Ivar Giaever

Ivar Giæver
Ivar Giæver
	Giaever in 2010
Born	April 5, 1929 (age 95); Bergen, Norway
Nationality	Norway; United States;
Alma mater	Norwegian University of Science and Technology; Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute;
Known for	Tunneling phenomena in superconductors
Awards	Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize (1965); Nobel Prize in Physics (1973);
	Scientific career
Fields	Solid-state physics; Biophysics;

Ivar Giaever (Norwegian: Giæver, IPA: [ˈìːvɑr ˈjèːvər]; born April 5, 1929) is a Norwegian-American engineer and physicist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1973 with Leo Esaki and Brian Josephson "for their discoveries regarding tunnelling phenomena in solids".^[1] Giaever's share of the prize was specifically for his "experimental discoveries regarding tunnelling phenomena in superconductors".^[2]

In 1975, he was elected as a member into the National Academy of Engineering for contributions in the discovery and elaboration of electron tunneling into superconductors.

Giaever is a professor emeritus at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the president of the company Applied Biophysics.^[3]

Early life and education

Giaever earned a degree in mechanical engineering from the Norwegian Institute of Technology in Trondheim in 1952. In 1954, he emigrated from Norway to Canada, where he was employed by the Canadian division of General Electric. He moved to the United States four years later, joining General Electric's Corporate Research and Development Center in Schenectady, New York, in 1958. He has lived in Niskayuna, New York, since then, taking up US citizenship in 1964. While working for General Electric, Giaever earned a Ph.D. degree at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1964.^[4]

The Nobel Prize

The work that led to Giaever's Nobel Prize was performed at General Electric in 1960. Following on Esaki's discovery of electron tunnelling in semiconductors in 1958, Giaever showed that tunnelling also took place in superconductors, demonstrating tunnelling through a very thin layer of oxide surrounded on both sides by metal in a superconducting or normal state.^[5] Giaever's experiments demonstrated the existence of an energy gap in superconductors, one of the most important predictions of the BCS theory of superconductivity, which had been developed in 1957.^[6] Giaever's experimental demonstration of tunnelling in superconductors stimulated the theoretical physicist Brian Josephson to work on the phenomenon, leading to his prediction of the Josephson effect in 1962. Esaki and Giaever shared half of the 1973 Nobel Prize, and Josephson received the other half.^[1]

Giaever's research later in his career was mainly in the field of biophysics. In 1969, he researched biophysics for a year as a fellow at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, through a Guggenheim Fellowship, and he continued to work in this area after he returned to the US.^[4]

He has co-signed a letter from over 70 Nobel laureate scientists to the Louisiana Legislature supporting the repeal of Louisiana’s Louisiana Science Education Act.^[7]

Other prizes

In addition to the Nobel Prize, he has also been awarded the Oliver E. Buckley Prize by the American Physical Society in 1965, the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1966,^[8] and the Zworykin Award by the National Academy of Engineering in 1975.^[3]

In 1985, he was awarded an honorary degree, doctor honoris causa, at the Norwegian Institute of Technology, later part of Norwegian University of Science and Technology.^[9]

He is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.^[10]

Global warming

Giaever has repeatedly professed skepticism of global warming, calling it a "new religion".^[11]^[12]^[13] On 13 September 2011, he resigned from the American Physical Society over its official position.^[14]

Giaever is currently a science advisor with American conservative and libertarian think tank The Heartland Institute.^[15]

Personal life

Giaever was married to his childhood sweetheart Inger (née Skramstad) from 1952 until her death on September 12, 2023 at the age of 94.^[16] They have four children: John, Anne, Guri and Trine.

Giaever is an atheist.^[17]

Selected publications

Giaever, Ivar (1960). "Energy Gap in Superconductors Measured by Electron Tunneling". Physical Review Letters. 5 (4): 147. Bibcode:1960PhRvL...5..147G. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.5.147.
Giaever, Ivar (1960). "Electron Tunneling Between Two Superconductors". Physical Review Letters. 5 (10): 464. Bibcode:1960PhRvL...5..464G. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.5.464.
Giaever, Ivar (1974). "Electron tunneling and superconductivity". Reviews of Modern Physics. 46 (2): 245. Bibcode:1974RvMP...46..245G. doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.46.245.
Giaever, Ivar (2016). "I Am The Smartest Man I Know": A Nobel Laureate's Difficult Journey, World Scientific. ISBN 978-981-3109-17-9.

References

^ ^a ^b "Press Release: The 1973 Nobel Prize in Physics". Nobelprize.org. 27 June 2011. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. 1973-10-23. Archived from the original on 2011-05-17. Retrieved 2011-06-27. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physics to Leo Esaki, USA, Ivar Giaever, USA and Brian D Josephson, UK. The award is for their discoveries regarding tunneling phenomena in solids
^ "The Nobel Prize in Physics 1973". Nobelprize.org. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. 2011-06-27. Archived from the original on 2011-06-21. Retrieved 2011-06-27. The Nobel Prize in Physics 1973 was divided, one half jointly to Leo Esaki and Ivar Giaever "for their experimental discoveries regarding tunneling phenomena in semiconductors and superconductors, respectively" and the other half to Brian David Josephson "for his theoretical predictions of the properties of a supercurrent through a tunnel barrier, in particular those phenomena which are generally known as the Josephson effects".
^ ^a ^b Giaever, Ivar (2011-06-27). "Ivar Giaever Physics Department Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute". rpi.edu. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Archived from the original on 2011-12-10. Retrieved 2011-06-27. Positions Institute Professor, School of Engineering and School of Science Professor at large, University of Oslo, Norway President Applied BioPhysics, Inc., 1223 Peoples Ave, Troy, NY 12180 … Major Prizes: Oliver E. Buckley Prize 1965 Nobel Prize 1973 Zworkin Award 1974
^ ^a ^b Lundqvist, Stig (1992). "Biography". Nobelprize.org, Bio from Nobel Lectures, Physics 1971-1980, Editor Stig Lundqvist, World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, 1992. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and World Scientific. Archived from the original on 2010-12-14. Retrieved 2011-06-27.
^ Giaever, I. (1960). "Energy Gap in Superconductors Measured by Electron Tunneling". Physical Review Letters. 5 (4): 147–148. Bibcode:1960PhRvL...5..147G. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.5.147.
^ Bardeen, Cooper, and Schrieffer won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1972 for this theoretical advance, which bears their initials.
^ "Nobel Laureate Letter". Archived from the original on 2020-10-18. Retrieved 2012-01-15.
^ "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement". www.achievement.org. American Academy of Achievement.
^ "Honorary doctors at NTNU". Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
^ "Gruppe 8: Teknologiske fag" (in Norwegian). Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 7 October 2010.
^ Strassel, Kimberley A. (2009-06-26). "The Climate Change Climate Change The number of skeptics is swelling everywhere". wsj.com. The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 2011-07-04. Retrieved 2011-06-26. Dr. Kiminori Itoh, a Japanese environmental physical chemist who contributed to a U.N. climate report, dubs man-made warming "the worst scientific scandal in history." Norway's Ivar Giaever, Nobel Prize winner for physics, decries it as the "new religion."
^ "U. S. Senate Minority Report: More Than 700 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global Warming Claims Scientists Continue to Debunk "Consensus" in 2008 & 2009 (Updates Previous Report: "More Than 650 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global Warming Claims")". epw.senate.gov. U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (Minority). 2009-03-16. Archived from the original (pdf) on 2011-07-01. Retrieved 2011-06-26. Nobel Prize Winner for Physics in 1973, Ivar Giaever, a fellow of the American Physical Society, declared himself a dissenter in 2008. "I am a skeptic," Giaever announced in June 2008. "Global warming has become a new religion," Giaever added. "I am Norwegian, should I really worry about a little bit of warming? I am unfortunately becoming an old man. We have heard many similar warnings about the acid rain 30 years ago and the ozone hole 10 years ago or deforestation but the humanity is still around. The ozone hole width has peaked in 1993," he continued. "Moreover, global warming has become a new religion. We frequently hear about the number of scientists who support it. But the number is not important: only whether they are correct is important. We don't really know what the actual effect on the global temperature is. There are better ways to spend the money," he added.
^ Morano, Marc (2009-03-17). "U.S. Senate Minority Report Update: More Than 700 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global Warming Claims". epw.senate.gov. U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (Minority). Archived from the original on 2011-07-01. Retrieved 2011-06-26. "I am a skeptic… Global warming has become a new religion." – Nobel Prize Winner for Physics, Ivar Giaever.
^ "Nobel Prize-Winning Physicist Resigns Over Global Warming". Fox News. 2011-09-14. Retrieved 2017-06-14.
^ "Ivar Giaever Profile". The Heartland Institute. May 31, 2016. Retrieved June 9, 2017.
^ "Inger Giaever Obituary". Legacy.com. The Daily Gazette. September 24, 2023. Retrieved May 19, 2024.
^ Giaever, Ivar (November 2016). "I Am The Smartest Man I Know": A Nobel Laureate's Difficult Journey. World Scientific. ISBN 978-981-3109-17-9.