A number of our university’s alumni have made considerable contributions to international science.
Professor Lars Onsager graduated in 1925 with a degree in chemical engineering. He soon entered prestigious institutions in the USA, where subjects of his interest included colloids, dielectrics, order-disorder transitions, metals and superfluids, hydrodynamics and fractionation theory. Lars Onsager holds honorary degrees of Doctor of Science from Harvard University (1954), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1962), Brown University (1962), Rheinisch-Westfahlische Technische Hochschule (1962), the University of Chicago (1968), Ohio State University (Cleveland, 1969), Cambridge University (1970) and Oxford University (1971), and in 1960, Doctor technicae from Norwegian Institute of Technology – which is today the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU. But among all the prizes and honours he holds, the greatest is perhaps the Nobel Prize in Chemistry that he was awarded in 1968.
Professor Ivar Giaever graduated in 1952 with a degree in mechanical engineering. Moving to Canada, and later the USA, for a number of years he concentrated his research in the fields of thin films, tunnelling and superconductivity. His phenomenal and still ongoing academic career was crowned with the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1973.
Professor John Ugelstad’s scientific achievements in chemistry did not bring him a Nobel Prize in Chemistry, but from when he graduated from our university in 1948 and until he died in 1997, his genius gained him an international reputation. One example among the numerous innovations he produced is the Ugelstad beads. They have led to many industrial products, and can be applied in immunology, cellular biology, microbiology, molecular biology, medical diagnostics and DNA technology.
Vebjørn Tandberg (1904-1978) was an electrical engineer from our university and founder of Tandbergs Radiofabrikk in 1933, and made it a great success. In addition to his technical and commercial achievements, Tandberg was a pioneer in providing good conditions for his workforce. He instituted a 42-hour week and 3-week annual vacation for all in 1937, as well as free pension and health insurance scheme for his employees from 1938.
Fred Kavli is a physicist, business leader, innovator, and philanthropist who is dedicated to supporting research and education that has a positive, long-term impact on the human condition. Mr. Kavli received his education in physics at the Norwegian Institute of Technology. In 1958 he founded the Kavlico Corporation, which became one of the world's largest suppliers of sensors for aeronautic, automotive, and industrial applications. He remained CEO and sole shareholder of the company until he divested his interest in 2000. He subsequently established The Kavli Foundation and The Kavli Operating Institute to support scientific research aimed at improving the quality of life for people around the world. The Foundation has established research institutes at leading universities worldwide, also at NTNU Read article "The Next Nobel" in TIME about Fred Kavli.
The present generation of scientists from NTNU may very well reach the standards of our past alumni. One example is Dr Marianne Hafting Fyhn from one of NTNU’s Centres of Excellence, Centre for the Biology of the Memory. She was recently awarded the prestigious Donald B. Lindsley Prize in Behavioral Neuroscience for best international doctoral dissertation. The original and groundbreaking work on cerebral mechanisms of spatial navigation has already resulted in articles in Nature, Science and Neuron by this young scientist from NTNU.
Another example of a young researcher who has been a great success is John M. Lervik who completed his doctorate at NTNU in 1997. He was one of the founders of Fast Search & Transfer, an Internet search-technology company that has a market value today of just under USD 1 billion.
