荷兰物理学家海克·卡末林·昂内斯（Heike Kamerlingh Onnes，1853～1926）1911年发现了物体的超导性，于1913年获得诺奖。

巴丁、库柏和施里弗( John Bardeen, Leon Cooper, and John Schrieffer ) 1957年提出BCS理论解释金属超导现象于1972年获得诺奖。，,

物理学家柏诺兹和缪勒1986年发现了临界温度为35K的镧钡铜氧超导体。柏诺兹和缪勒也因铜氧化物高温超导体的发现获1987年度诺贝尔物理学奖。

详细见：Superconductor History - Superconductors

更权威的见下文：

科学网—神奇的超导 - 罗会仟的博文

神奇的超导--《现代物理知识》2012年02期

另外，柏诺兹和缪勒是如何发现铜氧化物高温超导体的？

MagLab - Pioneers in Electricity and Magnetism: Georg Bednorz描述比较详细。

With doctorate in hand, Bednorz accepted a full-time position at the IBM Zürich Research Laboratory. As colleagues, Bednorz and Müller began a concerted effort to find superconducting oxides. Bednorz chiefly functioned in an experimental capacity, preparing and testing the oxides, which he fired as ceramics because the process was less complicated and time-consuming than growing them as crystals. Müller, on the other hand, provided the theoretical basis upon which Bednorz built his experiments. After a few years of finding out what did not work, rather than finding what did, Bednorz came across an article written by French researchers that described a compound of copper and oxygen with trace amounts of barium and lanthanum. The researchers had not tested the material to determine whether or not it was superconductive, but Bednorz believed that the compound was just what he and Müller had been looking for.

In early 1986, Bednorz prepared a sample of the copper oxide he had read about and cooled it in order to test for superconductivity. The test indicated a sharp drop in electrical resistance at -262 degrees Celsius. The encouraging result inspired Bednorz to slightly modify the compound and his technique for producing it, resulting in even better results. Eventually he managed to raise the critical temperature of the compound to -238 degrees Celsius, a new record. Bednorz and Müller published their findings in April 1986 in the German journal Zeitschrift für Physik, although they had some misgivings about doing so because they had not yet tested their record-breaking copper oxide for the Meissner effect, a determining factor in whether or not a material is a true superconductor. Not surprisingly, some scientists were initially skeptical of the claims made by Bednorz and Müller, but it was not long before a research group at the University of Tokyo published exhaustive Meissner-effect data on the Bednorz- Müller copper oxide, helping quash any doubts regarding their work.

Labs around the world subsequently began producing their own metallic oxides in an effort to raise obtainable critical temperatures high enough to make superconductors practical for commercial use. A particularly important breakthrough was made when a group at the University of Houston first raised the critical temperature of a compound similar to Bednorz and Müller’s high enough to use liquid nitrogen, rather than the much more costly liquid helium, as a refrigerant.

The enthusiasm generated by the work of Bednorz and Müller is evidenced by an unusual move by the Nobel Prize Committee, which decided to award the pair the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1987, less than two years after they carried out their groundbreaking work. Most recipients have a much longer wait before their research garners the honor. Bednorz, now an IBM Fellow, continues to study and improve oxide compounds. In addition to the Nobel Prize, he has received many other awards from scientific societies and foundations across the globe.

超导史相关阅读：

an introduction to the new oxide superconductors - Futurescience

Superconductivity: Fundamentals and Applications

Science in the Contemporary World: An Encyclopedia

J. Georg Bednorz and K. Alex Müller - Nobel Lecture

A magnet levitating above a high-temperature superconductor

Research in Germany - J. Georg Bednorz: 1987 - Physics