In this biography
Quick facts
- Born
- 21 October 1958
- Birthplace
- Sochi, Russia
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Nationality
- Not independently established
- Known for
- Co-leading experiments that isolated graphene and established its unusual electronic properties
Why this life matters
His graphene work linked obtaining a thin material with measurements that made it a useful electronic system rather than only an interesting specimen.
Timeline
Key moments
Born in Sochi
Geim was born on 21 October.
Manchester appointment
Moved his research to the University of Manchester.
Physics Nobel
Shared the prize with Konstantin Novoselov.
A Russian education and an experimental direction
Andre Konstantin Geim was born in Sochi in 1958. His autobiography describes school in Nalchik, difficult university entrance experiences and the scientific education that led to his doctorate in 1987. He trained in physics and later worked in several European laboratories, including Nijmegen in the Netherlands. The early account is not a retrospective list of graphene achievements: it ends before that work and records the educational and institutional circumstances from which his experimental career developed. The later research has to be followed through its own records.
Manchester and a continuing partnership
Geim moved to the University of Manchester in 2001. Konstantin Novoselov, who had worked with him in Nijmegen, joined the new laboratory. Their collaboration drew on small-scale experimental work and the ability to investigate unfamiliar physical systems. The 2004 carbon-film paper named several co-authors, not only the two researchers who later received the Nobel Prize. Its significance came from combining a way to obtain and handle very thin material with measurements of the resulting electrical behaviour. A specimen and a tested physical system were related but different achievements.
Graphene as an electronic system
The 2004 report described atomically thin carbon films that remained stable under ambient conditions and showed an ambipolar electric-field effect. Applying a gate could change the kind and concentration of charge carriers. This mattered because it made the material experimentally controllable, rather than merely visually thin. Later work extended the electronic questions, including the unusual Hall effect investigated with Novoselov and colleagues. Geim’s 2010 Nobel recognition was therefore tied to an experimental research programme whose successive papers established different properties.
A prize for work that continued through a field
Geim shared the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics with Novoselov for experiments concerning graphene. Their work helped make a single carbon layer an accessible platform for studying electronic behaviour. It did not mean that every anticipated graphene product had already been demonstrated or that every thin graphite sample had identical properties. The useful legacy is more concrete: obtain a suitable specimen, make electrical contact and test how its behaviour changes under controlled conditions. That chain explains why material preparation and measurement both belong in his biography.
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions about Andre Geim
- Who shared Andre Geim’s 2010 Nobel Prize?
- Konstantin Novoselov shared the physics prize with Geim for experiments concerning graphene.
- Why did electrical measurements matter after a thin carbon film was obtained?
- They established how the film conducted and how a gate changed its carriers, making it a controllable electronic system.
Keep exploring
Lives connected to this story
- Charles Kao
Compare a different materials-to-technology story in which an electronic or optical property had to be measured, not assumed from appearance.
Sources and further reading
Explore the evidence
These references support the biography and offer further reading. Official records, first-person accounts and independent reporting provide different perspectives; image records document attribution and licensing.
- 1. Novoselov, Geim and colleagues / ScienceElectric field effect in atomically thin carbon films
- 2. Novoselov, Geim and colleagues / NatureTwo-dimensional gas of massless Dirac fermions in graphene
- 3. Andre Geim / Nobel Prize.orgRandom Walk to Graphene: Nobel lecture slides
- 4. Nobel Prize OutreachAndre Geim — Facts
- 5. Nobel Prize OutreachAndre Geim — Biographical
