Marc Abrahams

Marc Abrahams writes about things that are surprising—so surprising that they make people LAUGH, then THINK. 

IG NOBEL PRIZES: Marc founded the Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony in 1991, and serves as master of ceremonies. The prizes — for achievements that make people LAUGH, then THINK — are handed out by genuine, bemused Nobel laureates in a gala event held every year at Harvard University, and broadcast on the web and on public radio. (The 1995 ceremony was one of the very first events ever webcast.) In 2022 the Ig Nobel Prize was itself given a prize: the Heinz Oberhummer award, for “outstanding science communication”.

WRITING and EDITING: Marc co-founded and edits the magazine Annals of Improbable Research (AIR), and wrote This is Improbable, The Ig Nobel Prizes, and other books. He edits and writes much of the web site and blog www.improbable.com and the monthly newsletter mini–AIR. He also writes the weekly “Feedback” column in New Scientist magazine. Marc is co-author, with entomologist Jiri Hulcr, of the fairly new book The Surprising Lives of Bark Beetles: Mighty Foresters of the Insect World. For thirteen years, he also wrote a mostly-weekly column (called “Improbable Research”) for The Guardian. He created and hosts the Improbable Research podcast. Earlier, Marc was editor of the magazine Journal of Irreproducible Results.

You can follow Marc on mastodon at MarcAbrahams@mstdn.science