Finn Ravndal (born 1942) is a Norwegian physicist. Ravndal grew up in

Molde Municipality Molde Municipality () is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Møre og Romsdal Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Romsdal. It is located on the Romsdal ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. In 1961 he enrolled at the

Norwegian Institute of Technology The Norwegian Institute of Technology ( Norwegian: ''Norges tekniske høgskole'', NTH) was a science institute in Trondheim, Norway. It was established in 1910, and existed as an independent technical university for 58 years, after which it was ...

to study physics (Teknisk Fysikk). In 1966 he completed the degree of ''sivilingeniør'' (equivalent to

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

) with a dissertation in the area of

theoretical physics Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain, and predict List of natural phenomena, natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental p ...

under the supervision of

Harald Wergeland Harald Nicolai Storm Wergeland (14 March 1912 – 25 January 1987) was a Norwegian physicist. He was a professor at the Norwegian Institute of Technology. He was born in Norderhov as a son of forest manager Harald Nicolay Storm Wergeland (1884 ...

. During the summer of 1965, he interned at

CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in Meyrin, western suburb of Gene ...

where he worked with an experimental particle physics group to study

bubble chamber A bubble chamber is a vessel filled with a superheated transparent liquid (most often liquid hydrogen) used to detect electrically charged particles moving through it. It was invented in 1952 by Donald A. Glaser, for which he was awarded th ...

images for the detection of new

elementary particle In particle physics, an elementary particle or fundamental particle is a subatomic particle that is not composed of other particles. The Standard Model presently recognizes seventeen distinct particles—twelve fermions and five bosons. As a c ...

s. Ravndal received in 1968 a Norwegian doctorate (dr.ing.) in theoretical physics, while completing his national service at

Forsvarets forskningsinstitutt The Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (''Forsvarets forskningsinstitutt'' – ''FFI'') is a research institute that conducts research and development on behalf of the Norwegian Armed Forces and provides expert advice to political and m ...

, working with the effects of

electromagnetic pulse An electromagnetic pulse (EMP), also referred to as a transient electromagnetic disturbance (TED), is a brief burst of electromagnetic energy. The origin of an EMP can be natural or artificial, and can occur as an electromagnetic field, as an ...

s (EMP) from atomic explosions. From 1968, he obtained a position to study at the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

(Caltech). There, in collaboration with

Richard Feynman Richard Phillips Feynman (; May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988) was an American theoretical physicist. He is best known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, the physics of t ...

, he developed a relativistic model of

quarks A quark () is a type of elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter. Quarks combine to form composite particles called hadrons, the most stable of which are protons and neutrons, the components of atomic nuclei. All commonly o ...

which led to the second doctoral degree of

Ph.D. 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. Ravndal continued at Caltech for three more years as a

postdoctoral researcher A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary acade ...

. He moved to

Nordita The Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics, or NORDITA, or Nordita (), is an international organisation for research in theoretical physics. It was established as Nordisk Institut for Teoretisk Atomfysik in 1957 by Niels Bohr and the Swedish ...

in Copenhagen between 1974 and 1976, where his interests shifted to

quantum field theory In theoretical physics, quantum field theory (QFT) is a theoretical framework that combines Field theory (physics), field theory and the principle of relativity with ideas behind quantum mechanics. QFT is used in particle physics to construct phy ...

. There he gave a series of lectures on the relatively new topic of the

renormalization group In theoretical physics, the renormalization group (RG) is a formal apparatus that allows systematic investigation of the changes of a physical system as viewed at different scales. In particle physics, it reflects the changes in the underlying p ...

, which were widely distributed. In 1976 he was awarded the Fridtjof Nansen prize for young scientists and was awarded tenure as professor of theoretical physics at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation#Europe, oldest university in Norway. Originally named the Royal Frederick Univ ...

, where he remained until retirement. Ravndal taught the first course in

general relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity, and as Einstein's theory of gravity, is the differential geometry, geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of grav ...

in Norway, but his interests remained in the area of quantum field theory, where he was a formidable pedagog with many research students and broad interests in statistical physics and quantum theory. Together with Alex Hansen he provided the natural explanation of the

Klein paradox In relativistic quantum mechanics, the Klein paradox (also known as Klein tunneling) is a quantum phenomenon related to particles encountering high-energy potential barriers. It is named after physicist Oskar Klein who discovered in 1929. Originall ...

by including the effects of

antiparticles In particle physics, every type of particle of "ordinary" matter (as opposed to antimatter) is associated with an antiparticle with the same mass but with opposite physical charges (such as electric charge). For example, the antiparticle of the ...

from the

Dirac equation In particle physics, the Dirac equation is a relativistic wave equation derived by British physicist Paul Dirac in 1928. In its free form, or including electromagnetic interactions, it describes all spin-1/2 massive particles, called "Dirac ...

Alex Hansen og Finn Ravndal, Physica Scripta 23, 1036 (1981); In 2012 he retired to the status of

professor emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

, and has made major contributions to the Norwegian Wikipedia in the areas of physics and mathematics. He is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science ( Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi) in Oslo the

Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters The Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters (, DKNVS) is a Norway, Norwegian learned society based in Trondheim. It was founded in 1760 and is Norway's oldest scientific and scholarly institution. The society's Protector is King Harald V of ...

( Det Kongelige Norske Videnskabers Selskab) in Trondheim.

References

1942 births Living people People from Nesna Norwegian physicists Norwegian expatriates in the United States Norwegian Institute of Technology alumni Academic staff of the University of Oslo Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters {{norway-academic-bio-stub