alwyn Scott (eds.), ''Toward a Science of Consciousness'', MIT Press, pp.&nbsp;[https://books.google.com/books?id=86KyIsdi8D8C&pg=PA691 691–694].
*with Colm Wall and Anthony Clark (1995). [https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg14619755.600-light-barrier.html "Light Barrier"], ''New Scientist'', 29 April.
*(1994). [https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg14419566.400-awkward-eclipse.html "Awkward Eclipse"], ''New Scientist'', 17 December.
*(1994). [https://web.archive.org/web/19970605054135/http://www.phy.cam.ac.uk/www/research/mm/articles/heretic.txt BBC 'Heretic' series"], ''Times Higher Education Supplement'', 12 August.
*with Beverly A. Rubik (1992). [http://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/~bdj10/mm/articles/athens.pdf "The challenge of consciousness research"], ''Frontier Perspectives'', 3(1), pp.&nbsp;15–19.
*with Fotini Pallikari-Viras (1991). [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01889532#page-1 "Biological Utilization of Quantum Nonlocality"], ''Foundations of Physics'', 21(2), pp.&nbsp;197–207 (also available [http://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/~bdj10/papers/bell.html here]).
*(1990). "The History of the Discovery of Weakly Coupled Superconductors," in John Roche (ed.), ''Physicists Look Back: Studies in the History of Physics'', CRC Press, p.&nbsp;[https://books.google.com/books?id=5H3Oo0iicrkC&pg=PA375 375].
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{{refend}}

== See also ==
* [[Josephson voltage standard]]
* [[Josephson vortex]]
* [[Long Josephson junction]]
* [[Pi Josephson junction]]
* [[Phi Josephson junction]]
* [[List of Jewish Nobel laureates]]
* [[List of Nobel laureates in Physics]]
* [[List of physicists]]
* [[Scientific phenomena named after people]]

== Notes ==
{{Note list}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* [http://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/~bdj10/ Brian Josephson's home page], University of Cambridge.
* [https://cambridge.academia.edu/BrianJosephson Brian Josephson], academia.edu.
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20130719043723/http://www.phy.cam.ac.uk/conferences/Josephson/ "bdj50: Conference in Cambridge to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Publication of Brian Josephson’s Seminal Work"], Department of Physics, University of Cambridge.
* [[Philip Warren Anderson|Anderson, Philip]]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20110607182112/http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~phylabs/adv/ReprintsPDF/JOS%20Reprints/05%20-%20How%20Josephson%20Discovered%20his%20Effect.pdf "How Josephson Discovered His Effect"], ''Physics Today'', November 1970. Anderson's account of Josephson's discovery; he taught the graduate course in solid-state/many-body theory in which Josephson was a student.
* Barone, A. and Paterno, G. ''Physics and Applications of the Josephson Effect'', Wiley, 1982.
* Bertlmann, R. A. and Zeilinger, A. (eds.), ''Quantum (Un)speakables: From Bell to Quantum Information'', Springer, 2002.
* Buckel, Werner and Kleiner, Reinhold. ''Superconductivity: Fundamentals and Applications'', VCH, 1991.
* Jibu, Mari and [[Kunio Yasue|Yasue, Kunio]]. ''Quantum Brain Dynamics and Consciousness: An Introduction'', John Benjamins Publishing, 1995.
* Josephson, Brian; Rubik, Beverly A.; Fontana, David; Lorimer, David. [http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v358/n6388/abs/358618a0.html "Defining consciousness"], ''Nature'', 358(618), 20 August 1992.
* Rosen, Joe. "Josephson, Brian David," ''Encyclopedia of Physics'', Infobase Publishing, 2009, pp.&nbsp;[https://books.google.com/books?id=HQWNJyRV6kMC&pg=PA165 165–166].
* [[Henry Stapp|Stapp, Henry]]. "Quantum Approaches to Consciousness," in Philip David Zelazo, Morris Moscovitch and Evan Thompson (eds.), ''The Cambridge Handbook of Consciousness'', 2007.
* [[Victor Stenger|Stenger, Victor J.]] ''The Unconscious Quantum: Metaphysics in Modern Physics and Cosmology'', Prometheus Books, 1995.

== External links ==
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* {{Nobelprize}} including the Nobel Lecture, 12 December 1973 ''The Discovery of Tunnelling Supercurrents''
{{Nobel Prize in Physics Laureates 1951-1975}}
{{1973 Nobel Prize winners}}
{{Scientists whose names are used in physical constants}}

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