40 Facts About Andre Geim

Andre Geim is Regius Professor of Physics and Royal Society Research Professor at the National Graphene Institute.

Andre Geim was previously awarded an Ig Nobel Prize in 2000 for levitating a frog using its intrinsic magnetism.

Andre Geim is the first and only individual, as of 2025, to have received both Nobel and Ig Nobel prizes, for which he holds a Guinness World Record.

Andre Geim was born to Konstantin Alekseyevich Geim and Nina Nikolayevna Bayer in Sochi, Russia, on 21 October 1958.

Andre Geim took the entrance exams twice, but attributes his failure to qualify to discrimination on account of his German ethnicity.

Andre Geim then applied to the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, where he was accepted.

Andre Geim said that at the time he would not have chosen to study solid-state physics, preferring particle physics or astrophysics, but is happy with his choice.

Andre Geim received a diplom from MIPT in 1982 and a Candidate of Sciences degree in metal physics in 1987 from the Institute of Solid State Physics at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Chernogolovka.

Andre Geim said that while at Nottingham he could spend his time on research rather than "swimming through Soviet treacle," and determined to leave the Soviet Union.

Andre Geim obtained his first tenured position in 1994, when he was appointed associate professor at Radboud University Nijmegen, where he worked on mesoscopic superconductivity.

However, Andre Geim has said that he had an unpleasant time during his academic career in the Netherlands.

Andre Geim was offered professorships at Nijmegen and Eindhoven, but turned them down as he found the Dutch academic system too hierarchical and full of petty politicking.

Andre Geim served as Langworthy Professor between 2007 and 2013, leaving this endowed professorship to Novoselov in 2012.

Also, between 2007 and 2010 Andre Geim was an EPSRC Senior Research Fellow before becoming one of Royal Society Research Professors.

Andre Geim holds many honorary professorships including those from Tsinghua University, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, and Radboud University Nijmegen.

Andre Geim's achievements include the discovery of a simple method for isolating single atomic layers of graphite, known as graphene, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Manchester and IMT.

Andre Geim said one of the first applications of graphene could be in the development of flexible touchscreens, and that he has not patented the material because he would need a specific application and an industrial partner.

Andre Geim has carried out research on mesoscopic physics and superconductivity.

Andre Geim was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2007.

Andre Geim's research is notable for its internationally-recognised quality, originality and breadth.

Andre Geim has recently discovered a conceptually new class of materials strictly two-dimensional atomic crystals, including graphene.

Previously, Andre Geim pioneered ballistic Hall micromagnetometry and discovered a paramagnetic Meissner effect and new vortex physics in superconductors.

Andre Geim has realised a microfabricated adhesive, based on the gecko's climbing mechanism, now being exploited by DuPont, BAe and TESA.

Andre Geim shared the 2008 EPS Europhysics Prize with Novoselov "for discovering and isolating a single free-standing atomic layer of carbon and elucidating its remarkable electronic properties".

Andre Geim was awarded one of six Royal Society 2010 Anniversary Research Professorships.

Andre Geim was awarded honorary doctorates from Delft University of Technology, ETH Zurich, the University of Antwerp and the University of Manchester.

In 2010, Andre Geim was appointed as Knight Commander of the Order of the Netherlands Lion for his contribution to Dutch Science.

In 2011, Andre Geim became a corresponding member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Andre Geim is Honorary Professor of Moscow Phys-Tech, Honorary Professor of the University of Nijmegen, Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Physics, Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Honorary Fellow of Singapore Institute of Physics, Honorary Professor of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Andre Geim was furthermore made a Knight Bachelor in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to science.

Andre Geim was elected a foreign associate of the US National Academy of Sciences in May 2012.

Andre Geim was awarded the Copley Medal in 2013 and the Carbon Medal in 2016.

Andre Geim received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 2017.

Andre Geim shared the 2000 Ig Nobel Prize in Physics with Sir Michael Berry for the frog experiment.

On 5 October 2010, Andre Geim was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with Novoselov "for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene".

Andre Geim said he hopes that graphene and other two-dimensional crystals will change everyday life as plastics did for humanity, although we need to wait for a few decades to see the results.

Andre Geim was one of 38 Nobel laureates who signed a declaration in 2010 issued by Scholars for Peace in the Middle East protesting an international initiative to boycott Israeli academics, institutions, and research centers.

At the Nobel Minds symposium in December 2010, Andre Geim said the Nobel Peace Prize committee's choice of Chinese dissident, the imprisoned Liu Xiaobo, as winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, was patronising, saying.

Andre Geim has written several opinion pieces for The Financial Times, examples of which can be found on his university webpage.

Andre Geim has a complex ancestry which is described in detail in his Nobel Prize autobiography.