Andre Geim, Konstantin Novoselov - Two Russian-born researchers shared the Nobel Prize in physics in 2010

Press Release
5 October, 2010

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2010 to

Andre Geim University of Manchester, UK

and

Konstantin Novoselov University of Manchester, UK

"for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene"


Graphene – the perfect atomic lattice
A thin flake of ordinary carbon, just one atom thick, lies behind this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics. Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov have shown that carbon in such a flat form has exceptional properties that originate from the remarkable world of quantum physics.

Graphene is a form of carbon. As a material it is completely new – not only the thinnest ever but also the strongest. As a conductor of electricity it performs as well as copper. As a conductor of heat it outperforms all other known materials. It is almost completely transparent, yet so dense that not even helium, the smallest gas atom, can pass through it. Carbon, the basis of all known life on earth, has surprised us once again.

Geim and Novoselov extracted the graphene from a piece of graphite such as is found in ordinary pencils. Using regular adhesive tape they managed to obtain a flake of carbon with a thickness of just one atom. This at a time when many believed it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable.

Andre Geim, Dutch citizen. Born 1958 in Sochi, Russia. Ph.D. 1987 from Institute of Solid State Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Chernogolovka, Russia. Director of Manchester Centre for Meso-science & Nanotechnology, Langworthy Professor of Physics and Royal Society 2010 Anniversary Research Professor, University of Manchester, UK.
www.condmat.physics.manchester.ac.uk/people/academic/geim

Konstantin Novoselov, Brittish and Russian citizen. Born 1974 in Nizhny Tagil, Russia. Ph.D. 2004 from Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Professor and Royal Society Research Fellow, University of Manchester, UK.
www.condmat.physics.manchester.ac.uk/people/academic/novoselov

Prize amount: SEK 10 million to be shared equally between the Nobel Laureates.

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2010/press.html