About the National Laboratory
History and Mission
The Ivar Giæver Geomagnetic Laboratory (IGGL) was established in 2012 by the Earth Dynamics Research Group at the Physics of Geological Processes, a former Norwegian Centre of Excellence at the University of Oslo (2003-2013). Initially, the laboratory was named “The Oslo Geomagnetic Laboratory” and included a limited set of instruments for paleomagnetic analyses. In 2013, the laboratory became a part of the Centre for Earth Evolution and Dynamics, which was awarded 8 million NOK by the Research Council of Norway to establish a Norwegian national research infrastructure for geomagnetism that would serve to the entire paleomagnetic and rock magnetic research community in Norway and abroad. These funds allowed us to build one of the most advanced paleomagnetic and rock magnetic laboratories in Europe – the Ivar Giæver Geomagnetic Laboratory.
Our core mission is to provide Norwegian and international researchers with access to state-of-the-art laboratory facilities, technical assistance and scientific expertise for research in a wide variety of topics relevant to studies in paleomagnetism, rock and mineral magnetism and other related interdisciplinary fields. The possible avenues of research that can be conducted using the IGGL facilities include (but are not limited to):
- Generating new, high-quality paleomagnetic data sets, with applications to paleogeographic reconstructions, plate kinematics and mantle dynamics
- Magnetostratigraphic studies: correlating sedimentary sequences using the record of geomagnetic reversals
- Paleointensity: constraining the strength of the geomagnetic field in the geologic past through Thellier experiments, with implications for geodynamo and dynamics of the Earth’s core
- Characterization of magnetic mineralogy (Curie temperature analysis, characteristic low-temperature transitions in magnetic minerals)
- Characterization of magnetic domain states, distribution and interaction of magnetic carriers (magnetic hysteresis measurements, FORC analyses)
- Evaluating the stability of remanence in geological samples and veracity of paleomagnetic record
- Analyses of magnetic fabric using anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility and remanence
- Extraterrestrial magnetism (e.g., magnetic properties of meteorites)
- Biomagnetism and environmental magnetism
- Fundamental rock magnetism (e.g., interactions in multiphase assemblages, exchange anisotropy)
- Studies of magnetic properties of synthetic samples (material science)
In our vision, the national laboratory should serve not only as a hub for conducting experiments and analyses, but also as a place for exchanging and developing new ideas, building international collaborations, educating students and young scientists, and inspiring them to undertake research in geomagnetism, paleomagnetism, rock and mineral magnetism, paleogeography and geodynamics. To achieve this goal, the IGGL is committed to:
- Encouraging Norwegian and foreign researchers to visit and use the laboratory infrastructure
- Exploring fundamental questions at the frontiers of modern geomagnetism
- Providing the necessary tools for maintaining and strengthening the University of Oslo as an internationally leading center for plate dynamics and paleogeography
- Developing links to other science and research disciplines
- Establishing geomagnetism as a scientific discipline for frontier research and education at the University of Oslo and strengthening this discipline at our partner institutions
About Ivar Giæver
The national laboratory is named after Ivar Giæver, a Norwegian-American physicist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1973 with Leo Esaki and Brian Josephson for their experimental discoveries regarding tunneling phenomena in semiconductors and superconductors. The Nobel prize winning work on tunneling in solids was done by Josephson, who predicted the Josephson effect (the phenomenon of supercurrent), while Esaki and Giæver showed tunneling in semiconductors and superconductors, respectively.
Ivar Giæver is a professor emeritus at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in New York state, a Vista-professor and a professor-at-large at UiO.
You can learn more about Ivar Giæver here and here.
