J. Robert Schrieffer received his B.S. from MIT. He continued his studies at the University of Illinois, where he along with Professors John Bardeen and Leon Cooper developed the theory of superconductivity. He continued his work as a fellow at the University of Birmingham and the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen. Following work at the Universities of Chicago and Illinois, Schrieffer won the Nobel Prize, in 1972, for his work in superconductivity, sharing the honour with Bardeen and Cooper. He was a professor of physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and is now at the University of Florida, Tallahassee.

• Advanced Book Classics -- Preface -- Preface to the Revised Printing -- Introduction -- The Pairing Theory of Superconductivity -- Applications of the Pairing Theory -- Electron-Ion System -- Field-Theoretic Methods in the Many-Body Problem -- Elementary Excitations in Normal Metals -- Field-Theoretic Methods Applied to Superconductivity -- Electromagnetic Properties of Superconductors -- Conclusion -- Second-Quantization Formalism -- Macroscopic Quantum Phenomena from Pairing in Superconductors -- Microscopic Quantum Interference Effects in the Theory of Superconductivity -- Electron–Phonon Interactions and Superconductivity