Highlights, programs, photos, videos, and more from past Ig Nobel Prize Ceremonies,
dating back to 1991.
Baham Sadeghi produced a series of six mini-movies, each featuring a different Ig Nobel Prize winner.
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Watch the video of Ig Nobel Ceremonies dating back to 1995:
2016 : 2015
2014 : 2013 : 2012 : 2011 : 2010 : 2009
2008 : 2007 : 2006 : 2005 : 2004 : 2003
2002 : 2001 : 2000 : 1999 : 1996 : 1995
Each year's ceremony has its own page, from 1997:
2016 : 2015
2014 : 2013 : 2012 : 2011 : 2010 : 2009
2008 : 2007 : 2006 : 2005 : 2004 : 2003
2002 : 2001 : 2000 : 1999 : 1998 : 1997
Each year has its own page of eyewitness accounts and press clippings:
2014 : 2013
2012 : 2011 : 2010 : 2009 : 2008
2007 : 2006 : 2005 : 2004 : 2003
2002 : 2001 : 2000 : 1999-1994
Science Friday Broadcasts
Every year since 1994, NPR's Science Friday program has broadcast a specially-edited version of that year's Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony on the day after Thanksgiving. Listen to those shows:
2014
2013 : 2012 : 2011 : 2010 : 2009
2008 : 2007 : 2006 : 2005 : 2004
2003 : 2002 : 2001 : 2000 : 1999
1998 : 1997 : 1996 : 1995 : 1994
The 24/7 Lectures
The 24/7 Lectures began in 2001 and continue with more and more experts describing their specialties - first in 24 seconds,
and then in 7 words. Before theses, there were the Heisenberg Certainty Lectures.
We put them all together into one 24/7 Lectures page.
The Operas
Every Ig nobel Prize Ceremony has premiered its own mini-opera, since 1996. They are written by Marc Abrahams and friends, and performed, during the ceremony, by professional opera singers and Nobel Laureates.
- 2016: "The Last Second"
- 2015: "The Best Life"
- 2014: "What's Eating You?"
- 2013: "The Blonsky Device"
- 2012: "The Intelligent Designer and The Universe" [libretto (PDF)]
- 2011: "Chemist in a Coffee Shop" [libretto (PDF)]
- 2010: "The Bacterial Opera" [video]
- 2009: "The Big Bank Opera" [video: Act 1 Act 2 Act 3 Act 4]
- 2008: "Redundancy, Again" [libretto]
- 2007: "Chicken Versus Egg" [libretto]
- 2006: "Inertia Makes The World Go Around" [libretto (PDF)
- 2005: "The Count of Infinity" [libretto (PDF)]
- 2004: "The Atkins Diet Opera" [libretto (PDF)]
- 2003: "Atom and Eve" [libretto]
- 2002: "The Jargon Opera" [libretto]
- 2001: "The Wedding Complex" [libretto]
- 2000: "The Brain Food Opera" [libretto]
- 1999: "The Seedy Opera" [libretto]
- 1998: "La Forza Del Duct Tape" [libretto]
- 1997: "Il Kaboom Grosso" [libretto]
- 1996: "Lament Del Cockroach" [libretto]
The Annals of Improbable Research
Every year, one issue of the Annals of Improbable Research magazine is devoted to coverage of that year's Ig winners and the associated Ceremony.
Books
There are several books (in several languages) about the Ig Nobel Prizes with copiously juicy details about the winners.
Find these in The Improbable Store
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1998 winner Troy Hurtubise holds aloft his Ig Nobel Prize. Troy returned to the 1999 ceremony, and gave one of the Ig lectures two days later. |
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11-year old Emily Rosa, the youngest person ever to publish a research paper in a major medical journal, delivered a keynote address at the '98 Ig ceremony, as Nobellian William Lipscomb looked on. Emily returned to the 1999 ceremony, and gave one of the 1999 Ig Lectures two days later. |
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Among those who helped honor the 1998 winners were (left to right) Nobel Laureates Sheldon Glashow and Dudley Herschbach, magician/science observer James ("the Amazing") Randi, Harvard Physics Professor Roy Glauber, Nobellian Richard Roberts, and referee John Barrett. |
Many people say memorable things about the Ig Nobels: Personal reminiscences of some participants:
Irish Times,
Le Parisienne,
Japan Times, Vetenskaps-Nyheter
[video],
La Vanguardia,
Chemical & Engineering News,
Cosmic Log,
Psychological Science,
Yale News,
The Homer Tribune,
Popular Mechanics,
City of Vilnius,
The Daily Edge,
Ars Technica,
Niagara This Week,
Central European University,
Financial Times[AUDIO],
Die
Zeit, Huffington
Post, Maclean's,
Computerworld,
Daily
Telegraph, RTT
News, BBC
News [VIDEO], Pour
la Science, Observator [Romania, with VIDEO], The
Hindu, Time,
Time Machine LA-7-TV [VIDEO], Gulf
News, Irish
Times, Economic
Times (and another editorial),
The
Independent, The
Street, INTER TV Ukraine [VIDEO],
Dagens
Nyheter, Business
Daily, New Europe, Reader's
Digest, Maxim, Dagbladet,
Jeopardy!,
BMJ,
San Gabriel Valley
Tribune, Tages
Anzeiger, Innovation Finance Observer [1
and 2],
Clarin,San
Diego Union-Tribune, KCAL-TV [video and
video],
Financieel
Dagblad, Ping Pong Top [video], Dundee
Courier, Science
Life, ABC Radio National [video and,
quite differently, audio], Gizomodo,
Financial
Times, Have I Got News for You [video],
Japan
Times,
Ukraine Weekly
Mirror, Mass
High Tech, Nos
por Ca [video],
JoongAng,
Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette,
The World [AUDIO],
AOL
News, Wall Street Journal [VIDEO],
Chronicle [VIDEO],
MSNBC [VIDEO],
Reader's
Digest,
Nature
Network, Der
Spiegel, Live
Science, ABC News [video],
The
Street, Times
of India, Extreme Surprise [video], Popular
Mechanics, How
Things Work, Polityka,
La
Repubblica, Vancouver
Sun, Livemint,
Channel 4 News [video], Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette, TG2 [Italy, with video],
NOWNews [Taiwan, with video],
La Recherche,
Novayagazeta,
Nature
News, Montreal
Gazette, China
Youth Daily, L'Expression,
El
Nacional, Wall
Street Journal, The
Heights, FNN [Japan, with video],
Network
World, Upstreet, CBS
News Sunday Morning [with video],
MSN [in two parts: 1
and 2],
ACS
Chemical Biology, Associated
Press, NTV [Russia,
with video], Popular
Science, El
Spectador, The
Age, Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette,Quest,
New
Scientist, Muy
Interesante Junior,
Nashua
Telegraph, Montreal
Gazette, Discovery
Channel's Daily Planet [video report], The
Sun, Noordelicht,
Etiqueta
Negra, National
Business Review, The
Sentinel, Agence
France Presse, Wired
News, Nature,
BBC, Gulf
News, Cambridge
Chronicle, Shanghai
Daily, Montreal
Gazette, Blogcritics,
CNN
[with
video],
The Diamondback, Asahi
Shimbun, Canadian
Medical Association Journal, Financial
Times, The
Huddersfield Daily Examiner,
The Washington Post,
The
Guardian, China Central Television [20-minute video report],
Russkii Newsweek(1,
2,
3,
4),
Asia-Pacific Perspectives,
The Today Show,
The Chronicle of Higher Education,
The Guardian,
The Daily Yomiuri,
Andre Geim in his official
Nobel interview on the day he won a Nobel Prize
in physics, ten years after winning an Ig Nobel Prize in physics, and on
NPR [AUDIO]
and The Guardian [AUDIO],
Karl
Halvor Teigen [VIDEO], Hideki Tanemura,
part of the Wasabi Alarm invention team (and some business colleagues),
Anna Wilkinson,
Peter Snyder [VIDEO],
Mirjam Tuk
[AUDIO],
Kate Clancy,
Andrea Rapisarda,
Elena Bodnar,
Natasha Rosenberg [the original Miss Sweetie Poo],
Miguel Apatiga,
Dan Simons,
Chittaranjan Andrade, Fumiaki Taguchi
(1 and 2),
Stephan Bolliger [audio],
Elena Bodnar [video,
newspaper,
newspaper].
Paul Krugman,
Peaco Todd,
Robert Matthews,
Steve Nadis, Dan
Ariely and Francis Fesmire [video], Chuang-Ye Hong [video],
Glenda Browne,
Paul&Storm and Benoit Mandelbrot [video],
Snively, Peter Barss,
Francis Fesmire,
Victor Benno Meyer-Rochow,
Ramesh Balasubramaniam,
Yukio Hirose,
Kees Moeliker(a large PDF file),
Kees Moeliker (again),
Mark Benecke,
Theodore Gray [with video]
, Annalee Newitz,
Max Sherman, Michael Berry,
Buck Weimer,
Ig Nobel newlyweds Lisa and Will,
the Boston Mensa delegation,
Ida Sabelis,
Arnd Leike [with video],
Lawrence Nyveen, Arvid Vatle,
Karl Kruszelnicki,
Gordon McNaughton.
