British knighthoods for Geim and Novoselov
Professor André Geim and Professor Konstantin Novoselov were knighted by the British Queen Elisabeth II last weekend. They received their knighthoods for their groundbreaking work as researchers at the University of Manchester, where both are currently working. The physicists, who from now on may use the title Sir, together won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010 for their breakthrough in the research into two-dimensional graphene.
Geim has the Dutch nationality and before his appointment in Manchester he worked for more than six years at the Radboud University in Nijmegen. The physicist is one of the most famous scientists in the area of nanotechnology. He produced sticky tape without glue by imitating the feet of a gecko and was the spiritual father of graphene, the first two-dimensional material. He was also was the person who made the supermagnet in Nijmegen famous by making a live frog levitate in this. Since 2010 Geim has once again held an appointment at Radboud University Nijmegen as professor by special appointment of Innovative Materials and Nanoscience. In January 2011 he was the keynote speaker at the Physics@FOM Veldhoven congress. Novoselov is a former FOM PhD student who gained his doctorate in 2004 under Prof. Jan Kees Maan in Nijmegen. Geim and Novoselov played an important role in setting up Dutch graphene research. FOM started a research programme on graphene in 2008.
Further information
Click here for further information about Geim and Novoselov in the FOM news release about the Nobel Prize in Physics 2010.