Andre Geim

The 'Friday sessions' refer to something that you're not paid for and not supposed to do during your professional life. Curiosity-driven research. Something random, simple, maybe a bit weird - even ridiculous. Without it, there are no discoveries. ”

The biggest adventure is to move into an area in which you are not an expert. Sometimes I joke that I am not interested in doing re-search, only search. ”

Graphene is a single plane of graphite that has to be pulled out of bulk graphite to show its amazing properties. ”

Better to be wrong than be boring. ”

In my experience, if people don't have a sense of humor, they are usually not very good scientists, either. ”

When people are thinking, we are quite inventive animals. ”

Many of my colleagues are not able to run their family budget. On the other hand, I look at some of the apparatchiks in research councils, and I have even less trust in their abilities. Good intentions have always paved the road to hell. ”

I would say there are three important things about graphene. It's two-dimensional, which is the best possible number for studying fundamental physics. The second thing is the quality of graphene, which stems from its extremely strong carbon-carbon bonds. And finally, the system is also metallic. ”

The consequences of a lack of new knowledge is decades of stagnation: the next generation will be poorer than this one. ”

Some people would call me a workaholic. I don't consider this time: I just love my work so much, so it's my real hobby, OK? And, yeah, getting some play during working hours for which you are paid is the best job I can recommend for anyone around! ”