Point-Contact Spectroscopy and All That

(Hochfeld-Magnetlabor, Max-Planck-Institut für Festkörperforschung, and Research Institute for Materials, University of Nijmegen) The European Physical Society's 1987 Hew­ lett-Packard Europhysics Prize has been awarded to Igor Yanson of the Institute for Low Temperature Physics and Engineering of the UKRSSR Academy of Sciences in Kharkov (USSR) for the discovery and ex­ ploitation of point-contact spectroscopy in metals. An exciting and stimulating disco­ very, carried out in the great spirit of the grand school of Soviet low temperature physics, has been honoured. Here, we put Yanson's discovery into perspective.