Biography. Andrey Geim and Konstantin Novoselov: "New Russians" Nobel Laureates

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, Alexei Sitnikov, director of the international cooperation department of the Skolkovo Foundation, 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 terms of 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.

Sir Andrei Konstantinovich Geim (born October 21, 1958, Sochi) is a Soviet, Dutch and British physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics 2010 (together with Konstantin Novoselov), a member of the Royal Society of London (since 2007), known primarily as one from 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.

Have you people gone crazy there? Do they think that if they give someone a bag of gold, then everyone can be invited?

Game Andrey Konstantinovich

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.

In 1990 he received a scholarship from the Royal Society of England and left the Soviet Union. He worked at the University of Nottingham, the University of Bath and also briefly at the University of Copenhagen before becoming Associate Professor at the University of Nijmegen 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.

(10) Soviet, Dutch and British physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics 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 producing 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 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). 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, spoke about what Russian science lacks, what unites it 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, the Nobel laureate told RBC correspondent Kirill Sirotkin about strange democracy, cheerleaders, swollen brains, stagnation and the townsfolk threatening the death of humanity, as well as about the kickbacks 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 the "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 the honorary chairman of the Public Council of the Ministry of Education and Science, said that he supports the head of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation Dmitry Livanov in reforming the system of Russian academic science, Interfax reports.

“Instead of swearing, polarizing, saying ‘give 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 the Ekho Moskvy radio station, announced on his Twitter that Andrei Geim, the 2010 Nobel Prize winner in physics, agreed to become the honorary chairman of the Public Council under the Russian Ministry of Education and Science. Evgeny Yamburg, director of the Moscow Education Center No. 109, and Stanislav Smirnov, an employee of St. Petersburg State University, became co-chairs.
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:

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics 2010

Laureate of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010, who discovered graphene together with Konstantin Novoselov. Langworthy Professor of Physics at the University of Manchester. A native of Russia, a citizen of the Netherlands.

Andrei Konstantinovich Geim was born on October 21, 1958 in Sochi,. His parents, Konstantin Alekseevich Game and Nina Nikolaevna Bayer, were engineers, by nationality - Volga Germans,,. From 1965 to 1975, Game lived and studied at School No. 3 in Nalchik, from which he graduated with a gold medal. After leaving school, he tried to enter the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (MEPhI), but they refused to accept him there because of his nationality,. Therefore, he worked for one year as a mechanic at the Nalchik Electrovacuum Plant, of which his father was the chief engineer. , . In 1976, Game again received a refusal from MEPhI and entered the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), where he defended his diploma in 1982. After that, Geim began working as a graduate student at the Institute of Solid State Physics of the USSR Academy of Sciences (ISSP), where in 1987 he defended his Ph.D. problems of microelectronics and high-purity materials in Chernogolovka, created on the basis of the Institute of Solid State Physics,. In Chernolovka, Geim was engaged in metal physics, which, in his own words, quickly got tired of him.

In 1990, Game went to the UK for an internship at the University of Nottingham and no longer worked in the USSR and Russia. In 1992, he studied science at the University of Bath (University of Bath), from 1993 to 1994 he worked at the University of Copenhagen (University of Copenhagen). In 1994, Game became a researcher, and since 2000 - a professor at the University of Nijmegen (University of Nijmegen) in the Netherlands,. He received the citizenship of this country, renouncing the Russian one and correcting his name to Andre Geim,,. In parallel, from 1998 to 2000 Game was a special professor at the University of Nottingham,.

In 2000, Game, together with Michael Berry, received the Ig Nobel (anti-Nobel) Prize for an article in 1997, which described an experiment in the field of diamagnetic levitation - the co-authors achieved the levitation of a frog using a superconducting magnet,,,,,,. The press also noted that Game managed to create an adhesive tape that acts on the adhesion mechanisms of a gecko,,,, and in 2001 he included the hamster "Tisha" (H.A.M.S. ter Tisha) as a co-author of one article,.

In 2000, Game and his wife received an invitation to the University of Manchester and left the Netherlands a year later, leaving a negative review of the local scientific environment. He became professor of physics at the University of Manchester, a post he held until 2007. In 2002, he headed the department of condensed matter physics, as well as the Center for Mesoscopic Physics and Nanotechnology (Centre for Mesoscience & Nanotechnology) of this university. Since 2007, he has held the position of Langworthy Professor of Physics at the University of Manchester,,,,.

In 2004, Game, together with his student Konstantin Novoselov, discovered graphene - a two-dimensional layer of graphite one atom thick, which has good thermal conductivity, high mechanical rigidity and other useful properties,,. In 2007, for this discovery, Game was awarded the Mott Prize of the International Institute of Physics (Institute of Physics), and in 2009 became a professor at the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge. In 2010, Game was awarded the John J Carty Award from the US National Academy of Sciences and the Hughes Medal from the Royal Society of Great Britain.

In 2006, Scientific American included Geim in the list of the 50 most influential scientists in the world, and in 2008 Russian Newsweek named Geim one of the ten most talented Russian emigrant scientists. In total, by 2010, Game has published more than 180 scientific papers in peer-reviewed publications,.

In October 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics "for their seminal experiments with the two-dimensional material graphene".

After the news of the awarding of the Nobel Prize to immigrants from Russia, they were invited to work in Russia at the Skolkovo innovation center, but Game said in an interview that he was not going to return to his homeland: “Staying in Russia was like spending my life fighting against windmills, and work is a hobby for me, and I absolutely did not want to spend my life on mouse fuss", ,. Then he called himself in an interview "European and 20 percent Kabardino-Balkarian". Despite his unwillingness to return to Russia, he noted the high quality of fundamental education at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology: in 2006, Game said that those parts of the brain that he had lost due to alcohol libations after exams at the institute were replaced by shares occupied by the information received at the institute which he never used. He also collaborated with the Institute of Solid State Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Chernogolovka, where they investigated the possibility of creating a graphene transistor.

The press noted that Game is not an ordinary scientist, but in essence is closer to an inventor: he often takes the first idea that comes across as a basis and tries to develop it, and sometimes something interesting comes out of this.

At the end of 2011, Game and Novoselov were awarded the title of Knights Bachelor by decree of the British Queen Elizabeth II,.

Game is married. His wife, Irina Grigoryeva, is Russian and has a Ph.D. and has also worked at the University of Manchester since 2000. They have a daughter, a citizen of the Netherlands,,. In his spare time, Game enjoys mountain climbing.

Used materials

New Year honors list: Knights. - Guardian.co.uk, 31.12.2011

Elena Pakhomova. Russian Nobel laureates were awarded the title of knight-bachelors. - RIA News, 31.01.2011

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, Game's research team at the University of Manchester continues to explore 2D materials and make 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 the ITMO University news portal 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 bit away from 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 - this has never been done 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. This is a new class of 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 a rather 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 of scientific research must be communicated to a wide range 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.