Andre Geim

Sir Andre Geim
Born	Andrei Konstantinovich Geim 10/21/1958
Birthplace	Sochi, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Nationality	British
Occupation	Physicist, academic
Title	Regius Professor of Physics; Royal Society Research Professor
Employer	University of Manchester
Known for	Discovery of graphene, diamagnetic levitation, gecko tape
Education	Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (PhD)
Spouse(s)	Irina Grigorieva
Awards	Nobel Prize in Physics (2010), Copley Medal (2013), Knight Bachelor (2012)
Website	http://www.condmat.physics.manchester.ac.uk/people/academic/geim/

Sir Andre Konstantin Geim (Андре́й Константи́нович Гейм (Russian: Андре́й Константи́нович Гейм); born 21 October 1958) is a Russian-born British physicist working in condensed matter physics. He's Regius Professor of Physics and Royal Society Research Professor at the University of Manchester, where he's part of the School of Physics and Astronomy and connected with the National Graphene Institute. Geim's most celebrated achievement came from experiments isolating and characterising graphene, that single-layer form of carbon just one atom thick. In 2010 he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with his former doctoral student Konstantin Novoselov for this work. A decade before winning the Nobel, Geim got an Ig Nobel Prize in 2000 for levitating a frog using diamagnetic effects. This made him the first, and as of 2025, the only person ever to win both prizes. Born in the Soviet Union to German and Russian parents, he took an unconventional route through Moscow, various European labs, and finally Manchester. His research has reshaped how we understand materials science and two-dimensional physics.

Early Life

Geim was born on 21 October 1958 in Sochi, a resort town on the Black Sea coast in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union. He comes from ethnic German stock. His family roots go back centuries to German communities in Russia, and his ancestors were caught up in the upheavals and forced relocations that hit Volga Germans and other ethnic German populations during and after World War II.

Science fascinated him from childhood. Growing up in the Soviet Union, he'd later reflect on aspects of his upbringing and the particular challenges facing ethnic minorities in Soviet society. His German heritage mattered to him personally throughout his life, even as his work carried him far from his birthplace.

The Soviet education system emphasized mathematics and natural sciences. That's where Geim's gift for physics emerged. It became clear early on. This aptitude propelled him toward one of the Soviet Union's premier scientific institutions, and his formative years in Sochi and subsequent move to Moscow's academic centres set him on the path to international prominence.

Education

He enrolled at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), one of the Soviet Union's finest universities for science and engineering. Often compared to MIT in the States. His undergraduate years there led naturally into doctoral research at the same institution.

His PhD thesis, finished in 1987, dealt with "Investigation of mechanisms of transport relaxation in metals by a helicon resonance method" under Victor Petrashov's supervision. He was exploring metal physics phenomena using helicon wave techniques, work in condensed matter that would become the foundation for his later experimental approach. The training he received emphasized fundamental physics and hands-on methods. This shaped his distinctive style as a researcher: creative, experimental, willing to chase unconventional ideas wherever they led.

Career

Early Academic Career in the Soviet Union and Europe

After finishing his doctorate at MIPT in 1987, Geim's early career took him across the Soviet Union and Europe. He held research positions at the Institute of Solid State Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Chernogolovka, a major condensed matter research centre in the Soviet Union.

When the Soviet Union dissolved, he headed westward. Postdoctoral and faculty positions followed at the University of Nottingham in England, the University of Bath, and the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. Then came the University of Nijmegen (now Radboud University) in the Netherlands. Those Nijmegen years, spent in the university's High Field Magnet Laboratory, produced some of his most memorable experiments. The diamagnetic levitation work happened there. That's what earned him the Ig Nobel Prize.

He became a Dutch citizen while working in the Netherlands and held that citizenship at the time of his Nobel Prize in 2010. British citizenship followed in 2012.

Diamagnetic Levitation and the Ig Nobel Prize

Diamagnetic levitation experiments put Geim in the public eye early on. Working at Nijmegen's High Field Magnet Laboratory with collaborators, he showed you could levitate small objects using powerful magnetic fields. A live frog became the most famous example. The trick relies on the diamagnetic properties of water and other materials: strong enough magnetic fields produce a weakly repulsive response in the water molecules inside a living thing, and that's enough to overcome gravity.

When he published the levitating frog work in the late 1990s, people loved it. It became one of the most quoted examples of playful yet serious science. The Ig Nobel Prize in Physics came in 2000, awarded for research that "first makes people laugh, then makes them think." He took it with genuine humour and made it part of his public persona. A symbol of his belief that play and curiosity matter in research. During a 2024 talk at Harvard, Geim discussed that frog experiment and how it connects to serious science, stressing the importance of the "fun, fanciful side of very serious science."

The work contributed to understanding diamagnetism itself and showed what you could explore in high magnetic field environments beyond surface-level tricks.

Move to Manchester and Graphene Discovery

Geim joined the University of Manchester in 2001 as a professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy. What came next is what he's remembered for most: graphene.

Picture a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice. That's graphene. Physicists had theorized about it for decades, but most considered it an academic oddity. The consensus was that two-dimensional crystals couldn't be thermodynamically stable, that they couldn't exist as free-standing sheets. Geim and his colleague Konstantin Novoselov, a former doctoral student, had other ideas.

In 2004, they used adhesive tape to peel layers from graphite repeatedly. Eventually they got down to one atom thick. Graphene. The method's sometimes called the "Scotch tape method" or "mechanical exfoliation." It was simple. Remarkably simple. That contrasted sharply with the complicated fabrication techniques materials scientists usually relied on. They transferred these ultra-thin flakes onto silicon, where optical and electronic methods could identify and study them.

What they found was extraordinary. Graphene proved roughly 200 times stronger than steel by weight. Nearly transparent. Incredibly flexible. It conducted electricity and heat brilliantly. The material showed unusual electronic properties including half-integer quantum Hall effects and charge carriers behaving like massless Dirac fermions. Whole new avenues opened in both fundamental physics and applications.

They published initial results in Science in 2004, followed by more papers detailing graphene's remarkable properties. The work sparked worldwide interest in two-dimensional materials. An entirely new research field began.

Nobel Prize in Physics

On 5 October 2010, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the Nobel Prize in Physics would go jointly to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov "for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene." Geim was 51 and held Dutch citizenship. Novoselov, his former doctoral student and close research partner, was 36.

His Nobel lecture covered the history of graphene's discovery, the broader significance of two-dimensional materials, and how curiosity-driven research yields unexpected breakthroughs. He emphasized that graphene didn't come from a targeted research plan. It emerged from a culture of exploration and intellectual freedom. What he called "Friday night experiments." Informal research sessions where he and colleagues pursued ideas outside their funded projects.

The Nobel brought enormous attention to both scientists personally, to Manchester as an institution, and to nanomaterials broadly. After the award, the university invested heavily in graphene research. The National Graphene Institute, a dedicated research facility, opened in 2015.

Gecko Tape and Other Research

Beyond graphene and levitating frogs, Geim's made marks in several condensed matter areas. Gecko tape stands out most prominently. It's a synthetic adhesive inspired by how geckos climb smooth surfaces. Working with collaborators, he showed that adhesive made from microscopic pillars, mimicking gecko foot pad structure, could support real weight and stick to smooth surfaces like the biological version. The research contributed to biomimetics and sparked interest in robotics and consumer products.

His publications span broad condensed matter topics: mesoscopic physics, thin films and heterostructures, matter behaviour in high magnetic fields.

Continued Research at Manchester

After the Nobel Prize, Geim stayed active at Manchester with the titles of Regius Professor of Physics and Royal Society Research Professor. His focus increasingly turned to two-dimensional materials beyond graphene and nanoscale material behaviour.

August 2025 brought an announcement from National Graphene Institute researchers connected to his group. They'd made the "cleanest graphene ever," allowing observation of quantum phenomena in magnetic fields that had been inaccessible before. That October, his Manchester team published findings on unexpected nanoscale water properties, showing that confined water behaves in ways classical models don't predict.

International academic engagement matters to him too. November 2025 saw him participate in the Taiwan Bridges Project, an effort linking Taiwan with international partners to advance higher education and research talent development.

Doctoral Students

Several of his doctoral students have built notable academic careers. Konstantin Novoselov remains the most prominent, sharing the 2010 Nobel Prize and continuing as a leading researcher in two-dimensional materials. Others he's supervised include Soren Neubeck, Rashid Jalil, Da Jiang, Rahul Raveendran-Nair, Ibtsam Riaz, and Gareth Young.

Personal Life

He's married to Irina Grigorieva, also a physicist and academic at Manchester. Their shared professional interests have made them a notable partnership in condensed matter physics circles.

National identity has been a public topic around Geim. Born in the Soviet Union as an ethnic German, he acquired Dutch citizenship working at Nijmegen. That's the citizenship he had in 2010. British citizenship came in 2012 so he could accept a knighthood. He's described himself as Dutch-British.

July 2025 brought surprising news. Dutch and international media reported that Geim had lost his Dutch nationality. Under Dutch law, citizens acquiring another country's nationality may lose Dutch citizenship if they don't take steps to keep it. When he accepted British citizenship in 2012 for his knighthood, he wasn't told about the consequences. In 2025 he learned he no longer qualified for a Dutch passport. The case drew attention as an example of tensions between national citizenship laws and the increasingly international world of modern science.

Recognition

Throughout his career Geim's received numerous awards and honours. They reflect both his research impact and his broader influence on physics and materials science.

The Nobel Prize in Physics stands highest. He shared it with Konstantin Novoselov in 2010 for graphene experiments. That same year, the Dutch government appointed him Knight Commander of the Order of the Netherlands Lion in recognition of his scientific contributions.

In 2012, he became a Knight Bachelor in the United Kingdom's New Year Honours, gaining the title "Sir."

The Copley Medal followed in 2013 from the Royal Society, one of the world's oldest and most prestigious scientific awards for outstanding research achievements in any branch of science.

The Institute of Physics gave him the Mott Medal and Prize. In 2006, Scientific American named him among their 50, recognising individuals and teams for outstanding leadership in science and technology that year.

Beyond the Nobel, he holds a Guinness World Record as the only person to win both a Nobel Prize and an Ig Nobel Prize.

Fellowships and honorary degrees came from institutions around the world. He's a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Legacy

Geim's most lasting contribution is graphene. It's become one of modern physics and engineering's most studied materials. The 2004 isolation opened the entire field of two-dimensional materials research. Since then, dozens of other atomically thin materials have joined graphene: boron nitride, molybdenum disulfide, transition metal dichalcogenides. Scientists can stack and combine them into van der Waals heterostructures, creating new possibilities in electronics, photonics, energy storage, and sensing.

The National Graphene Institute at Manchester emerged largely because of Geim and Novoselov's work. It's become a major hub for graphene research and turning lab findings into industrial applications. His continued work there, including 2025 findings on ultra-clean graphene and nanoscale water behaviour, shows the research programme he helped establish remains productive.

He's also become known as an advocate for curiosity-driven research and intellectual risk-taking. His "Friday night experiments" were informal, unfunded explorations of unusual ideas. Both the levitating frog and graphene came from this approach. Vastly different discoveries, truly different impacts, but both emerged from willingness to chase questions outside conventional research agendas. He speaks and writes often about keeping exploration alive in an era of increasingly targeted, short-term funding demands.

His unique position holding both a Nobel Prize and an Ig Nobel Prize makes him an emblem of something important: humour, playfulness, and genuine scientific achievement aren't mutually exclusive. They're actually deeply connected.