Nobel Prize for Physics 2010

In 2010, Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, then both associate professors at Radboud University, received the Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of graphene. They explored the special properties of the material at the Nijmegen High Field Magnet Laboratory and received indispensable help from Mikhail Katsnelson, a theoretical physicist at Radboud University.

The two scientists from Russia received the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics for being the first to create and research graphene at the University of Manchester. Graphene is the very flattest variant of carbon: it is only a single atom thick. Due to its properties (strong, flexible, impermeable and highly conductive), graphene holds great promise for a variety of technological applications.

To investigate the properties of this unusual material, the researchers used the facilities of HFML/Felix, Radboud University's high magnetic field lab, among others. Geim and Novoselov were both familiar with the lab and have worked there in the past. Novoselov also received his doctorate from Nijmegen magnet researcher Jan-Kees Maan.

While working in the Netherlands, they also got to know their compatriot Mikhail Katsnelson. The professor of theoretical physics published about the physical properties of the two-dimensional carbon molecule even before the actual discovery of graphene. It was the beginning of a fruitful collaboration. Without Katsnelson's help, research would never have gotten this far this quickly, Geim indicated in his Nobel Prize speech.

Nobelprijswinnaars Novoselov (l) en Geim werden in november 2010 in Nijmegen geridderd door staatssecretaris Halbe Zijlstra

About Geim and Novoselov

Andre Geim (b. 1958, Sochi, Russia) received his doctorate from the Institute for Solid State Physics in Chernogolovka, Russia, in 1987. He worked at Radboud University from 1994 to 2000, after which he became professor at the University of Manchester. In 2010, he was appointed associate professor of Innovative Materials and Nanoscience at Radboud University.

Konstantin Novoselov (b. 1974, Nizhny Tagil, Russia) received his PhD from Radboud University in 2004. He later became a professor in Manchester, and in 2013 Novoselov was appointed Extraordinary Professor of Electronic Properties of New Materials at Radboud University.

About the Nobel Prize