Dutch university proud of Nobel Prize winner Andre Geim
18 Oct 2010
Radboud University Nijmegen is more than proud of its professor by special appointment Andre Geim who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. He is sharing the prize with Konstantin Novoselov, who earned his PhD from Radboud University Nijmegen.
Special form of carbon
This Nobel Prize was awarded in recognition of the discovery of graphene, a special form of carbon. Graphene is the thinnest and strongest material known so far.
The special properties of this material were discovered thanks in part to the experimental possibilities offered by the super magnets of the High Field Magnet Laboratory (HFML) of Radboud University Nijmegen.
Further research
The continuing research at Nijmegen into graphene is being conducted in close collaboration between Nobel Prize winners Geim and Novoselov and theoretical physicist Professor Katsnelson, who has provided the theoretical underpinning of the special properties of graphene.
Important prize
The Nobel Prize for Physics for the discovery of graphene reflects favourably on Dutch physicists. It is proof of the importance of fundamental research championed by Dutch universities.
Important Facts
It is not often that scientists win the Nobel as well as the Ignoble prize , and therefore the feat of Prof Andre Geim is all the more commendable. He may have bagged this year’s Nobel Prize for physics along with Prof Konstantin Novoselov for the discovery of grapheme that will hugely benefit electronics and other industries that need light, yet tougher materials, but his feat of levitating a frog (that got him the Ignoble 10 years ago with Michael Berry of Bristol University) is no less worthwhile for it brought physics closer to the layman.