It is a honor to write a contribution on this memorial for Sandro Massidda.
For both of us, at different stages of our life, Sandro was first and foremost
a friend. We both admired his humble, playful and profound approach to life and
physics. In this contribution we describe the route which permitted to meet a
long-standing challenge in solid state physics, i.e. room temperature
superconductivity. In less than 20 years the Tc of conventional
superconductors, which in the last century had been widely believed to be
limited to 25 K, was raised from 40 K in MgB2 to 265 K in LaH10. This discovery
was enabled by the development and application of computational methods for
superconductors, a field in which Sandro Massidda played a major role.Comment: Viewpoint submitted for JPCM Sandro Massidda's memoria
