Sir Andre Geim was born in 1958 in the former Soviet Union and is a Dutch-British physicist of Russian-German origin. Together with his colleague Konstantin Novoselov, he experienced a true "eureka moment" at the University of Manchester in 2004. Experimenting with adhesive strips, they discovered that the thin layer of graphite powder that stuck to them was the kind of carbon that had previously existed only in theory: graphene - a two-dimensional material consisting of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice. The material's properties are extremely promising: thinner than a hair yet incredibly strong, good thermal and electrical conductivity, almost completely transparent yet very dense. The scientists were awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics for their studies of the "miracle material" just seven years after describing their initial discovery, and two years later were knighted as Knight Bachelors in the New Year Honors by Queen Elizabeth II.

The public lecture will be held in English at 7 p.m. at the TU Dresden Lecture Hall Center. Admission is free, registration is requested at: tud.de/mn/nobel