Physics Nobel Prize 2010
Just a quick newsflash: the 2010 Nobel Prize for Physics has gone to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov (both of the University of Manchester) “for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene“.
For more details see the official announcement.
Heartiest congratulations to them both! Thoroughly well deserved.
ps. They were predicted to win two years ago by Thomson Reuters.
pps. It’s a clean sweep for UK-based scientists, so far. I wonder if the government is listening?
In the Dark 
October 5, 2010 at 11:54 am
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October 5, 2010 at 12:00 pm
Overlooked again. I think an angry letter to the Swedish Academy is warranted.
October 5, 2010 at 12:27 pm
One of the reasons why Geim and Novoselov were persuaded to relocate to the UK was the relatively good funding of science a few years ago. I remember while I was at Nottingham, the School of Physics & Astronomy there tried to hire Andre Geim but lost out to Manchester. A few years down the line he wins the Nobel Prize and brings prestige not only to his University but also to UK Physics generally.
Drastic reductions in grant funding will make it harder to attract outstanding people like this to these shores. Moreover, the new government is placing explicit quotas on non-EU immigation even for extremely eminent people.
October 5, 2010 at 7:29 pm
…and both the dutch/russian media will have to admit that these scientists are working in the UK – which you might hope would provoke some questions at “home”.
although unless the outcome of the CSR is orthogonal to the expectations/leaks, perhaps they won’t be here for too much longer.
October 5, 2010 at 12:29 pm
Both prizes reward work done in the UK when Labour were in power…
October 5, 2010 at 1:14 pm
Dear Professor Coles:
A note to say that Thomson Reuters predicted Geim and Novoselov for the Nobel in 2008: http://science.thomsonreuters.com/press/2008/8481910/
So we had a bit of luck with physics this year. But then again, one might say, a stopped clock is right twice a day. We did pick them on the basis of the citation record — and early pn. But even I was surprised at the short lag time between discovery and recognition. By the way, congratulations — your nation is putting in a fine performance this year!
October 5, 2010 at 2:18 pm
Yes, credit where it’s due, I mentioned that as a ps. in the post.
To be fair, though, I should also point out that in 2008 you also predicted Vera Rubin and Roger Penrose & David Schechtman. Nothing like hedging your bets!
I’m delighted for Andre Geim in particular. He’s quite a character.
October 6, 2010 at 1:04 am
Their graphene paper was published on page 666 of Science.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/306/5696/666
Maybe the Pope will have something to say about this one too?
October 6, 2010 at 8:38 pm
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October 6, 2010 at 8:55 pm
It appears that the original experiments on graphene were performed in what the laureates describe as something like a friday playtime. So much for the impact agenda.