Apr 14 2009
On Friday, April 17, 2009, the Körber Foundation will present the Korber European Science Award for 2009, worth 750,000 euros in prize money, to Andre Geim in Hamburg's city hall at 11:00 a.m. Graphene, the miracle material discovered by the physicist of the University of Manchester, holds the promise to revolutionize microelectronics.
The Körber European Science Award supports European scientists who are pursuing particularly innovative research projects. Andre Geim, physicist at the University of Manchester and Fellow of the Royal Society, developed the first two-dimensional crystals made of carbon atoms. These graphenes not only promise to revolutionize semiconductor, sensor, and display technology, but also lead us to expect breakthroughs in basic research in quantum physics.
Graphenes consist of a single layer of individual, densely packed carbon atoms that are woven into one stable layer like a wire mesh. In the world of atoms, nothing can be flatter. Among other things, Geim has succeeded in using graphene to develop prototypes of tiny transistors. They are some 10 times smaller than the smallest of the traditional prototypes. In the not all too distant future, graphene transistors could replace transistors made of silicon. Andre Geim was born in Russia in 1958 to German parents.
He studied physics in Moscow and was awarded his Ph.D. by the Institute for Solid State Physics in Chernogolovka, Russia, in 1987. After working there for another 3 years, he conducted research in England and Denmark. In 1994, he was appointed Associate Professor at the University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands.
In 2001 he moved to the University of Manchester, where he is still active as professor of physics. Geim has published numerous pioneering articles and books and is considered a genius of his discipline. The Körber European Science Award is presented annually to scientists working in Europe for their outstanding scientific achievements and in particular for their future-looking research projects. An international trustee committee under the chairmanship of the president of the "Max-Planck-Gesellschaft", Professor Peter Gruss, decides on the awarding of the prize. Among its winners are the Nobel laureates for medicine Luc Montagnier and Françoise Barré-Sinoussi.