{"id":31285,"date":"2025-07-08T16:31:41","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T16:31:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=31285"},"modified":"2025-07-08T17:30:32","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T17:30:32","slug":"ivar-giaever-nobel-winner-in-quantum-physics-dies-at-96","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=31285","title":{"rendered":"Ivar Giaever, Nobel Winner in Quantum Physics, Dies at 96"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

A former \u201cD\u201d student from Norway, he made his mark at G.E.\u2019s Research Lab in the U.S., in part by confirming a pivotal theory about superconductivity.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Ivar Giaever might not have won the Nobel Prize in Physics if a job recruiter at General Electric had known the difference between the educational grading systems of the United States and Norway.<\/p>\n

It was 1956, and he was applying for a position at the General Electric Research Laboratory in Schenectady, N.Y. The interviewer looked at his grades, from the Norwegian Institute of Technology in Trondheim, where Dr. Giaever (pronounced JAY-ver) had studied mechanical engineering, and was impressed: The young applicant had scored 4.0 marks in math and physics. The recruiter congratulated him.<\/p>\n

But what the recruiter didn\u2019t know was that in Norway, the best grade was a 1.0, not a 4.0, the top grade in American schools. In fact, a 4.0 in Norway was barely passing \u2014 something like a D on American report cards. In reality, his academic record in Norway had been anything but impressive.<\/p>\n

He did not want to be dishonest, Dr. Giaever would say in recounting the episode with some amusement over the years, but he also did not correct the interviewer. He got the job.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
\n

He proceeded to spend the next 32 years at the laboratory, along the way developing an experiment using superconductors that provided proof of a central idea in quantum physics \u2014 that subatomic particles can behave like powerful waves \u2014 confirming a game-changing theory about superconductivity. For his work, Dr. Giaever shared the Nobel Prize<\/a> in 1973.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>
Dr. Giaever, left, receiving his Nobel honors from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden in a ceremony in Stockholm in 1973. <\/span>United Press International<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.<\/p>\n

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into<\/a>\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe<\/a>\u00a0for all of The Times.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.<\/p>\n

Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A former \u201cD\u201d student from Norway, he made his mark at G.E.\u2019s Research Lab in the U.S., in part by confirming a pivotal theory about superconductivity.Ivar Giaever might not have won the Nobel Prize in Physics if a job recruiter at General Electric had known the difference between the educational grading systems of the United States and Norway.It was 1956, and he was applying for a position at the General Electric Research Laboratory in Schenectady, N.Y. The interviewer looked at his grades, from the Norwegian Institute of Technology in Trondheim, where Dr. Giaever (pronounced JAY-ver) had studied mechanical engineering, and was impressed: The young applicant had scored 4.0 marks in math and physics. The recruiter congratulated him.But what the recruiter didn\u2019t know was that in Norway, the best grade was a 1.0, not a 4.0, the top grade in American schools. In fact, a 4.0 in Norway was barely passing \u2014 something like a D on American report cards. In reality, his academic record in Norway had been anything but impressive.He did not want to be dishonest, Dr. Giaever would say in recounting the episode with some amusement over the years, but he also did not correct the interviewer. He got the job.He proceeded to spend the next 32 years at the laboratory, along the way developing an experiment using superconductors that provided proof of a central idea in quantum physics \u2014 that subatomic particles can behave like powerful waves \u2014 confirming a game-changing theory about superconductivity. For his work, Dr. Giaever shared the Nobel Prize in 1973.Dr. Giaever, left, receiving his Nobel honors from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden in a ceremony in Stockholm in 1973. United Press InternationalWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31287,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31285"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31288,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31285\/revisions\/31288"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}