Ivar Giaever

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Ivar Giaever (original spelling Ivar Giæver ; born April 5, 1929 in Bergen , Norway ) is a Norwegian-American physicist . He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1973 .

Ivar Giaever

Life

Giaever studied engineering at the Norwegian Institute for Technology in Trondheim from 1948 to 1952 . In 1954 he emigrated to Canada , where he worked in an architecture firm and then as an engineer at General Electrics . In 1956 he moved to the USA . From 1958 to 1969 Giaever worked at the Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute in Troy ( New York ) in the field of superconductivity (lossless conduction of electrical current) and the tunnel effect . For this research he received the doctorate degree in 1964. During a research stay in England he dealt withbiophysical problems and developed a method for the detection of immune reactions. Since 1988 Giaever has been a professor at the Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute and also at the Institute for Physics at the University of Oslo . Giaever is an expert for the Heartland Institute , an American conservative and libertarian think tank.

Giaever received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1973 together with Leo Esaki for his experimental discoveries regarding the tunnel phenomenon in semiconductors and superconductors . In the same year Brian D. Josephson received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his theoretical prediction of properties in a supercurrent through a tunnel barrier, in particular the phenomena commonly known as the Josephson Effect . In particular, Giaever proved the existence of a tunnel effect in superconductors (after Esaki showed this in semiconductors as early as 1958) and proved the existence of the energy gap predicted by the BCS theory . Giaever has also been working as a biologist since 1970 . Since 1974 he has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . He is an external member of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences .

Nature is to humans like the refrigerator is to a dog: he knows that there is food in it, but he will never understand how the refrigerator works (Ivar Giaever)

Position on climate change

Giaever resigned from the American Physical Society in 2011 because the society classifies the evidence of global warming as "undeniable".

“The evidence is incontrovertible: Global warming is occurring. If no mitigating actions are taken, significant disruptions in the Earth's physical and ecological systems, social systems, security and human health are likely to occur. We must reduce emissions of greenhouse gases beginning now. "

“The evidence is indisputable: global warming is happening. If no countermeasures are taken, this is likely to result in drastic disruptions in the earth's physical and ecological systems, including social systems, security and human health. We have to reduce greenhouse gas emissions immediately. "

- American Physical Society Council : November 18, 2007

Giaever believes that one cannot be prepared to discuss the mass of a proton at the same time or to consider the basic shape of the universe to be an open question, but in his opinion forbid any discussion of climate change. Among other things, Giaever considers the existence of global warming to be dubious and generally denies that the cause can be traced back to carbon dioxide emissions. He accuses climate research of being unable to make reliable statements about the future and that climate change is not a problem anyway.

At the 2015 Nobel Laureate Meeting in Lindau , Giaever presented refuted and unrelated theses, which are often cited by climate change deniers. At this conference, 36 Nobel Prize winners signed the Mainau Declaration 2015 on Climate Change , 35 more were added later. They clearly distanced themselves from the positions of climate deniers by emphasizing that the evidence of climate change caused by greenhouse gases is overwhelming. Giaever was not one of the signatories. Already in 2012 he stated in a lecture in Lindau that he was not particularly interested in the climate. He doesn't need to spend more than “a day, or rather half a day” with Google. In science, Giaever's theses are practically unanimously rejected, but Giaever is often cited as evidence by climate denial organizations and certain media due to his prominence. The Heartland Institute listed Giaever as an expert on global warming from 2008 to 2011.

Web links

Commons : Ivar Giaever  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Expert - Ivar Giaever. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on July 9, 2015 ; accessed on January 8, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Giaever, Energy Gap in Superconductors Measured by Electron Tunneling, Physical Review Letters 5, 1960, pp. 147-148
  3. ↑ War of words over global warming as Nobel laureate resigns in protest . In: Telegraph.co.uk . ( telegraph.co.uk [accessed January 28, 2017]).
  4. ^ Climate Change. Retrieved January 28, 2017 (English).
  5. ↑ No Need to Panic About Global Warming There's no compelling scientific argument for drastic action to 'decarbonize' the world's economy, The Wall Street Journal January 27, 2012
  6. ↑ a b When Nobel Prize winners walk astray . In: Der Standard , October 3, 2017. Retrieved February 9, 2018.
  7. ^ A b Christian Endt: Climate skeptic Ivar Giaever: Nobel laureate on the wrong track. On: Spiegel Online , July 2, 2015. Accessed July 16, 2015.
  8. ^ Nobel Laureates Issue A Call To Action On Climate Change. Retrieved January 28, 2017 .
  9. ↑ The Mainau Declaration 2015 on Climate Change . In: The Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings . ( lindau-nobel.org [accessed January 28, 2017]).
  10. ↑ Mike Beckers: Climate change - the greatest task of mankind . On: Spectrum of Science , July 3, 2015. Accessed July 28, 2017.
  11. ↑ Global Warming Experts. Heartland Institute, archived from the original on November 1, 2008 ; accessed on January 8, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Giaever, Ivar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Giæver, Ivar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Norwegian-American physicist
DATE OF BIRTH April 5, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Bergen , Norway