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Ivar Giaever Quotes

Ivar Giaever is a Norwegian-American physicist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1973 with Leo Esaki and Brian Josephson "for their discoveries regarding tunnelling phenomena in solids". Giaever's share of the prize was specifically for his "experimental discoveries regarding tunnelling phenomena in superconductors". Giaever is a professor emeritus at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the president of the company Applied Biophysics. Wikipedia  

✵ 5. April 1929
Ivar Giaever photo
Ivar Giaever: 5   quotes 1   like

Famous Ivar Giaever Quotes

“If you want to do good research, it's important not to know too much. This almost sounds contradictory but really if you know too much and you get an idea, you will sort of talk yourself out of trying it because you figure it won't work. But if you know just the right amount and you get enthusiastic about your project, you go ahead, you do it and if you're lucky things'll work out.”

Ivar Giaever

In Ivar Giaever's Nobel Prize http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=82E4B92E3A753DDF. Interview produced by Alfred Leitner in 1982.

“To me the greatest moment in an experiment is always just before I learn whether the particular idea is a good or a bad one. Thus even a failure is exciting, and most of my ideas have of course been wrong. But this time it worked!”

Ivar Giaever

Nobel lecture (1973)

“If I have learned anything as a scientist it is that one should not make things complicated when a simple explanation will do.”

Ivar Giaever

Nobel lecture (1973)

“My own beliefs are that the road to a scientific discovery is seldom direct, and that it does not necessarily require great expertise. In fact, I am convinced that often a newcomer to a field has a great advantage because he is ignorant and does not know all the complicated reasons why a particular experiment should not be attempted.”

Ivar Giaever

Nobel lecture (1973)

“My own beliefs are that the road to a scientific discovery is seldom direct, and that it does not necessarily require great expertise.”

Ivar Giaever

In fact, I am convinced that often a newcomer to a field has a great advantage because he is ignorant and does not know all the complicated reasons why a particular experiment should not be attempted.
Nobel lecture (1973)

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