By March 1987, a flurry of recent research on ceramic superconductors had succeeded in creating ever-higher superconducting temperatures, including the discovery of Maw-Kue Wu and Jim Ashburn at the University of Alabama, who found a critical temperature of 77 K in yttrium barium copper oxide (YBCO). This result was followed by Paul C. W. Chu at the University of Houston 's of a superconductor that operated at 93 K (−180 °C; −292 °F) – a temperature that could be achieved by cooling with liquid nitrogen. The scientific community was abuzz with excitement.