Giaever, << YA vehr, >> Ivar (1929-…), a Norwegian-born American physicist, shared the 1973 Nobel Prize for physics with Leo Esaki of Japan and Brian Josephson of the United Kingdom. All three had done important research on electron tunneling through materials. Tunneling is a process by which electrons can pass through solids. Giaever’s award was for his work on tunneling in materials showing superconductivity, the ability to conduct electrical current without resistance.
Much of his research involved thin films (thin layers of conductive material forming part of an integrated circuit), in tunneling, and superconductivity. He has also done much research in the application of physics to biological problems.
Giaever was born in Bergen, Norway. From 1948 to 1952, he studied mechanical engineering at the Norwegian Institute of Technology. In 1954, Giaever immigrated to Canada and in 1956, he moved to the United States. He worked as an architect’s assistant and a mathematician, and then in 1964 he obtained a Ph.D. degree in physics from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. In the same year, he became a naturalized U.S. citizen.
