Ivar Giaever is a noted Norwegian-American physicist, known for his work on tunneling phenomenon in solids for which he won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1973. He spent his early life in Norway, where he was born into a middle class family in the first half of the twentieth century. After earning his degree in mechanical engineering from one of Norway’s biggest and best-known universities, he migrated to Canada at the age of twenty-five and joined the Canadian unit of General Electric. Very soon, he was transferred to the company’s American unit and from there he completed the company’s engineering course. Subsequently, he was sent to the General Electric Research and Development Center at New York and while working here, his interest turned towards physics. He soon took up his Nobel Prize winning work on tunneling through superconductors. Concurrently, he also started working for his PhD at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Interestingly, he completed his Nobel Prize winning work four years before he earned his PhD. Dr. Giaever became a US citizen in 1964, but maintained close contact with Norway. After retiring from General Electric, he concurrently served the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York and the University of Oslo, Norway as faculty member. He now serves as a member of many distinguished societies.