Several Ig Nobel Prize winners will gather in Paris, to discuss their work, with each other and with audiences. There will be special introductions by Eric Clement & Jean-Francois Joanny. Ig winner Roman Hossein Khonsari, who is doing much of the heavy lifting in organizing the affairs, gives this description:
Paris is getting an Ig Nobel double-dose (and triple-format): 3 events across 2 days, with Marc Abrahams and five (delightfully serious) prize-winning teams – science that makes you laugh, then think.
Tue 9 Dec 2025 — 19:00 — Chimie ParisTech – PSL (11 rue Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris 5e), in Amphitheater Friedel.
On stage:
• Daniel Bonn & Antoine Deblais (Chemistry, 2024) — chromatography to distinguish between drunk vs sober worms
• Kees Moeliker (Biology, 2003) – homosexual necrophilia in mallard ducks
• Roman Hossein Khonsari & Marjolaine Willems (Anatomy, 2024) — hair-whorl direction compared in the Earth’s northern and southern hemispheres
• Marc-Antoine Fardin (Physics, 2017) — cats can be both solid and liquid
• Daniel Maria Busiello (Physics, 2025) — the physics of phase transition in cacio e pepe sauce
And of course Marc Abrahams to set the Ig Nobel spirit
Wed 10 Dec 2025, 17:00 — Ecole normale supérieure (45 rue d’Ulm, Paris 5e). [A second session, at 19:30, is by invitation only]
(1) 17:00 — Salle Dussane | Student–laureate exchanges hosted by Marc Abrahams
• Bonn & Deblais — invertebrate physics
• Khonsari & Willems — geological anatomy
• Fardin — veterinarian theoretical physics
• Moeliker — forensics ethology
(2) 19:30 — Salle des Actes | Evening event (with Johan Farjot + cocktails)
Marc Abrahams introduces the laureates, then we unpack what these quirky results reveal about how science really works—rigour, curiosity, and the joy of surprising questions, with music and drinks
️Registrations open for Chimie ParisTech–PSL event, Dec 9 – free.
Registrations open for the 5pm ENS event, Dec 10 – free. (The 7.30pm ENS event is by invitation only)
Avec le soutien de a-Ulm (ENS Alumni Association), Fondation de l’ENS, CHU de Montpellier, ESPCI Paris – PSL, PSL Research University, Institut Carnot IPGG Microfluidique
UPDATE (December 11, 2025): See a review by Media24.