Sir Andrei Konstantinovich Game - active member Royal Society Fellow and British-Dutch physicist, born in Russia. Together with Konstantin Novoselov in 2010 he was awarded Nobel Prize in physics for his work on graphene. AT given time is Regius Professor and Director of the Center for Meso-Science and Nanotechnology at the University of Manchester.
Andrey Geim: biography
Born on October 21, 1958 in the family of Konstantin Alekseevich Geim and Nina Nikolaevna Bayer. His parents were Soviet engineers of German origin. According to Geim, his mother's grandmother was Jewish and he suffered from anti-Semitism because his last name sounds Jewish. Game has a brother Vladislav. In 1965, his family moved to Nalchik, where he studied at a school specializing in English language. After graduating with honors, he twice tried to enter MEPhI, but was not accepted. Then he applied to the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, and this time he managed to enter. According to him, the students studied very hard - the pressure was so strong that often people broke down and left their studies, and some ended up with depression, schizophrenia and suicide.
Academic career
Andrey Geim received his diploma in 1982, and in 1987 he became a PhD in the field of metal physics at the Institute of Solid State Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Chernogolovka. According to the scientist, at that time he did not want to engage in this direction, preferring physics elementary particles or astrophysics, but today he is happy with his choice.
Geim worked as a researcher at the Institute of Microelectronics Technology at the Russian Academy of Sciences, and since 1990 - at the Universities of Nottingham (twice), Bath and Copenhagen. According to him, he could do research abroad, and not deal with politics, which is why he decided to leave the USSR.
Jobs in the Netherlands
Andrey Geim took his first full-time position in 1994, when he became an assistant professor at the University of Nijmegen, where he studied mesoscopic superconductivity. He later received Dutch citizenship. One of his graduate students was Konstantin Novoselov, who became his main research partner. However, according to Geim, his academic career in the Netherlands was far from rosy. He was offered professorships at Nijmegen and Eindhoven, but he turned it down because he found the Dutch academic system too hierarchical and full of petty politicking, it is completely different from the British one, where every employee is equal in rights. In his Nobel lecture, Game later said that this situation was a bit surreal, since outside the walls of the university he was warmly welcomed everywhere, including his supervisor and other scientists.
Moving to the UK
In 2001, Game became Professor of Physics at the University of Manchester, and in 2002 he was appointed Director of the Manchester Center for Meso-Science and Nanotechnology and Langworthy Professor. His wife and longtime collaborator Irina Grigorieva also moved to Manchester as a teacher. Later Konstantin Novoselov joined them. Since 2007, Game has been a Senior Fellow at the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council. In 2010, the University of Nijmegen appointed him Professor of Innovative Materials and Nanoscience.
Research
Geim managed to find a simple way to isolate a single layer of graphite atoms, known as graphene, in collaboration with scientists from the University of Manchester and IMT. In October 2004, the group published their findings in the journal Science.
Graphene consists of a layer of carbon, the atoms of which are arranged in the form of two-dimensional hexagons. It is the thinnest material in the world, as well as one of the strongest and hardest. The substance has many potential uses and is an excellent alternative to silicon. One of the first uses for graphene could be the development of flexible touchscreens, Geim said. He didn't patent new material because it would require a specific application and an industrial partner to do so.
The physicist was developing a biomimetic adhesive that became known as gecko tape due to the stickiness of the gecko's limbs. These studies are still in their early stages, but already give hope that in the future people will be able to climb ceilings like Spider-Man.
In 1997, Game studied the effect of magnetism on water, which led to the famous discovery of direct diamagnetic levitation of water, which became widely known due to the demonstration of a levitating frog. He also worked on superconductivity and mesoscopic physics.
On the choice of subjects for his research, Game said he despises the approach of many choosing a subject for their Ph.D. and then continuing on the same subject until retirement. Before he got his first full-time position, he changed his subject five times, and this helped him learn a lot.
The history of the discovery of graphene
One autumn evening in 2002 Andrey Geim was thinking about carbon. He specialized in microscopically thin materials and wondered how the thinnest layers of matter could behave under certain experimental conditions. Graphite, composed of monatomic films, was an obvious candidate for research, but standard methods for isolating ultrathin samples would overheat and destroy it. So Game instructed one of his new graduate students, Da Jiang, to try to make a sample as thin as possible, even a few hundred layers of atoms, by polishing a graphite crystal one inch in size. A few weeks later, Jiang brought a grain of carbon in a petri dish. After examining it under a microscope, Game asked him to try again. Jiang said that this was all that was left of the crystal. While Game jokingly reproached him for a graduate student who had rubbed off a mountain to get a grain of sand, one of his senior comrades saw lumps of used tape in the wastebasket, the sticky side of which was covered with a gray, slightly shiny film of graphite residue.
In labs around the world, researchers use tape to test the adhesive properties of experimental samples. The layers of carbon that make up graphite are loosely bonded (since 1564 the material has been used in pencils, as it leaves a visible mark on paper), so that the adhesive tape easily separates the scales. Game placed a piece of duct tape under a microscope and found that the thickness of the graphite was thinner than what he had seen so far. By folding, squeezing and separating the tape, he managed to achieve even thinner layers.
Game was the first to isolate a two-dimensional material: a monatomic layer of carbon, which under an atomic microscope looks like a flat lattice of hexagons, reminiscent of a honeycomb. Theoretical physicists called such a substance graphene, but they did not assume that it could be obtained at room temperature. It seemed to them that the material would disintegrate into microscopic balls. Instead, Game saw that the graphene remained in a single plane, which rippled as the matter stabilized.
Graphene: Remarkable Properties
Andrei Geim enlisted the help of graduate student Konstantin Novoselov, and they began to study the new substance fourteen hours a day. Over the next two years, they conducted a series of experiments, during which they discovered the amazing properties of the material. Because of its unique structure, electrons, without being influenced by other layers, can move through the lattice unhindered and unusually fast. The conductivity of graphene is thousands of times greater than that of copper. Game's first revelation was the observation of a pronounced "field effect" that occurs in the presence of an electric field, which allows control of conduction. This effect is one of the defining characteristics of silicon used in computer chips. This suggests that graphene could be a replacement that computer manufacturers have been looking for for years.
The path to recognition
Geim and Konstantin Novoselov wrote a three-page paper describing their discoveries. It was rejected twice by Nature, with one reviewer stating that isolating a stable two-dimensional material was impossible, and another not seeing "sufficient scientific progress" in it. But in October 2004, an article entitled "Electric Field Effect in Atomically Thick Carbon Films" was published in the journal Science, making a great impression on scientists - before their eyes, fantasy became reality.
Avalanche of discoveries
Laboratories around the world have begun research using Geim's adhesive tape technique, and scientists have identified other properties of graphene. Although it was the thinnest material in the universe, it was 150 times stronger than steel. Graphene proved to be malleable, like rubber, and could stretch up to 120% of its length. Thanks to the research of Philip Kim, and then scientists at Columbia University, it was found that this material is even more electrically conductive than previously found. Kim put graphene in a vacuum where no other material could slow down the movement of its subatomic particles, and showed that it has "mobility" - the speed at which an electric charge travels through a semiconductor - 250 times faster than silicon.
Technology Race
In 2010, six years after the discovery made by Andrey Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, the Nobel Prize was awarded to them after all. At that time, the media called graphene a "wonder material", a substance that "could change the world." He was approached by academic researchers in the fields of physics, electrical engineering, medicine, chemistry, etc. Patents were issued for the use of graphene in batteries, water desalination systems, advanced solar batteries, ultra-fast microcomputers.
Scientists in China have created the world's lightest material - graphene airgel. It is 7 times lighter than air - one cubic meter of matter weighs only 160 g. Graphene airgel is created by freezing a gel containing graphene and nanotubes.
At the University of Manchester, where Game and Novoselov work, the British government has invested $60 million to create National Institute graphene, which would allow the country to be on a par with the world's best patent holders - Korea, China and the United States, which began the race to create the world's first revolutionary products based on a new material.
Honorary titles and awards
An experiment with magnetic levitation of a live frog did not bring quite the result that Michael Berry and Andrey Game expected. The Ig Nobel Prize was awarded to them in 2000.
In 2006, Game received the Scientific American 50 award.
In 2007, the Institute of Physics awarded him the Mott Prize and Medal. Then Game was elected a member of the Royal Society.
Game and Novoselov shared the 2008 Europhysics Prize "for the discovery and isolation of the monatomic layer of carbon and the determination of its remarkable electronic properties." In 2009, he received the Kerber Award.
The Andre Geim John Carthy Award, which he was awarded by the US National Academy of Sciences in 2010, was given "for his experimental implementation and study of graphene, a two-dimensional form of carbon."
Also in 2010, he received one of the six honorary professorships of the Royal Society and the Hughes Medal "for the revolutionary discovery of graphene and the identification of its remarkable properties." Game was awarded honorary doctorates from the Delft technical university, the ETH Zurich, the Universities of Antwerp and Manchester.
In 2010 he was made a Commander of the Order of the Netherlands Lion for his contribution to Dutch science. In 2012, for services to science, Game was promoted to bachelor knights. He was elected a Foreign Corresponding Member of the United States Academy of Sciences in May 2012.
Nobel Laureate
Geim and Novoselov were awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics for their pioneering work on graphene. Hearing about the award, Geim said he did not expect to receive it this year and was not going to change his immediate plans for this. A modern physicist has expressed the hope that graphene and other two-dimensional crystals will change everyday life humanity just like plastic did. The award made him the first person to win both the Nobel Prize and the Ig Nobel Prize at the same time. The lecture took place on December 8, 2010 at Stockholm University.
(10) Soviet, Dutch and British physicist, Nobel Prize winner in physics in 2010 (together with Konstantin Novoselov), member of the Royal Society of London (since 2007), known primarily as one of the developers of the first method for obtaining graphene. On December 31, 2011, by decree of Queen Elizabeth II, for services to science, he was awarded the title of knight bachelor with the official right to add the title "sir" to his name
"Biography"
Born in 1958 in Sochi, in a family of engineers of German origin (the only exception known to Geim among his German ancestors was his maternal great-great-grandmother, who was Jewish). Game considers himself European and believes that he does not need a more detailed "taxonomy". In 1964 the family moved to Nalchik.
Father, Konstantin Alekseevich Game (1910-1998), since 1964 he worked as the chief engineer of the Nalchik Electrovacuum Plant; mother, Nina Nikolaevna Bayer (born 1927), worked as chief technologist there. Mother's half-brother is the famous theoretical physicist Vladimir Nikolaevich Bayer, son of Nikolai Nikolaevich Bayer, grandfather of Andrey Geim.
Education
In 1975 Andrey Geim graduated with a gold medal high school No. 3 of the city of Nalchik and tried to enter MEPhI, but unsuccessfully (an obstacle was the German origin of the applicant). Returning to Nalchik, he worked for 8 months at the Nalchik Electrovacuum Plant. At this time, he met V. G. Petrosyan and took intensive training in physics from him. In 1976 he entered the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.
Until 1982, he studied at the Faculty of General and Applied Physics, graduated with honors (“four” in the diploma only in the political economy of socialism) and entered graduate school. In 1987, he received a PhD in physics and mathematics from the Institute of Solid State Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Activity
"News"
Andrey Geim's wife spoke about what Russian science lacks
MOSCOW, October 21 - RIA Novosti. Irina Grigorieva, Russian-British physicist and wife of Andrey Geim, told what is missing Russian science, which unites her with British science and shared her thoughts on what discoveries in the field of studying the properties of graphene, "Nobel carbon", await us in the near future.
Chemists, physicists, and other representatives of the natural sciences have long believed that only fully three-dimensional materials that have height, width, and length can exist in nature.
Andrey Geim congratulated Sergeyev on his election as President of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Andrei Geim, Nobel Prize winner in physics, congratulated Academician Alexander Sergeev on his election as President of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Sergeev was elected at the General Meeting of the Russian Academy of Sciences last Tuesday, and the day before, Russian President Vladimir Putn approved his appointment.
“I wish him all the best and can only hope that he will be able to shift the balance in the Academy from the “Club of Outstanding Managers” towards the “Club of Outstanding Scientists,” Game told Gazeta.Ru.
Nobel Week kicks off with awards in medicine
The winners in physics and chemistry will be announced on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, and on Friday, October 6, the Peace Prize winner will be announced in Oslo
MOSCOW, 2 October. /TASS/. Nobel Week will begin on October 2 with the announcement of the name of the laureate of the award in the field of physiology and medicine, according to the award website.
The winners in physics and chemistry will be announced on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, and on Friday, October 6, the Peace Prize winner will be announced in Oslo. The new winner of the Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics, which was established by the Bank of Sweden, will be announced on October 9 in Stockholm.
Nobel laureate Andrei Geim: The townsfolk will kill humanity in 50 years
The famous physicist, discoverer of graphene, winner of the Nobel and even Ig Nobel Prizes, knight of the British Empire Andrey Geim left Russia long ago and works in the largest Western scientific centers. Last week, he unexpectedly arrived in Moscow to support Minister Dmitry Livanov, who came under fire from criticism, in particular, he took part in a meeting of the Public Council under the Ministry of Education and Science and became its honorary chairman. At the end of the Moscow mission Nobel laureate told RBC correspondent Kirill Sirotkin about a strange democracy, cheerleaders, swollen brains, stagnation and the townsfolk who threaten the death of humanity, as well as about the rollbacks of Rosnano, Skolkovo money, the prospects of graphene and three-dimensional Lego.
link: http://top.rbc.ru/viewpoint/ 04/06/2013/860500.shtml
Nobel laureate Andrei Geim came to Moscow to support Livanov
Andrei Geim, who discovered graphene together with Konstantin Novoselov, agrees with Dmitry Livanov: the Russian Academy of Sciences “looks like a nursing home.”
link: http://www.ntv.ru/novosti/608636/
Nobel laureate Andrey Geim arrived in Russia
On May 28, Andrey Geim, Nobel Prize winner in physics, arrived in Russia. According to Kommersant, at the invitation of the head of the Ministry of Defense Science Dmitry Livanov, Game will take part in a meeting of the public council under the ministry.
link: http://www.polit.ru/news/2013/05/28/geim/
Nobel Laureate Andrei Geim called the Academy of Sciences a "nursing home"
Speaking on Wednesday at the General Meeting of the Russian Academy of Sciences in support of the RAS presidential candidate Zhores Alferov, Academician Alexander Aseev (Chairman of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences) sharply condemned the position of Nobel laureate Andrei Geim: “Yesterday the Public Council replaced Zhores Ivanovich with Geim. He suggested that there are now essentially two ministries of science in the country: the Ministry of Education and Science itself and the Russian Academy of Sciences, and sooner or later the situation should be resolved in favor of one. He literally nailed the Russian Academy of Sciences, saying that this is a nursing home.”
link: http://www.mk.ru/science/ article
Nobel laureate in bioinformatics Andrey Geim arrived in Russia
The Nobel laureate in physics Andrei Geim, who arrived in Russia, supported the Minister of Education and Science Dmitry Livanov in his conflict with the Russian Academy of Sciences.
link: http://www.og.ru/news/2013/05/29/69237.shtml
Nobel laureate A. Game became the honorary chairman of the public council of the Ministry of Education and Science.
A native of the USSR, Nobel Prize winner in physics Andrey Geim has been appointed Honorary Chairman of the Public Council of the Ministry of Education and Science (Ministry of Education and Science) of the Russian Federation. This decision was made today at a meeting of the members of the Council.
link: http://www.rbc.ru/rbcfreenews/ 20130528210003.shtml
Nobel Laureate Game: Novosibirsk Academgorodok is an Exception for Russian Science
Former Russian scientist, Nobel Prize winner in physics in 2010 Andrey Geim, who works in the UK and the Netherlands, sided with the Ministry of Education and Science in a conflict with the Russian Academy of Sciences. According to the scientist, which he expressed at a meeting of the council at the Ministry of Education and Science, the Russian Academy of Sciences is similar to a "nursing home", and in Russian universities"Kindergarten" level of science. Game considered only the Novosibirsk Akademgorodok, MIPT and MISiS as an exception, writes RBC.
link: http://sib.fm/news/2013/05/29/iskljuchenie-dlja-rossijskoj-nauki
Nobel laureate Geim sided with the Ministry of Education and Science in a conflict with the Russian Academy of Sciences
Nobel Prize winner in physics Andrey Geim, who became honorary chairman of the Public Council of the Ministry of Education and Science, said that he supported the head of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation Dmitry Livanov in reforming the system of the Russian academic science, reports Interfax.
“Instead of swearing, polarizing, saying “let us more money“We will throw hats on them”, we need to get together, rebuild the system,” Game said on Tuesday following a meeting of the public council under the Ministry of Education and Science.
link: http://www.aif.ru/society/news/379139
Nobel Prize Winner Game Arrives in Russia
Nobel laureate Andrei Geim arrived in Russia. One of the discoverers of graphene intends to take part in a meeting of the Public Council under the Ministry of Education and Science. The scientist can also give a lecture to the students of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, of which he is a graduate.
link: http://fedpress.ru/news/society/news_society/ 1369731514-laureat-nobelevskoi-premii-geim-pribyl-v-rossiyu
Energetik Fortov won the election of the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences from the Nobel laureate
Immediately after the announcement of the voting results, Fortov announced that the Russian Academy of Sciences was aimed at change, would become a generator of new ideas and projects, would begin a fight against internal bureaucracy, and declared his readiness for a dialogue with the head of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Livanov. At the same time, he promised that he would ask the Nobel laureate Andrei Geim why he called the RAS a "nursing home."
link: http://news.mail.ru/politics/ 13293913/
Nobel Prize winner Game hopes his experience will be useful in Russia
Physicist Andrey Geim arrived in Russia today and, at the invitation of the Minister of Education, Dmitry Livanov, took part in the meeting.
link: http://www.rusnovosti.ru/news/264163/
Andrey Game - Honorary Chairman of the Public Council under the Ministry of Education and Science
Andrey Geim became the honorary chairman of the OS under the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia
Aleksey Venediktov, editor-in-chief of Ekho Moskvy radio station, announced on his Twitter that the 2010 Nobel Prize winner in physics Andrey Geim agreed to become the honorary chairman of the Public Council under the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia. The co-chairs were the director of the Moscow Education Center No. 109 Evgeny Yamburg and an employee of the St. Petersburg state university Stanislav Smirnov.
link: http://strf.ru/material.aspx? CatalogId=221&d_no=56824
Andrey Game sided with Livanov in a conflict with the Russian Academy of Sciences
In the ongoing conflict between the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, the Nobel laureate in physics Andrey Geim sided with the Ministry and supported Minister Dmitry Livanov.
link:
In 2010 Andrey Geim won the Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of graphene. Since then, wonder material - this is the name that has been assigned to graphene in English-language literature - has become a really hot topic. Today scientific group Game at the University of Manchester continues the study of two-dimensional materials and makes new discoveries. The scientist presented the latest results of his work and prospects in the field of research of 2D heterostructures at the METANANO-2018 conference in Sochi. And in an interview for news portal of ITMO University ITMO.NEWS and the MIPT corporate magazine For Science, he talked about why you shouldn’t be engaged in the same scientific field all your life, what motivates young scientists to go into fundamental science and why researchers You need to learn how to present the results of your work as clearly as possible.
Andrew Game. Photos provided by the Faculty of Physics and Technology of ITMO University
During your presentation, you spoke about the latest results and prospects for the study of two-dimensional materials. But if you go back, what exactly brought you to this field and what key research are you doing now?
At the conference, I presented a report in which I named what I am currently doing - graphene 3.0, since graphene is the first herald of a new class of materials in which, roughly speaking, there is no thickness. You can't do anything thinner than one atom. Graphene became a kind of snowball that caused an avalanche.
This area has developed step by step. Today, people are engaged in two-dimensional materials, which we have known for more than a decade, here we were also pioneers. And after that it became interesting how to stack these materials on top of each other - I called it graphene 2.0.
We are still dealing with thin materials. But in the last few years, I've jumped a little off my specialty, which is quantum physics, especially the electrical properties of solids. Now I'm working on molecular transport. Instead of graphene, we have learned how to make empty space, anti-graphene, “two-dimensional nothing,” if you like. Studying the properties of cavities, how they allow molecules to flow, and so on - nobody has done this before, this is a new experimental system. And there are already many interesting studies that we have published. But you need to develop this area and see how the properties of, for example, water change, if you set restrictions ( In particular, study results were published a few months ago in the journal Science, you can also read about the work - ed.).
These questions are not idle, since all life is made of water and it has always been believed that water is the most polarizable material known. But we found that near the surface, the water completely loses its polarization. And this work has many applications for a large number of completely different areas - not only physics, but also biology and so on.
In one of interview you said that the history of the 20th century shows that, as a rule, it takes 20 to 40 years for new materials or new drugs to go from an academic laboratory to their launch into mass production. Is this statement true for graphene? On the one hand, there is a lot of news about its use, on the other hand, it is probably too early to talk about its massive use in everyday life.
See for yourself: all our materials that we used until recently were characterized by height, length, width - such attributes. And now, after 10 thousand years of civilization, suddenly we have found material - and not one, but dozens - that are radically different from the Stone, Iron, Bronze, Silicon Ages and so on. it new class materials. And this, of course, is not software where you can write a program and become a millionaire in a few years. People will soon think that the telephone was invented by Steve Jobs and the computer by Bill Gates. In fact, this is the work of 70 years, condensed matter physics. At first, people figured out how silicon and germanium work, then they started making switches, and so on.
And if we return to what is happening with graphene, hundreds of companies are already making a profit on this in China. This is the data that I know. Products using graphene can be seen anywhere: they make shoe soles, paint with various fillers for protection, and much more. It's slowly, but unwinding. Although slowly on the scale of the industry. Since 2010, they have learned how to make graphene in bulk, and not like us - under a microscope. So give it time. In ten years, you will probably see not only skis and tennis rackets, which are called graphene, but something truly revolutionary, unique.
How is the work in your scientific group being built now?
The style of work is not to be locked in the same direction, as I usually say, from the scientific cradle to the scientific coffin. In the Soviet Union, at least, it was very popular: people defend their Ph.D., doctorate, and until retirement they do the same thing. Of course, professionalism is needed in any business, but at the same time, you need to look at what is on the sidelines. I am trying to switch from one direction to another: we have such conditions, but what else can be done in this area?
What I was talking about - this "two-dimensional nothing" - this idea came from a completely different area. For some reason, which only later became clear, it turned out to be quite an interesting new system. Therefore, you need to jump like a frog from one area to another, even if there is no knowledge, but there is a background. You can jump into a new area and see from your point of view what you can do there. And this is very important. It is especially good to do this with students who approach new topics with great enthusiasm.
There are many young scientists in your group today, including those from Russia. In your opinion, what motivates students today, both in Russia and abroad, to engage in science, including fundamental science? After all, even now the prospects in the same industry are more obvious.
People are trying their hand. Science is engaged in five or six million people in the world: someone tries, someone does not like it. Life in science, especially fundamental science, is not sweet. When you are a graduate student, you feel like you are doing science. And when you get a permanent job, then studies pile up, and you need to write grants, and attach articles to magazines, that’s still a hassle. Therefore, in comparison with the industry, where everything is a bit like in the army, it is different in science.
Survival is real, but you need to run very fast: this is not a hundred meters, this is a marathon for life. And you also need to learn all your life. Some people like it, like me. So much adrenaline every time! For example, when you open a referee report for your article. And the status of a Nobel laureate does not help. It works like this: “Ah, Nobel laureate? Let's teach him how to really do science." Therefore, in the evening, when I already have to go to bed, I never open the comments of reviewers.
There is enough adrenaline, everything is interesting, you learn something new all your life, so some young people, molded from the same dough, want to make their way in science. In my experience, the only truly successful scientists who have gone through me are those who started out as PhD students. If they come as postdocs, then it is already quite late to retrain, there is already pressure: you need to publish, find grants. And at the PhD level, you can still think about the soul. At this time in graduate school, they form a style of work: if they like it, they become quite successful.
Just touching on the topic of grants. Many scientists say that work in science is, among other things, quite a lot of routine, bureaucracy, and you constantly need to look for funding. When then do the research itself?
Money for science is given by taxpayers from their hard earned money. And what research to fund is decided by peers who are other scientists. Therefore, they need to prove to them, get used to high competition. Money, even if they are given a lot, is still not enough for everyone, so this is somehow an inevitable part of science: you need to write applications for grants, publish good articles. If the article is good, it will be cited. People vote with their feet, and in this case with a pen - which article to enter. The number of links indicates how successful you are, how much your colleagues respect your result. The competition in science is as strong as in sports, at the Olympic Games.
In Europe it's not as pronounced, but in America full professors in my position spend almost all of their time writing grants and talking to their students once a month. Most of my time is spent writing articles for my undergraduate and graduate students. Because when good results are presented poorly, the heart bleeds. Is it better than writing grants, or worse? Don't know.
Of course, the work must be well presented to the scientific community, but, on the other hand, the results scientific research it is necessary to bring it to a wide circle of people - those same taxpayers. Here I would like to touch on the topic of popularization of science: how much, in your opinion, do scientists themselves need to tell a large audience about their work?
And where to go? If the taxpayers do not understand, then the government ceases to understand. People still treat science with respect, especially people with education. If this were not the case, all the money would have been given away, as they say, for immediate needs - spent on bread and butter. And it would be like in Africa, where nothing is spent on science. As you know, this is a spiral, which eventually leads to the collapse of the economy. Therefore, I have great respect for people who know how and love to present the results of scientific research.
Among the professors I know, many with a smirk refer to those who appear on television and the like. For example, in our department works ( English physicist, engaged in particle physics, research fellow at the Royal Society of London, professor at the University of Manchester and a well-known popularizer of science - ed.). Even many are skeptical about him: they say that he is not a real professor, he did nothing in science. The fact that he is able to present the results of research is very important, someone should do it.
Andrei Geim at the Nobel Prize in Physics ceremony. Stockholm, 2010
Born in 1958 in Sochi, in a family of engineers of German origin with Jewish roots on his mother's side. In 1964 the family moved to Nalchik.
Father, Konstantin Alekseevich Game (1910-1998), since 1964 he worked as the chief engineer of the Nalchik Electrovacuum Plant; mother, Nina Nikolaevna Bayer (born 1927), worked as chief technologist there.
In 1975, Andrey Geim graduated from secondary school No. 3 in the city of Nalchik with a gold medal and tried to enter MEPhI, but unsuccessfully (the German origin of the applicant was an obstacle). After working for 8 months at the Nalchik Electrovacuum Plant, in 1976 he entered the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.
Until 1982, he studied at the Faculty of General and Applied Physics, graduated with honors (“four” in the diploma only in the political economy of socialism) and entered graduate school. In 1987, he received a PhD in physics and mathematics from the Institute of Solid State Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He worked as a researcher at the Institute of Solid State Physics of the USSR Academy of Sciences and at the Institute for Problems of Microelectronics Technology of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
In 1990 he received a scholarship from the Royal Society of England and left Soviet Union. He worked at the University of Nottingham and also briefly at the University of Copenhagen before becoming Associate Professor, and since 2001 at the University of Manchester. He is currently Head of the Manchester Center for "Meso-Science and Nanotechnology", as well as Head of the Department of Condensed Matter Physics.
Honorary doctorates from the Delft University of Technology, the ETH Zurich and the University of Antwerp. He has the title of "Professor Langworthy" of the University of Manchester (Langworthy Professor, among those awarded this title were Ernest Rutherford, Lawrence Bragg and Patrick Blackett).
In 2008, he received an offer to head the Max Planck Institute in Germany, but refused.
Subject of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. His wife, Irina Grigorieva (a graduate of the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys), worked, like Geim, at the Institute of Solid State Physics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and is currently working with her husband in the laboratory of the University of Manchester.
After Geim was awarded the Nobel Prize, the intention to invite him to work at Skolkovo was announced. Game said: At the same time, Game said that he does not have Russian citizenship and feels comfortable in the UK, expressing skepticism about the project Russian government create an analogue of Silicon Valley in the country.
Geim's achievements include the creation of a biomimetic adhesive (glue), later known as gecko tape.
Also widely known is the experiment with, including the famous "flying frog", for which Game, together with the famous mathematician and theorist Sir Michael Berry, received the Ig Nobel Prize in 2000.
In 2004, Andrey Geim, together with his student Konstantin Novoselov, invented a technology for producing graphene, a new material that is a monatomic layer of carbon. As it turned out in the course of further experiments, graphene has a number of unique properties: it has increased strength, conducts electricity as well as copper, surpasses all known materials in thermal conductivity, is transparent to light, but at the same time is dense enough not to miss even helium molecules. are the smallest known molecules. All this makes it a promising material for a number of applications, such as the creation of touch screens, light panels and, possibly, solar panels.
For this discovery (Great Britain) in 2007 awarded Game. He also received the prestigious EuroPhysics Prize (together with Konstantin Novoselov). In 2010, the invention of graphene was also awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, which Geim also shared with Novoselov.
- Andrey Geim is fond of mountain tourism. Elbrus became his first “five-thousander”, and his favorite mountain is Kilimanjaro
- The scientist has a peculiar sense of humor. One of the confirmations of this is an article on diamagnetic levitation, in which the co-author of Game was his favorite hamster ("hamster") Tisha. Game himself on this occasion stated that the hamster's contribution to the levitation experiment was more immediate. Subsequently, this work was used in obtaining a Ph.D.
Born in 1958 in Sochi, in a family of engineers of German origin with Jewish roots on his mother's side. In 1964 the family moved to Nalchik.
Father, Konstantin Alekseevich Game (1910-1998), since 1964 he worked as the chief engineer of the Nalchik Electrovacuum Plant; mother, Nina Nikolaevna Bayer (born 1927), worked as chief technologist there.
In 1975, Andrey Geim graduated from secondary school No. 3 in the city of Nalchik with a gold medal and tried to enter MEPhI, but unsuccessfully (the German origin of the applicant was an obstacle). After working for 8 months at the Nalchik Electrovacuum Plant, in 1976 he entered the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.
Until 1982, he studied at the Faculty of General and Applied Physics, graduated with honors (“four” in the diploma only in the political economy of socialism) and entered graduate school. In 1987, he received a PhD in physics and mathematics from the Institute of Solid State Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He worked as a researcher at the Institute of Solid State Physics of the USSR Academy of Sciences and at the Institute for Problems of Microelectronics Technology of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Honorary doctorates from the Delft University of Technology, the ETH Zurich and the University of Antwerp. He has the title of "Professor Langworthy" of the University of Manchester (Eng. Langworthy Professor, among those awarded this title were Ernest Rutherford, Lawrence Bragg and Patrick Blackett).
In 2008, he received an offer to head the Max Planck Institute in Germany, but refused.
Subject of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. His wife, Irina Grigorieva (a graduate of the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys), worked, like Geim, at the Institute of Solid State Physics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and is currently working with her husband in the laboratory of the University of Manchester.
After Geim was awarded the Nobel Prize, the director of the department international cooperation Skolkovo Foundation Alexei Sitnikov announced his intention to invite him to work in Skolkovo. Game stated:
At the same time, Game said that he does not have Russian citizenship and feels comfortable in the UK, expressing skepticism about the project of the Russian government to create an analogue of Silicon Valley in the country.
Scientific achievements
In 2004, Andrey Geim, together with his student Konstantin Novoselov, invented a technology for producing graphene, a new material that is a monatomic layer of carbon. As it turned out in the course of further experiments, graphene has a number of unique properties: it has increased strength, conducts electricity as well as copper, surpasses all known materials in thermal conductivity, is transparent to light, but at the same time is dense enough not to miss even helium molecules. are the smallest known molecules. All this makes it a promising material for a number of applications, such as the creation of touch screens, light panels and, possibly, solar panels.
Some publications
- Russian translation:
- Andrey Geim is fond of mountain tourism. Elbrus became his first “five-thousander”, and his favorite mountain was Kilimanjaro.
- The scientist has a peculiar sense of humor. One of the confirmations of this is an article on diamagnetic levitation, in which the co-author of Game was his favorite hamster ("hamster") Tisha. Game himself on this occasion stated that the hamster's contribution to the levitation experiment was more direct. Subsequently, this work was used in obtaining a Ph.D.