Giaever, Ivar, 1929-
Biography
Ivar Giaever, Ph.D., was born in Bergen, Norway, on April 5, 1929. 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. Giaever received his US citizenship in 1964.
At GE, Dr. Giaever did research on superconductivity and electron tunneling, while pursuing his doctorate in theoretical physics part-time at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. He earned his Ph.D. from RPI in 1964. In 1973, he was honored with a share of the Nobel Prize in Physics, along with Brian Josephson and Leo Esaki, for their efforts on electron tunneling and superconductivity.
In 1988, Dr. Giaever joined the faculty at RPI, and was institute professor until 2004. He and Dr. Charles R. Keese formed Applied BioPhysics in 1991 to develop, commercialize, and market ECIS™, an electric cell-substrate impedance sensing technology they had invented while at GE, and other biophysical technologies. The ECIS approach has been applied to numerous applications, and there are now ECIS instruments in research labs, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies worldwide.
In addition to the Nobel Prize, Dr. Giaever 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, as well as the Zworykin Award by the National Academy of Engineering in 1975. In 1977, Dr. Giaever was awarded Honorary Membership in ASME, and 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.
Giaever was married to his childhood sweetheart Inger (née Skramstad) from 1952 until her passing on September 12, 2023, at the age of 94. They have four children: John, Anne, Guri and Trine.