---
title: "List of Ig Nobel Prize winners"
chunk: 5/5
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ig_Nobel_Prize_winners"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:05:15.055148+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

Biology: Presented to Richard Wassersug of Dalhousie University, for his firsthand report, "On the Comparative Palatability of Some Dry-Season Tadpoles from Costa Rica".
Chemistry: Presented to Donatella Marazziti, Alessandra Rossi, and Giovanni B. Cassano of the University of Pisa, Italy, and Hagop S. Akiskal of the University of California, San Diego, for their discovery that, biochemically, romantic love may be indistinguishable from having severe obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Computer Science: Presented to Chris Niswander of Tucson, Arizona, for inventing PawSense, software that detects when a cat is walking across your computer keyboard.
Economics: Presented to The Reverend Sun Myung Moon, for bringing efficiency and steady growth to the mass marriage industry, with, according to his reports, a 36-couple wedding in 1960, a 430-couple wedding in 1968, an 1,800-couple wedding in 1975, a 6,000-couple wedding in 1982, a 30,000-couple wedding in 1992, a 360,000-couple wedding in 1995, and a 36,000,000-couple wedding in 1997.
Literature: Presented to Jasmuheen (formerly known as Ellen Greve) of Australia, first lady of Breatharianism, for her book Living on Light, (ISBN 978-3-929512-35-9) which explains that although some people do eat food, they don't ever really need to.
Medicine: Presented to Willibrord Weijmar Schultz, Pek van Andel, and Eduard Mooyaart of Groningen, the Netherlands, and Ida Sabelis of Amsterdam, for their illuminating report "Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Male and Female Genitals During Coitus and Female Sexual Arousal."
Peace: Presented to the Royal Navy, for ordering its sailors to stop using live cannon shells, and to instead just shout "Bang!"
Physics: Presented to Andre Geim of the University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and Michael Berry of Bristol University, England, for using magnets to levitate a frog. Geim later shared the 2010 Nobel Prize in physics for his research on graphene, the first time anyone has been awarded both the Ig Nobel and (real) Nobel Prizes. By 2022, their magnetic levitation of a frog was reportedly part of the inspiration for China's lunar gravity research facility.
Psychology: Presented to David Dunning of Cornell University and Justin Kruger of the University of Illinois, for their modest report, "Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments".
Public Health: Presented to Jonathan Wyatt, Gordon McNaughton, and William Tullett of Glasgow, for their alarming report, "The Collapse of Toilets in Glasgow".

== 2001 ==
The ceremony took place on 4 October 2001.

== 2002 ==
The ceremony took place on 3 October 2002.

== 2003 ==
The ceremony took place on 2 October 2003.

== 2004 ==
The ceremony took place on 30 September 2004.

== 2005 ==
The ceremony took place on 6 October 2005.

== 2006 ==
The ceremony took place on 5 October 2006.

== 2007 ==
The ceremony took place on 4 October 2007.

== 2008 ==
The ceremony took place on 2 October 2008.

== 2009 ==
The ceremony took place on 1 October 2009.

== 2010 ==
The ceremony took place on 30 September 2010.

== 2011 ==
The ceremony took place on 29 September 2011.

== 2012 ==
The ceremony took place on 20 September 2012.

== 2013 ==
The ceremony took place on 12 September 2013.

== 2014 ==
The ceremony took place on 18 September 2014.

== 2015 ==
The 25th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony took place on 17 September 2015 and was held at the Harvard's Sanders Theatre.

== 2016 ==
The ceremony took place on 22 September 2016.

== 2017 ==
The ceremony took place on 14 September 2017.

== 2018 ==
The ceremony took place on 13 September 2018.

== 2019 ==

The ceremony took place on 12 September 2019.

== 2020 ==
The ceremony took place on 17 September 2020 and was webcast.

== 2021 ==
The 31st First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony took place on Thursday, 9 September 2021 and was webcast.

== 2022 ==
The 32nd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony took place on Thursday, 15 September 2022, and was presented in a webcast format.

== 2023 ==
The 33rd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony took place on Thursday, 14 September 2023, and was presented in webcast.

== 2024 ==
The 34th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony took place on Thursday, 12 September 2024, and was held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

== 2025 ==
The 35th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony took place on Thursday, 18 September 2025, and was held at Boston University.

== People who received multiple Ig Nobel Prizes ==
Jacques Benveniste, 1991 and 1998 Chemistry
Joseph Keller, 1999 and 2012 Physics
Toshiyuki Nakagaki and Atsushi Tero, 2008 Cognitive Science and 2010 Transportation Planning
Alessandro Pluchino and Andrea Rapisarda, 2010 Management and 2022 Economics
Alexander Lukashenko, 2013 Peace and 2020 Medical Education
David Hu and Patricia Yang, 2015 and 2019 Physics

== Ig Nobel Prize winners who also received the Nobel Prize ==
Andre Geim, 2000 Ig Nobel Prize in Physics and 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics.

== Notes ==

== References ==

== External links ==

Ig Nobel Prize Winner List (public domain)
Gold, Jon (13 September 2013). "2013 Ig Nobel Prize winners: from opera-loving mice to stargazing dung beetles". Network World. Archived from the original on 2 October 2013.