Øystein Fischer (born 9 March 1942 in

Bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...

, died 19 September 2013) was a Norwegian

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

and specialist in the field of

superconductivity Superconductivity is a set of physical properties observed in superconductors: materials where Electrical resistance and conductance, electrical resistance vanishes and Magnetic field, magnetic fields are expelled from the material. Unlike an ord ...

. He was a professor of the Faculty of Science of the

University of Geneva The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public university, public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by French theologian John Calvin as a Theology, theological seminary. It rema ...

. He was also the founder and director of the Swiss National Center of Competence in Research MaNEP (Materials with Novel Electronic Properties), dedicated to exploring materials of the future.

Career

After having worked as a technical research assistant for the laboratory Nera A/S in Bergen, Norway, Fischer studied physics at the

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich ETH Zurich (; ) is a public university in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, the university focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. ETH Zurich ran ...

. He joined the University of Geneva in 1967 and obtained his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in 1971. He was appointed assistant professor at the University of Geneva in the same year. In 1977 he became a full professor.

Research

In 1975, he synthesized the first superconducting compounds containing a regular lattice of magnetic ions, a discovery opening up a decade of international research concerning the interaction between magnetism and superconductivity. This work was highlighted by his discovery in 1984 of superconductivity induced via magnetic field. With his team, Fischer launched the first artificial superlattices of superconductor cuprates, the pioneering work of many developments in new areas of thin films and oxide interfaces. From 1986, Fischer assigned a part of his team to work in

scanning tunneling microscopy A scanning tunneling microscope (STM) is a type of scanning probe microscope used for imaging surfaces at the atomic level. Its development in 1981 earned its inventors, Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer, then at IBM Zürich, the Nobel Prize in ...

which allowed him to probe the fundamental properties of high temperature superconductors. In 2001, he founded and became director of the NCCR (PRN) MaNEP dedicated to the study of materials with novel electronic properties. Fischer initiated the Geneva Creativity Center whose purpose is to stimulate discussion between the academic and industrial sectors and to find innovative solutions for future technological challenges. Fischer was also the head of the project "Centre for astronomical, physical and mathematical sciences of Geneva". Over the past 20 years, Fischer has focused his research on superconductors using

(STM) and

scanning tunneling spectroscopy Scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS), an extension of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), is used to provide information about the density of electrons in a sample as a function of their energy. In scanning tunneling microscopy, a metal tip i ...

(STS).

Awards and honours

References

External links

* http://www.manep.ch * http://dpmc.unige.ch/gr_fischer/index.html * http://physiscope.ch {{DEFAULTSORT:Fischer, Oystein 1942 births 2013 deaths Scientists from Bergen Norwegian physicists Norwegian expatriates in Switzerland Academic staff of the University of Geneva Semiconductor physicists