Andre Geim Won Both a Nobel Prize and an Ig Nobel Prize
To commemorate "those who, during the preceding year, shall have bestowed the greatest benefit to humankind," according to Alfred Nobel's worldview, the Nobel award was established. They are given out in a variety of scientific as well as humanistic subjects.
The Ig Nobel awards, on the other hand, are given to recognize accomplishments in odd or unimportant fields that nevertheless required a lot of time and effort to complete. In reality, the two prizes don't often collide, although Andre Geim, the only guy to win both, did so once.
Geim's "groundbreaking" work with graphene earned him the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics. Given the strength of graphene, his work included isolating single layers of graphite, which could one day be used to make practically limitless objects.
For levitating a frog ten years earlier, Geim was also awarded the Ig Nobel Prize. Of course, his research extended beyond flying frogs and centered primarily on a phenomenon known as diamagnetism. If magnetic fields are strong enough, they can push away diamagnetic materials and keep them in place. A frog will float if you put it in water and apply a magnetic field because water is diamagnetic. That is also how you get an Ig Nobel Prize.
- Born: 21 October 1958
- Known for: Discovering graphene, diamagnetic levitation, Gecko tape
- Awards: Ig Nobel Prize (2000), Mott Medal (2007), EuroPhysics Prize (2008), Körber Prize (2009), John J. Carty Award (2010), Hughes Medal (2010), Nobel Prize in Physics (2010), Knight Commander of the Order of the Netherlands Lion (2010), Knight Bachelor (2012), Copley Medal (2013), Carbon Medal (2016), Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water (2018)
