"I am the Smartest Man I Know"

A unique individual with a fascinating life story, Ivar Giaever is a scientist who won the Nobel Prize in Experimental Physics in 1973. In this book, Ivan relates an absorbing tale of how important luck and good fortune have been in shaping his life.

He narrates his story of an ordinary childhood in Norway and an unremarkable undergraduate career at university. After finishing his engineering degree, Ivar served in the Norwegian army and married his childhood sweetheart, Inger Skramstad. His desire to make a better life for his new family led him to Canada and then to the United States, where he was given the opportunity to work with cutting-edge scientific researchers at General Electric R&D in Schenectady, New York. While there, he completed his PhD at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute—one of the nation's oldest technological universities. His work on superconductivity eventually led to worldwide recognition and the Nobel Prize.

This memoir is more than the story of an accomplished, world-renowned scientist: it is an engaging mediation on science, intellectual inquiry, and life itself; a recollection of an independent, highly creative thinker and problem-solver who loves games and puzzles, skiing and windsurfing, and spending time with friends and family.

Written with humour and often tongue-in-cheek, Dr Ivar Giaever's fascinating story intertwines his views on the nature of science, scientific processes, contemporary issues such as global warming, and the great benefits the Nobel Prize has afforded him.