Ig Nobel prize winner Bart Knols has been awarded a research grant from the Bill and Melissa Gates Foundation. (Knols and colleague Ruurd de Jong shared the 2006 Ig Nobel Prize in biology for showing that the female malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae is attracted equally to the smell of limburger cheese and to the smell of human feet.) The journal Nieuw Amsterdam gives details:
K&S Consulting announced today that it has received a US$100,000 Grand Challenges Explorations grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant will support an innovative global health research project conducted by Dr. Bart GJ Knols and colleagues titled “Painting against dengue”: A long-lasting coating with mosquito attractants and a juvenile hormone analogue to induce birth control in vector populations.”
Dr. Knols’ project is one of 65 grants announced by the Gates Foundation…. Dr. Knols has been working in the field of mosquito research and control for the last twenty years. He is well known for his creative ‘out-of-the-box’ ideas, which earned him an Ig Nobel Prize in 2006 and the Eijkman medal (the highest award in tropical medicine and international health in The Netherlands) in 2007. In the Netherlands, this is the first Exploration Grant that goes directly to a company, in this case K&S Consulting, directed by Knols. “I am absolutely thrilled by this award, and have a great team around me to support and execute the project”, he said.
“These are bold ideas from innovative thinkers, which is exactly what we need in global health research right now, “ said Dr. Tachi Yamada, president of the Gates Foundation’s Global Health Program.
BONUS QUESTION: Can you identify the other Ig Nobel Prize winners in our photo? The photo was taken during the 2010 Ig Nobel Tour of Scandinavia.