Nobel Prize for Dutch physicist
07 Oct 2010
Dutch physicist Andre Geim has been awarded a Nobel Prize for the invention of graphene, the world's thinnest and strongest material. He shares the prize with his Russian-British colleague Konstantin Novoselov.
Graphene is a form of carbon with a two-dimensional, single atom crystal structure which is 200 times more resistant to fracture than steel. It has unusual electronic properties and is currently used in LCD screens. Scientists in Delft have succeeded in making graphene superconductive and it's hoped it can be used in future to produce extremely small, heat resistant electronics.
Professor Geim says "I hope that graphene and other two-dimensional crystals will change everyday life as plastics did for humanity."
Andre Konstantinovich Geim was born in Russia in 1958. He gained a doctorate at the Institute for Sold State Physics in Chernogolovka in 1987 before moving to Western Europe. He became professor of physics at the University of Manchester in 2001 and then head of the Manchester Centre for Mesoscience and Nanotechnology.
He is a Dutch citizen and is currently Professor of Innovative Materials and Nanoscience at the Radboud University of Nijmegen.
Professor Geim is also famed for the development of a biomimetic adhesive commonly known as "gecko tape" since it was inspired by the feet of gecko lizards.
In 2000 he won an Ig Nobel Prize, the alternative Nobel Prize awarded for unusual and humorous scientific achievements, for an experiment in which he levitated a frog using extremely strong magnets. In his 2001 scientific paper about diamagnetism he credited a hamster as co-author, commenting, "My hamster contributed more to that experiment than other co-authors. Why shouldn't he be credited?"
Professor Geim is the tenth Dutch national to win the Nobel Prize for Physics.
Published on : 5 October 2010 - 2:53pm | By Johan Huizinga (photo: Wikipedia)
Link from Radio Nederland Worldwide