Sir Andre Konstantin Geim (; born 21 October 1958) is a Russian-born British-Dutch physicist. Geim was appointed as a chair professor at the University of Hong Kong and assumed his tenure in 2026.
Geim was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with Konstantin Novoselov for his work on graphene. At that time he was a Dutch citizen. He later became a British citizen to accept a knighthood and considered himself Dutch-British.
Previously he was working in England in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester. Geim has been Regius Professor of Physics and Royal Society Research Professor at the National Graphene Institute.
He was also previously awarded an Ig Nobel Prize in 2000 for levitating a frog using its intrinsic magnetism. He is the first and only individual, as of 2026, to have received both Nobel and Ig Nobel prizes, for which he holds a Guinness World Record.
Education Andre Geim was born to Konstantin Alekseyevich Geim and Nina Nikolayevna Bayer in Sochi, Russia, on 21 October 1958. Both his parents were engineers of German origin; Geim says his maternal great-grandmother was Jewish. His grandfather Nikolay N. Bayer (Mykola Baier in Ukrainian) was a notable public figure in Ukraine of the early 20th century, one of its first nature conservationists and the founder/first rector of Kaminiets-Podilskyi University.Wikipedia page in Ukrainian: Баєр Микола Миколайович
In 1965, the family moved to Nalchik, where he studied at a high school. After graduation, he applied to the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute. He took the entrance exams twice, but attributes his failure to qualify to discrimination on account of his German ethnicity. He then applied to the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), where he was accepted.
He said that at the time he would not have chosen to study solid-state physics, preferring particle physics or astrophysics, but is now happy with his choice. He received a diplom (MSc degree equivalent) from MIPT in 1982 and a Candidate of Sciences (PhD equivalent) degree in metal physics in 1987 from the Institute of Solid State Physics (ISSP) at the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) in Chernogolovka.. University of Manchester. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
Academic career After earning his PhD with Victor Petrashov, Geim worked as a research scientist at the Institute for Microelectronics Technology (IMT) at RAS, and from 1990 as a post-doctoral fellow at the universities of Nottingham (twice), Bath, and Copenhagen. He said that while at Nottingham he could spend his time on research rather than "swimming through Soviet treacle", and determined to leave the Soviet Union."A physicist of many talents". Physics World. February 2006. Retrieved 24 October 2010.
He obtained his first tenured position in 1994, when he was appointed associate professor at Radboud University Nijmegen, where he worked on mesoscopic superconductivity. He later gained Dutch citizenship. One of his doctoral students at Nijmegen was Konstantin Novoselov, who went on to become his main research partner. However, Geim has said that he had an unpleasant time during his academic career in the Netherlands.
He was offered professorships at Nijmegen and Eindhoven, but turned them down as he found the Dutch academic system too hierarchical and full of petty politicking. "This can be pretty unpleasant at times," he says. "It's not like the British system where every staff member is an equal quantity." On the other hand, Geim writes in his Nobel lecture that "the situation was a bit surreal because outside the university walls I received a warm-hearted welcome from everyone around, including Jan Kees and other academics."Nobel lecture http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2010/geim_lecture.pdf (Prof. Jan Kees Maan was the research boss of Geim during his time at Radboud University Nijmegen.)
In 2001 he became a professor of physics at the University of Manchester, and was appointed director of the Manchester Centre for Mesoscience and Nanotechnology in 2002. Geim's wife and long-standing co-author, Irina Grigorieva, also moved to Manchester as a lecturer in 2001. The same year, they were joined by Novoselov who moved to Manchester from Nijmegen, which awarded him a PhD in 2004. Geim served as Langworthy Professor between 2007 and 2013, leaving this endowed professorship to Novoselov in 2012. Also, between 2007 and 2010 Geim was an EPSRC Senior Research Fellow before becoming one of Royal Society Research Professors.
Geim holds many honorary professorships including those from Tsinghua University (China), Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (Russia), and Radboud University Nijmegen (Netherlands)."Discoverer of graphene back at Radboud University as professor". Radboud University Nijmegen. 15 February 2010. Retrieved 24 October 2010.
In 2026, Geim commenced his tenure as a chair professor at the Faculty of Science of the University of Hong Kong.
Research
Geim's achievements include the discovery of a simple method for isolating single atomic layers of graphite, known as graphene, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Manchester and IMT. The team published their findings in October 2004 in Science.(October 2009). . APS News (American Physical Society) 18 (9): 2. See the online version here ."Radical fabric is one atom thick". BBC News. 22 October 2004. Retrieved 24 October 2010.
Graphene consists of one-atom-thick layers of carbon atoms arranged in two-dimensional hexagons,Palmer, Jason. "Bendy gadget future for graphene". BBC News. 14 January 2009. Retrieved 24 October 2010. and is the thinnest material in the world, as well as one of the strongest and hardest. The material has many potential applications.
Geim said one of the first applications of graphene could be in the development of flexible touchscreens, and that he has not patented the material because he would need a specific application and an industrial partner.
Geim also developed a biomimetic adhesive which became known as gecko tape—so called because it works on the same principle as adhesion of gecko feet—research of which is still in the early stages.Black, Richard. "Gecko inspires sticky tape". BBC News. 1 June 2003. Retrieved 19 October 2010. It is hoped that the development will eventually allow humans to scale ceilings, like Spider-Man.Highfield, Roger. "Gecko lizards inspire 'Spiderman gloves'". The Daily Telegraph. 23 January 2008. Retrieved 25 October 2010.
Geim's research in 1997 into the possible effects of magnetism on water scaling led to the famous discovery of direct diamagnetic levitation of water, and led to a frog being levitated."The Frog That Learned to Fly". Radboud University Nijmegen. Retrieved 19 October 2010. For Geim's account of diamagnetic levitation, see Geim, Andrey. For this experiment, he and Michael Berry received the 2000 Ig Nobel Prize. "We were asked first whether we dared to accept this prize, and I take pride in our sense of humor and self-deprecation that we did".
Geim has also carried out research on mesoscopic physics and superconductivity.
He said of the range of subjects he has studied: "Many people choose a subject for their PhD and then continue the same subject until they retire. I despise this approach. I have changed my subject five times before I got my first tenured position and that helped me to learn different subjects." "When one dares to try, rewards are not guaranteed but at least it is an adventure."
Expanding the scope of his research adventures, Geim started studying low-dimensional water in 2012, after his Nobel-prize achievements. A part of this work was acknowledged by the 2018 Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Creativity Prize for Water.
He named his favourite hamster, H.A.M.S. ter Tisha, co-author in a 2001 research paper.
Honours and awards In 2006 he appeared on the Scientific American 50."Scientific American 50: SA 50 Winners and Contributors". Scientific American. 12 November 2006. Retrieved 24 October 2010. The Institute of Physics awarded him the 2007 Mott Medal and Prize "for his discovery of a new class of materials—free-standing two-dimensional crystals—in particular graphene"."2007 Mott medal and prize". Institute of Physics. Retrieved 24 October 2010. Geim was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2007. His certificate of election reads:
He shared the 2008 EPS Europhysics Prize with Novoselov "for discovering and isolating a single free-standing atomic layer of carbon (graphene) and elucidating its remarkable electronic properties".Johnston, Hamish. "Graphene pioneers bag Europhysics prize" . Physics World. 2 September 2008. Retrieved 24 October 2010. In 2009 he received the Körber European Science Award."Graphene pioneer wins major international prize". University of Manchester. 21 April 2009. Retrieved 24 October 2010. The US National Academy of Sciences honoured him with the 2010 John J. Carty Award for the Advancement of Science "for his experimental realisation and investigation of graphene, the two-dimensional form of carbon"."John J. Carty Award for the Advancement of Science" . United States National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
He was awarded one of six Royal Society 2010 Anniversary Research Professorships."Top researchers receive Royal Society 2010 Anniversary Professorships" . Royal Society. 16 October 2009. Retrieved 19 October 2010. The Royal Society added its 2010 Hughes Medal "for his revolutionary discovery of graphene and elucidation of its remarkable properties"."The Hughes Medal (1902)". Royal Society. Retrieved 19 October 2010. He was awarded honorary doctorates from Delft University of Technology,"TU Delft honorary doctorate Geim wins Nobel Prize for graphene research". Delft University of Technology. 5 October 2010. Retrieved 24 October 2010. ETH Zürich, the University of Antwerp"Prizes and awards" . University of Antwerp. Retrieved 25 October 2010. and the University of Manchester. In 2010, Geim was appointed as Knight Commander of the Order of the Netherlands Lion for his contribution to Dutch Science.
In 2011, Geim became a corresponding member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is Honorary Professor of Moscow Phys-Tech, Honorary Professor of the University of Nijmegen, Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Physics (HonFInstP), Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (HonFRSC), Honorary Fellow of Singapore Institute of Physics, Honorary Professor of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Geim was furthermore made a Knight Bachelor in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to science. He was elected a foreign associate of the US National Academy of Sciences in May 2012. He was awarded the Copley Medal in 2013 and the Carbon Medal in 2016. Geim received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 2017. In addition to this he also won the 2018 Fray International Sustainability Award given to him by FLOGEN Star Outreach at SIPS 2018. Ig Nobel Prize in Physics
Geim shared the 2000 Ig Nobel Prize in Physics with Sir Michael Berry for the frog experiment. The experiment involved magnetic properties of water scaling to levitate a small frog with magnets,"Winners of the Ig Nobel Prize". Ig Nobel Prize. Retrieved 19 October 2010. which he and Berry reported in the European Journal of Physics in 1997.
By 2022, his Ig Nobel Prize-winning work on the magnetic levitation of a frog was reportedly part of the inspiration for China's lunar gravity research facility. Nobel Prize in Physics