Jesse Han is becoming good at winning unusual awards.
In 2017 he traveled to Harvard University, to receive the 2017 Ig Nobel Fluid Dynamics Prize, for studying the dynamics of liquid-sloshing, to learn what happens when a person walks backwards while carrying a cup of coffee. [His research on that was published in study called “A Study on the Coffee Spilling Phenomena in the Low Impulse Regime,” in the journal Achievements in the Life Sciences [vol. 10, no. 1, 2016, pp. 87-101]. He returned to Harvard a few years later, to pursue and capture a doctorate in astrophysics.
The drawing you see here shows Robert J. Trumpler. Now, in 2026, the Astro Society announced that “The 2026 Robert J. Trumpler Award is given to Jesse Han, a recent recipient of a PhD degree, for his significant contributions to Galactic astronomy.” The Astro Society announcement makes no mention of Jesse Han’s Ig Nobel Prize, or of coffee. Nor does it mention walking backwards.
Trumpler was a native of Zurich, Switzerland. Zurich is the city where the 2026 Ig Nobel Prize ceremony happened four days ago. Trumpler has been honored by assigning his name to a crater on the far side of the moon, to a crater on Mars, and to the Robert J. Trumpler Award. Trumpler is best known to some for his 1929 “Reply to Professor Poor’s Review of Lick Observatory Bulletin No. 397.”