Max Robert Schafroth (8 February 1923, Burgdorf, Switzerland – 29 May 1959, North Queensland, Australia) was a Swiss theoretical physicist who made important contributions to the theory of superconductivity.

In 1949, he was awarded the title of Doctor of Natural Sciences for his work in theoretical physics under Professor Wolfgang Pauli.

In 1953–1954, funded by a two-year overseas grant from the Schweizer Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Mathematik und Physik,[4] Schafroth was a Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool, working with Herbert Fröhlich on superconductivity.

[7] In the second paper,[1] Schafroth suggested that under certain circumstances electrons in a metal could form bound pairs that would approximately behave as bosons.

[10] These early results led to the development of Chemical Equilibrium Theory[2][10] in which superconductivity was explained as a Bose-Einstein Condensation (BEC) of electron pairs.

[9]) Schafroth spent September–December 1955 at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey developing the theory and visiting a number of American Universities to promote his, Blatt and Butler's work.

[12] According to Blatt,[13] during those visits Schafroth had "long and detailed discussions" about his ideas with Leon Cooper who had just joined Bardeen's group.

[18] Instead of making extensive amendments requested by a sole referee, the paper was sent to Helvetica Physica Acta "in the interest of speedy publication".

[19] The manuscript was received on 16 October 1956 and published in early 1957, ahead of the rival theory by Bardeen, Cooper and Robert Schrieffer.

[21] The underlying difficulty was later removed by Philip Anderson[22] and other researchers,[14] leading to a wide adoption of the BCS theory as the correct description of superconductivity in simple metals and alloys.

On October 10, 1958, Schafroth wrote a letter of resignation from his position as Reader, to take effect from September 1959, in order to take up an appointment as Professor and Chair of Theoretical Physics at the University of Geneva.