The 31st First Annual
Ig Nobel Ceremony

WHAT LANGUAGES?
In addition to the usual English-language stream, there was a separate stream in Japanese, on Nico Nico. (And you can go visit the special Ig Nobel exhibition in Fukuoka, Japan, which runs from September 9 through November 3, 2021)

THE CEREMONY
The ceremony itself included these traditional elements:

• Winners — Ten new Ig Nobel Prize winners were introduced. Each winner (or winning team) has done something that makes people LAUGH, then THINK
• Presenters — A gaggle of genuine, genuinely bemused Nobel laureates handed the Ig Nobel Prizes to the new Ig Nobel winners. Here’s the gaggle:
  • Rich Roberts (physiology or medicine, 1993)
  • Frances Arnold (chemistry, 2018)
  • Marty Chalfie (chemistry, 2008)
  • Eric Maskin (economics, 2007)
  • Barry Sharpless (chemistry, 2001)
  • Robert Lefkowitz (chemistry, 2012)
  • Carl Weiman (physics, 2001)
  • Eric Cornell (physics, 2001)
  • Jerome Friedman (physics, 1990)
• Theme — the theme of the 2021 ceremony, evinced in the opera and other bits, was ENGINEERING.
• Mini-Opera — A new mini-opera (called “A Bridge Between People”) premiered as part of the ceremony. The crude drawing you see here summarizes the opera’s plot. Starring:
  • The Engineering Instrumentation Orchestra— Yulia Yun (piano), Dr. Julie Reimann (cello), Dr. Thomas Michel (accordion).
  • The Narrators— Karen Hopkin and Christopher Hopkin.
  • The Soloists— Dr. Abby Schiff, Ted Sharpe, Dr. Fred Tsai, Lisa Ferretti, Michael Skuhersky, David Kessler, Cinda Lavely, David Perasso, and singer/ opera director Maria Ferrante.
  • Portaborse: Michele Liguori.
• 24/7 Lectures — Several of the world’s great thinkers told us, briefly, what they were thinking about (first in 24 seconds, then in 7 words) in the 24/7 Lectures. This year’s lecturers and topics:
  • Gwinyai Masukume: Drinking Coffee
  • Françoise Brochard: Soft Matter
  • Chaouki Abdallah: Feedback Control
  • Patricia Yang: Excretion Dynamics
  • Iman Farahbakhsh: Baby-Washing Technology
• Paper Planes — Paper airplanes flew.
• Welcome, Goodbye — The traditional Welcome, Welcome Speech and the traditional Goodbye, Goodbye Speech, were each delivered by Jean Berko Gleason, who maintained the standard for what welcome speeches and goodbye speeches should be.
• With… video direction, engineering, and alchemy by Bruce Petschek / Seven Generations Video; animation by Tempe Hale, Julian Petschek, Lily Ericsson, Nick Tinsley, and Bruce Petschek; webcast engineering by Richard Baguley; fanfare music by Zachary Hickman, Dietrich Strause, Dr. Thomas Michel, Julia Lunetta, Ivan Gusev, and Alexey Eliseev; ceremonial announcements by Karen Hopkin, Christopher Hopkin, Sabine Begall, and Robin Abrahams; prize design by Eric Workman; and deft diplomacy by Stephanie Clayman and Adele Traub.

WE ASK FOR YOUR HELP
Normally, we fund the ceremony almost entirely from ticket revenues, plus a few small amounts from generous donors. But in the Covid-19 pandemic years 2020 and 2021 there are no theater tickets, and so no ticket revenues. Our expenses were lower (no theater rental!), but still substantial. If you or your organization would like to help, please donate to the Ig.