List of Ig Nobel Prize winners#2016

The awards were presented on October 3. Each winner reviewed a medal shaped like a frying pan that makes noise when shaken and Cambridge parking passes that are valid from 3 a.m. – 4 a.m. the day after Christmas.{{Cite web |last=Maugh II |first=Thomas H. |date=2021-12-04 |title=Ig Nobel Prizes Go to Those Likely to Be Overlooked |website=Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-10-05-mn-3178-story.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211204230633/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-10-05-mn-3178-story.html |archive-date=2021-12-04 |access-date=2025-02-25 }}

• Biology: Robert Klark Graham for his development of the Repository for Germinal Choice, a sperm bank that accepts donations only from Nobel laureates and Olympians.
• Chemistry: Jacques Benveniste, prolific proselytizer and dedicated correspondent of Nature, for his persistent "discovery" that water, {{chem2|H2O}}, is an intelligent liquid, and for demonstrating to his satisfaction that water is able to remember events long after all traces of those events have vanished (see water memory, his proposed explanation for homeopathy).{{citation needed|date=January 2025}}
• Economics: Michael Milken, father of the junk bond.{{cite news|last1=Maugh|first1=Thomas|title=Ig Nobel Prizes Go to Those Likely to Be Overlooked : Lampoon: MIT researchers create the new series of awards, named after the 'inventor of soda pop.' Among the first winners are Vice President Dan Quayle and imprisoned junk-bond king Michael Milken|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-10-05-mn-3178-story.html|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|access-date=21 January 2018|date=5 October 1991}}{{cite web|title=Winners of the Ig Nobel Prize|url=https://www.improbable.com/ig/winners/#ig1991|website=Improbable.com|date=August 2006|access-date=21 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100109104410/http://improbable.com/ig/winners/#ig1991|archive-date=9 January 2010|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|title=Ig Nobellian Milken, junk-bond king, now crusades for cures|url=https://www.improbable.com/2015/09/14/ig-nobellian-milken-junk-bond-king-now-crusades-for-cures/|website=improbable.com|date=14 September 2015}}
• Education: US vice president at the time Dan Quayle, "consumer of time and occupier of space" for demonstrating, better than anyone else, the need for science education.
• Literature: Erich von Däniken, visionary raconteur and author of Chariots of the Gods?, for explaining how human civilization was influenced by ancient astronauts from outer space.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}}
• Medicine: Alan Kligerman, "deviser of digestive deliverance, vanquisher of vapor", and inventor of Beano, for his pioneering work with anti-gas liquids that prevent bloat, gassiness, discomfort, and embarrassment.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}}
• Peace: Edward Teller, father of the hydrogen bomb and first champion of the Star Wars weapons system, "for his lifelong efforts to change the meaning of peace as we know it".

The first nomination also featured three fictional recipients for fictional achievements.[http://tech.mit.edu/V111/N40/ignobe.40n.html Ig Nobel prizes debut] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081230073735/http://tech.mit.edu/V111/N40/ignobe.40n.html |date=30 December 2008 }}, The Tech

• Interdisciplinary Research: Josiah S. Carberry of Brown University for his work in psychoceramics, the study of "cracked pots".
• Pedestrian Technology: Paul DeFanti, "wizard of structures and crusader for public safety, for his invention of the Buckybonnet, a geodesic fashion structure that pedestrians wear to protect their heads and preserve their composure".
• Physics: Thomas Kyle, for his discovery of "the heaviest element in the universe, Administratium".

• Archaeology: Éclaireurs de France (a French Scouting organization), removers of graffiti, for damaging the prehistoric paintings of two bisons in the Cave of Mayrière supérieure near the French village of Bruniquel.{{cite web |url=http://presse.ffspeleo.fr/article.php3?id_article=77 |title=Dans la seule grotte peinte du Tarn-et-Garonne : des victimes d'un excès de zèle, Le Monde; March 24, 1992 |publisher=Presse.ffspeleo.fr |date=30 October 2003 |access-date=4 August 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131023095616/http://presse.ffspeleo.fr/article.php3?id_article=77 |archive-date=23 October 2013 }}
• Art: Presented jointly to Jim Knowlton for his anatomy poster "Penises of the Animal Kingdom," and to the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts for encouraging Mr. Knowlton to extend his work in the form of a pop-up book.{{Cite web |last=Abrahams |first=Marc |date=2023-09-24 |title=Knowlton and Knowlton |url=https://improbable.com/2023/09/24/knowlton-and-knowlton/ |access-date=2025-02-28 |website=improbable.com |language=en-US}}
• Biology: Dr Cecil Jacobson, relentlessly generous sperm donor and prolific patriarch of sperm banking, for devising a simple, single-handed method of "quality control".
• Chemistry: Ivette Bassa, constructor of colourful colloids, for her role in the crowning achievement of 20th century chemistry, the synthesis of bright blue Jell-O.
• Economics: The investors of Lloyd's of London, heirs to 300 years of dull prudent management, for their bold attempt to ensure disaster by refusing to pay for their company's losses.
• Literature: Yuri Struchkov,{{cite web|url=http://www.iucr.org/iucr-top/people/struchko.htm |title=Crystallographers – Yuri Timofeevich Struchkov (1926–1995) – Obituary |publisher=IUCr |access-date=4 August 2013}} unstoppable author from the Institute of Organoelement Compounds{{cite web|url=http://www.ineos.ac.ru/eng/home.html |title=Home |language=ru |publisher=Ineos.ac.ru |access-date=4 August 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070628222109/http://www.ineos.ac.ru/eng/home.html |archive-date=28 June 2007 }} in Moscow, for the 948 scientific papers he published between the years 1981 and 1990, averaging more than one every 3.9 days.
• Medicine: F. Kanda, E. Yagi, M. Fukuda, K. Nakajima, T. Ohta, and O. Nakata of the Shiseido Research Center in Yokohama, for their pioneering research study "Elucidation of Chemical Compounds Responsible for Foot Malodour," especially for their conclusion that people who think they have foot odor do, and those who don't, don't.{{Cite journal|doi=10.1111/j.1365-2133.1990.tb06265.x|last1=Kanda |first1=F.|last2=Yagi |first2=E.|last3=Fukuda |first3=M.|last4=Nakajima |first4=K.|last5=Ohta |first5=T.|last6=Nakata |first6=O.|title=Elucidation of chemical compounds responsible for foot malodour|journal=The British Journal of Dermatology|volume=122|issue=6|pages=771–776|year=1990|pmid=2369557|s2cid=6343521 }}
• Nutrition: The utilizers of SPAM, "courageous consumers of canned comestibles", for 54 years of undiscriminating digestion.
• Peace: Daryl Gates, former police chief of the City of Los Angeles, for his uniquely compelling methods of "bringing people together".
• Physics: David Chorley and Doug Bower, "lions of low-energy physics", for their circular contributions to field theory based on the geometrical destruction of English crops.

• Biology: Presented jointly to Paul Williams Jr. of the Oregon State Health Division and Kenneth W. Newel of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, "bold biological detectives", for their pioneering study, "Salmonella Excretion in Joy-Riding Pigs".{{Cite journal|last1=Williams Jr|first1=LP|last2=Newell|first2=KW|title=Salmonella excretion in joy-riding pigs|journal=American Journal of Public Health and the Nation's Health|volume=60|issue=5|pages=926–9|year=1970|pmid=5462567|pmc=1348911|doi=10.2105/ajph.60.5.926}}
• Chemistry: Presented jointly to James and Gaines Campbell of Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, "dedicated deliverers of fragrance", for inventing scent strips, the odious method by which perfume is applied to magazine pages.
• Consumer Engineering: Presented to Ron Popeil, incessant inventor and perpetual pitchman of late night television, for redefining the industrial revolution with such devices as the Veg-O-Matic, the Pocket Fisherman, Mr. Microphone, and the Inside-the-Shell Egg Scrambler.
• Economics: Presented to Ravi Batra of Southern Methodist University, shrewd economist and best-selling author of The Great Depression of 1990 ({{ISBN|978-0-440-20168-7}}) and Surviving the Great Depression of 1990, ({{ISBN|978-0-671-66324-7}}) for selling enough copies of his books to single-handedly prevent worldwide economic collapse.
• Literature: Presented to T. Morrison, E. Topol, R. Califf, F. Van de Werf, P. W. Armstrong, and their 972 co-authors,{{Cite journal|doi=10.1056/NEJM199309023291001|title=An International Randomized Trial Comparing Four Thrombolytic Strategies for Acute Myocardial Infarction|year=1993|last1=Investigators|journal=New England Journal of Medicine|volume=329 |pages=673–682 |first1=T. G.|pmid=8204123|issue=10 |hdl=1765/5468|url=http://repub.eur.nl/pub/5468|hdl-access=free}} for publishing a medical research paper which has one hundred times as many authors as pages. The authors are from the following countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
• Mathematics: Presented to Robert W. Faid of Greenville, South Carolina, "farsighted and faithful seer of statistic"s, for calculating the exact odds (710,609,175,188,282,000 to 1) that Mikhail Gorbachev is the Antichrist.Robert W Faid. 1988. Gorbachev! Has the Real Antichrist Come? Tulsa, Okla : Victory House Publishers. {{ISBN|978-0-932081-19-3}}
• Medicine: Presented to James F. Nolan, Thomas J. Stillwell, and John P. Sands, Jr., "medical men of mercy", for their painstaking research report, "Acute Management of the Zipper-Entrapped Penis".{{Cite journal|doi=10.1016/0736-4679(90)90011-J|last1=Nolan |first1=J. F.|last2=Stillwell |first2=T. J.|last3=Sands Jr |first3=J. P.|title=Acute management of the zipper-entrapped penis|journal=The Journal of Emergency Medicine|volume=8|issue=3|pages=305–307|year=1990|pmid=2373840}}
• Peace: The Pepsi-Cola Company of the Philippines, for sponsoring a contest to create a millionaire, and then announcing the wrong winning number, thereby inciting and uniting 800,000 riotously expectant winners, and bringing many warring factions together for the first time in their nation's history.{{cite web |url=http://www.pepsi349.com/ |title=Coalition for Consumer protection & Welfare, Inc |publisher=Pepsi349.com |access-date=4 August 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130617204633/http://pepsi349.com/ |archive-date=17 June 2013 |url-status=dead }}
• Physics: Presented to Corentin Louis Kervran of France, "ardent admirer of alchemy", for his conclusion that the calcium in chickens' eggshells is created by a process of cold fusion.Biological Transformations {{ISBN|978-0-916508-47-0}}
• Psychology: Presented jointly to John E. Mack of Harvard Medical School and David M. Jacobs of Temple University, for their conclusion that people who believe they were kidnapped by aliens from outer space probably were—and especially for their conclusion, "the focus of the abduction is the production of children".David Michael Jacobs. 1992. Secret Life: Firsthand, Documented Accounts of UFO Abductions. New York: Simon & Schuster. {{ISBN|978-0-671-79720-1}}
• Visionary Technology: Presented jointly to Jay Schiffman of Farmington Hills, Michigan, crack inventor of AutoVision, an image projection device that makes it possible to drive a car and watch television at the same time, and to the Michigan State Legislature, for making it legal to do so.

• Biology: Presented to W. Brian Sweeney, Brian Krafte-Jacobs, Jeffrey W. Britton, and Wayne Hansen, for their breakthrough study, "The Constipated Serviceman: Prevalence Among Deployed US Troops," and especially for their numerical analysis of bowel movement frequency.{{Cite journal|last1=Sweeney|first1=WB|last2=Krafte-Jacobs|first2=B |last3=Britton|first3=JW|last4=Hansen|first4=W|title=The constipated serviceman: prevalence among deployed U.S. troops|journal=Military Medicine|volume=158|issue=8|pages=546–548|year=1993|pmid=8414078|doi=10.1093/milmed/158.8.546}}
• Chemistry: Presented to Texas State Senator Bob Glasgow, writer of logical legislation, for sponsoring the 1989 drug control law which makes it illegal to purchase beakers, flasks, test tubes, or other laboratory glassware without a permit.
• Economics: Presented to Juan Pablo Dávila of Chile, "tireless trader of financial futures" and former employee of the state-owned company Codelco, for accidentally instructing his computer to "buy" when he meant "sell". He subsequently attempted to recoup his losses by making increasingly unprofitable trades that ultimately lost 0.5 percent of Chile's gross national product. Davila's relentless achievement inspired his countrymen to coin a new verb, "davilar", meaning "to botch things up royally".
• Entomology: Presented to Robert A. Lopez of Westport, NY, "valiant veterinarian and friend of all creatures great and small", for his series of experiments in obtaining ear mites from cats, inserting them into his own ear, and carefully observing and analyzing the results.{{Cite journal |last1=Lopez |first1=R. A. |title=Of mites and man |journal=Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association |volume=203 |issue=5 |pages=606–607 |year=1993 |pmid=8407518}}
• Literature: Presented to L. Ron Hubbard, ardent author of science fiction and founding father of Scientology, for his crackling Good Book, Dianetics, which is highly profitable to humankind, or to a portion thereof.
• Mathematics: Presented to The Southern Baptist Church of Alabama, mathematical measurers of morality, for their county-by-county estimate of how many Alabama citizens will go to Hell if they don't repent.{{cite news|newspaper=Birmingham News|date=5 September 1993|page=1|title=Baptists count the lost. 46% of Alabamians face damnation, report says}}
• Medicine: Two prizes. First, to Patient X, formerly of the US Marine Corps, valiant victim of a venomous bite from his pet rattlesnake, for his determined use of electroshock therapy. At his own insistence, automobile spark plug wires were attached to his lip, and the car engine revved to 3,000 rpm for five minutes. Second, to Dr. Richard C. Dart of the Rocky Mountain Poison Center and Dr. Richard A. Gustafson of the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, who referenced Patient X in their well-grounded medical report, "Failure of Electric Shock Treatment for Rattlesnake Envenomation."{{Cite journal |doi=10.1016/S0196-0644(05)82389-3 |title=Failure of electric shock treatment for rattlesnake envenomation |year=1991 |last1=Dart |first1=R. |last2=Gustafson |first2=R. |journal=Annals of Emergency Medicine |volume=20 |pages=659–61|pmid=2039106 |issue=6 }}
• Peace: Presented to John Hagelin of Maharishi University and The Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy, for his experimental conclusion that 4,000 trained meditators caused a 24 percent decrease in violent crime in Washington, D.C.{{cite web|first=John S. |last=Hagelin |display-authors=etal |url=http://istpp.org/crime_prevention/ |title=Effects of Group Practice of the Transcendental Meditation Program on Preventing Violent Crime in Washington, DC: Results of the National Demonstration Project, June–July 1993 |website=Institute for Science, Technology and Public Policy |date=30 July 1993 |access-date=24 May 2018}}
• Psychology: Presented to Lee Kuan Yew, former Prime Minister of Singapore, for his thirty-year study of the effects of punishing three million citizens of Singapore whenever they spat, chewed gum, or fed pigeons.

• Physics: Presented to the Japanese Meteorological Agency, for its seven-year study of whether earthquakes are caused by catfish wiggling their tails. This winner is not officially listed, as it was based on what turned out to be erroneous press accounts.{{cite web |url=http://www.improbable.com/2014/05/17/inspired-by-the-possibility-that-catfish-caused-earthquakes/ |title=Inspired by the possibility that catfish caused earthquakes |author=Improbable Research |date=17 May 2014 |website=improbable.com |access-date=26 October 2016 |quote=However... we later discovered that the documentation for that was suspect. We had relied entirely on press accounts (from usually-reliable sources). When we found ourselves unable to verify those press reports, we retracted that prize. }}

The ceremony took place on 6 October 1995.{{cite web |title=The 5th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony| website=YouTube | date=17 March 2012 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS2U1oEtsBs |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/WS2U1oEtsBs| archive-date=2021-12-12 |url-status=live|access-date=2020-04-23}}{{cbignore}}

• Chemistry: Presented to Bijan Pakzad of Beverly Hills, for creating DNA Cologne and DNA Perfume, neither of which contain deoxyribonucleic acid, and both of which come in a triple helix bottle.
• Dentistry: Presented to Robert H. Beaumont, of Shoreview, Minnesota, for his incisive study "Patient Preference for Waxed or Unwaxed Dental Floss".{{Cite journal|last1=Beaumont |first1=R. H.|title=Patient preference for waxed or unwaxed dental floss|journal=Journal of Periodontology|volume=61|issue=2|pages=123–125|year=1990|pmid=2313529 |doi=10.1902/jop.1990.61.2.123}}
• Economics: Presented jointly to Nick Leeson and his superiors at Barings Bank and to Robert Citron of Orange County, California for using the calculus of derivatives to demonstrate that every financial institution has its limits.
• Literature: Presented to David B. Busch and James R. Starling, of Madison, Wisconsin, for their research report, "Rectal Foreign Bodies: Case Reports and a Comprehensive Review of the World's Literature." The citations include reports of, among other items: seven light bulbs; a knife sharpener; two flashlights; a wire spring; a snuff box; an oil can with potato stopper; eleven different forms of fruits, vegetables and other foodstuffs; a jeweler's saw; a frozen pig's tail; a tin cup; a beer glass; and one patient's remarkable ensemble collection consisting of spectacles, a suitcase key, a tobacco pouch and a magazine.{{Cite journal|last1=Busch |first1=D. B.|last2=Starling |first2=J. R.|title=Rectal foreign bodies: case reports and a comprehensive review of the world's literature|journal=Surgery|volume=100|issue=3|pages=512–519|year=1986|pmid=3738771}}
• Medicine: Presented to Marcia E. Buebel, David S. Shannahoff-Khalsa, and Michael R. Boyle, for their study entitled "The Effects of Unilateral Forced Nostril Breathing on Cognition."{{Cite journal|doi=10.3109/00207459109150697|last1=Shannahoff-Khalsa |first1=D. S.|last2=Boyle |first2=M. R.|last3=Buebel |first3=M. E.|title=The effects of unilateral forced nostril breathing on cognition|journal=The International Journal of Neuroscience|volume=57|issue=3–4|pages=239–249|year=1991|pmid=1938166}}
• Nutrition: Presented to John Martinez of J. Martinez & Company in Atlanta, for luak coffee, the world's most expensive coffee, which is made from coffee beans ingested and excreted by the luak, a raccoon-like animal native to Indonesia.
• Peace: Presented to the Legislative Yuan of Taiwan, for demonstrating that "politicians gain more by punching, kicking and gouging each other than by waging war against other nations".
• Physics: Presented to Dominique M.R. Georget, R. Parker, and Andrew C. Smith of Norwich, England, for their rigorous analysis of soggy breakfast cereal. It was published in the report entitled "A Study of the Effects of Water Content on the Compaction Behaviour of Breakfast Cereal Flakes."{{Cite journal|last1=Georget |first1=D. M. R.|last2=Parker |first2=R.|last3=Smith |first3=A. C.|title=A study of the effects of water content on the compaction behaviour of breakfast cereal flakes|journal=Powder Technology|volume=81|issue=2|pages=189–195|year=1994|doi=10.1016/0032-5910(94)02882-6}}
• Psychology: Presented to Shigeru Watanabe, Junko Sakamoto, and Masumi Wakita, of Keio University, for their success in training pigeons to discriminate between the paintings of Picasso and those of Monet.{{Cite journal|last1=Watanabe |first1=S.|last2=Sakamoto |first2=J.|last3=Wakita |first3=M.|title=Pigeons' discrimination of paintings by Monet and Picasso|journal=Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior|volume=63|issue=2|pages=165–174|year=1995|pmid=16812755|pmc=1334394|doi=10.1901/jeab.1995.63-165}}
• Public Health: Presented to Martha Kold Bakkevig of Sintef Unimed in Trondheim, Norway, and Ruth Nielsen of the Technical University of Denmark, for their exhaustive study, "Impact of Wet Underwear on Thermoregulatory Responses and Thermal Comfort in the Cold."{{Cite journal|last1=Bakkevig |first1=M. K.|last2=Nielsen |first2=R.|title=Impact of wet underwear on thermoregulatory responses and thermal comfort in the cold|journal=Ergonomics|volume=37|issue=8|pages=1375–1389|year=1994|pmid=7925261|doi=10.1080/00140139408964916}}

File:The 6th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony.webm

The ceremony took place on 3 October 1996.{{cite web|title=The 6th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony| website=YouTube | date=18 September 2015 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGiq68JjyW8 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/eGiq68JjyW8| archive-date=2021-12-12 |url-status=live|access-date=2020-04-23}}{{cbignore}}

• Art: Presented to Don Featherstone of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, for his ornamentally evolutionary invention, the plastic pink flamingo. Featherstone was the first Ig Nobel Prize winner to appear in person at the awards ceremony to accept the award.The Original Pink Flamingos: Splendor on the Grass ({{ISBN|978-0-7643-0963-2}})
• Biodiversity: Presented to Chonosuke Okamura of the Okamura Fossil Laboratory in Nagoya, Japan, for discovering the fossils of dinosaurs, horses, dragons, and more than one thousand other extinct "mini-species", each of which is less than 0.25 mm in length.
• Biology: Presented jointly to Anders Bærheim and Hogne Sandvik of the University of Bergen, Norway, for their report, "Effect of Ale, Garlic, and Soured Cream on the Appetite of Leeches."{{Cite journal |last1=Baerheim |first1=A |last2=Sandvik |first2=H |title=Effect of ale, garlic, and soured cream on the appetite of leeches |journal=BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.) |volume=309 |issue=6970 |page=1689 |year=1994 |pmid=7819987 |pmc=2542668|doi=10.1136/bmj.309.6970.1689}}
• Chemistry: Presented to George Goble of Purdue University, for his blistering world record time for igniting a barbecue grill: three seconds, using charcoal and liquid oxygen.YouTube video, showing the world record [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sab2Ltm1WcM BBQ igniting]
• Economics: Presented to Dr. Robert J. Genco of the University at Buffalo for his discovery that "financial strain is a risk indicator for destructive periodontal disease".{{Cite journal|last1=Genco |first1=R.|last2=Ho |first2=A.|last3=Grossi |first3=S.|last4=Dunford |first4=R.|last5=Tedesco |first5=L.|title=Relationship of stress, distress and inadequate coping behaviors to periodontal disease|journal=Journal of Periodontology|volume=70|issue=7|pages=711–723|year=1999|pmid=10440631|doi=10.1902/jop.1999.70.7.711|hdl=2027.42/141682|url=https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/141682/1/jper0711.pdf|hdl-access=free}}
• Literature: Presented to the editors of the journal Social Text for publishing a paper composed under deceptive pretenses that couched an absurd but theoretically specialized argument about the nature of gravity in a mire of academic buzzwords associated with humanities departments. (See Sokal Affair for details).
• Medicine: Presented to James Johnston of R.J. Reynolds, Joseph Taddeo of U.S. Tobacco, Andrew Tisch of Lorillard, William Campbell of Philip Morris, Edward A. Horrigan of Liggett Group, Donald S. Johnston of American Tobacco Company, and Thomas E. Sandefur, Jr., chairman of Brown and Williamson Tobacco Company, for their unshakable discovery, as testified to the U.S. Congress, that nicotine is not addictive.
• Peace: Presented to Jacques Chirac, President of France, for commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of Hiroshima with atomic bomb tests in the Pacific.
• Physics: Presented to Robert Matthews of Aston University, England, for his demonstration that the buttered toast phenomenon is ultimately based in the fundamental physical constants.{{Cite journal|first1=R. A. J.|last1=Matthews|title=Tumbling toast, Murphy's Law and the fundamental constants|journal=European Journal of Physics|volume=16|issue=4|pages=172–176|year=1995|doi=10.1088/0143-0807/16/4/005|bibcode=1995EJPh...16..172M|s2cid=120029095}}
• Public Health: Presented to Ellen Kleist of Nuuk, Greenland and Harald Moi of Oslo, Norway, for their cautionary medical report "Transmission of Gonorrhea Through an Inflatable Doll."{{Cite journal|last1=Kleist|first1=E|last2=Moi|first2=H|title=Transmission of gonorrhoea through an inflatable doll|journal=Genitourinary Medicine|volume=69|issue=4|pages=322|year=1993|pmid=7721299|pmc=1195099|doi=10.1136/sti.69.4.322}}

The ceremony took place on 9 October 1997.{{Cite web|url=https://www.improbable.com/ig/miscellaneous/ig-97.html|title=ig.97.html|website=www.improbable.com|access-date=2020-04-23}}

• Astronomy: Presented to Richard C. Hoagland of New Jersey, for identifying artificial features on the Moon and on Mars, including a human face on Mars and ten-mile high buildings on the far side of the Moon.The Monuments of Mars: A City on the Edge of Forever ({{ISBN|978-1-883319-30-4}})
• Biology: Presented to T. Yagyu and his colleagues from the University Hospital of Zürich, Switzerland, the Kansai Medical University in Osaka, Japan, and the Neuroscience Technology Research in Prague, Czech Republic, for measuring people's brainwave patterns while they chewed different flavors of gum.{{Cite journal |last1=Yagyu |first1=T. |last2=Kondakor |first2=I. |last3=Kochi |first3=K. |last4=Koenig |first4=T. |last5=Lehmann |first5=D. |last6=Kinoshita |first6=T. |last7=Hirota |first7=T. |last8=Yagyu |first8=T. |title=Smell and taste of chewing gum affect frequency domain eeg source localizations |journal=International Journal of Neuroscience |volume=93 |issue=3–4 |pages=205–216 |year=1998 |pmid=9639238 |doi=10.3109/00207459808986426|s2cid=24971597 }}
• Communications: Presented to Sanford Wallace, president of Cyber Promotions of Philadelphia. Nothing has stopped this self-appointed courier from delivering electronic junk mail to all the world.
• Economics: Presented to Akihiro Yokoi of Wiz Company in Chiba, Japan, and Aki Maita of Bandai Company in Tokyo, for diverting millions of man-hours of work into the husbandry of virtual pets.
• Entomology: Presented to Mark Hostetler of the University of Florida, for his book, That Gunk on Your Car, ({{ISBN|978-0-89815-961-5}}) which identifies the insect splats that appear on automobile windows.
• Literature: Presented to Doron Witztum, Eliyahu Rips, and Yoav Rosenberg of Israel, and to Michael Drosnin of the United States, for their claimed statistical discovery of a hidden code in the Bible.{{Cite journal|last1=Witztum |first1=D.|last2=Rips |first2=E.|last3=Rosenberg |first3=Y.|title=Equidistant Letter Sequences in the Book of Genesis|journal=Statistical Science|volume=9|issue=3|pages=429–438|year=1994|doi=10.1214/ss/1177010393|doi-access=free}}
• Medicine: Presented to Carl J. Charnetski and Francis X. Brennan, Jr. of Wilkes University, and James F. Harrison of Muzak Ltd. in Seattle, Washington, for their discovery that listening to Muzak stimulates the immune system and thus may help prevent the common cold.{{Cite journal|doi=10.2466/pms.1998.87.3f.1163|last1=Charnetski |first1=C. J.|last2=Brennan Jr |first2=F. X.|last3=Harrison |first3=J. F.|title=Effect of music and auditory stimuli on secretory immunoglobulin A (IgA)|journal=Perceptual and Motor Skills|volume=87|issue=3 Pt 2|pages=1163–1170|year=1998|pmid=10052073|s2cid=23661382 }}
• Meteorology: Presented to Bernard Vonnegut of the State University of New York at Albany, for his report, "Chicken Plucking as Measure of Tornado Wind Speed."{{Cite journal |last1=Vonnegut |first1=B. |title=Chicken Plucking as Measure of Tornado Wind Speed |journal=Weatherwise |volume=28 |issue=5 |page=217 |year=1975 |doi=10.1080/00431672.1975.9931768|bibcode=1975Weawi..28e.217V }}
• Peace: Presented to Harold Hillman of the University of Surrey, England, for his report "The Possible Pain Experienced During Execution by Different Methods."{{Cite journal|last1=Hiliman |first1=H.|title=The possible pain experienced during execution by different methods|journal=Perception|volume=22|issue=6|pages=745–821|year=1993|doi=10.1068/p220745|pmid=8255703|s2cid=28706073}}
• Physics: Presented to John Bockris of Texas A&M University, for his achievements in cold fusion, in the transmutation of base elements into gold, and in the electrochemical incineration of domestic rubbish.

The ceremony took place on 8 October 1998.{{Cite web|url=https://www.improbable.com/ig/miscellaneous/ig-98.html|website=www.improbable.com|access-date=2020-04-23|title=The 1998 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony}}

• Chemistry: Presented to Jacques Benveniste of France, for his homeopathic "discovery" that not only does water have memory, but that the information can be transmitted over telephone lines and the Internet.J. Benveniste; P. Jurgens, W. Hsueh and J. Aissa ( 21–26 February 1997). "Transatlantic Transfer of Digitized Antigen Signal by Telephone Link". Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
• Biology: Presented to Peter Fong of Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, for contributing to the happiness of clams by giving them Prozac.{{Cite journal |last1=Fong |first1=P. P.|last2=Huminski |first2=P. T.|last3=D'Urso |first3=L. M.|year=1998|title=Induction and potentiation of parturition in fingernail clams (Sphaerium striatinum) by selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs)|journal=Journal of Experimental Zoology |pmid=9472482|volume=280 |issue=3|pages=260–264|doi=10.1002/(SICI)1097-010X(19980215)280:3<260::AID-JEZ7>3.0.CO;2-L}}
• Economics: Presented to Richard Seed of Chicago for his efforts to stoke up the world economy by cloning himself and other human beings.{{cite web|author=Engr. Dennis D. |url=http://www.humancloning.org/seed.htm |title=Richard Seed |publisher=Humancloning.org |access-date=4 August 2013}}
• Literature: Presented to Dr. Mara Sidoli of Washington, D.C., for her illuminating report, "Farting as a Defence Against Unspeakable Dread".{{Cite journal|last1=Sidoli |first1=M.|title=Farting as a defence against unspeakable dread|journal=Journal of Analytical Psychology|volume=41|issue=2|pages=165–178|year=1996|doi=10.1111/j.1465-5922.1996.00165.x}}
• Medicine: Presented to Patient Y and to his doctors, Caroline Mills, Meirion Llewelyn, David Kelly, and Peter Holt, of Royal Gwent Hospital, in Newport for the cautionary medical report, "A Man Who Pricked His Finger and Smelled Putrid for 5 Years."{{Cite journal|last1=Mills |first1=C.|last2=Llewelyn |first2=M.|last3=Kelly |first3=D.|last4=Holt |first4=P.|title=A man who pricked his finger and smelled putrid for 5 years|journal=The Lancet|volume=348|issue=9037|page=1282|year=1996|doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(96)06408-2 |pmid=8909382|s2cid=206009417}}
• Peace: Presented to Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, for their aggressively peaceful detonations of atomic bombs.
• Physics: Presented to Deepak Chopra of The Chopra Center for Well Being, La Jolla, California, for his unique interpretation of quantum physics as it applies to life, liberty, and the pursuit of economic happiness.Quantum Healing: Exploring the Frontiers of Mind/Body Medicine ({{ISBN|978-0-553-34869-9}}) et al.
• Safety Engineering: Presented to Troy Hurtubise, of North Bay, Ontario, for developing and personally testing a suit of armor that is impervious to grizzly bears.
• Science Education: Presented to Dolores Krieger, professor emerita, New York University, for demonstrating the merits of therapeutic touch, a method by which nurses manipulate the energy fields of ailing patients by carefully avoiding physical contact with those patients.
• Statistics: Presented to Jerald Bain of Mt. Sinai Hospital in Toronto and Kerry Siminoski of the University of Alberta, for their carefully measured report, "The Relationship Among Height, Penile Length, and Foot Size".{{Cite journal |first2=J.|journal=Annals of Sex Research|volume=6|pages=231–235|doi=10.1007/BF00849563|last2=Bain|title=The relationships among height, penile length, and foot size |first1=K.|year=1988|last1=Siminoski|issue=3 |s2cid=198915780}}

The ceremony took place on 30 September 1999.{{cite web |url=https://www.improbable.com/ig/miscellaneous/ig-99.html |website=www.improbable.com |title=The 1999 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony}}

• Biology: Presented to Dr. Paul Bosland, director of The Chile Pepper Institute, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico, for breeding a spiceless jalapeño chili pepper.
• Chemistry: Presented to Takeshi Makino, president of The Safety Detective Agency in Osaka, Japan, for his involvement with S-Check, an infidelity detection spray that wives can apply to their husbands' underwear.
• Environmental Protection: Presented to Hyuk-ho Kwon of Kolon Company of Seoul, South Korea, for inventing the self-perfuming business suit.
• Literature: Presented to the British Standards Institution for its six-page specification (BS 6008) of the proper way to make a cup of tea.
• Managed Health Care: Presented to George and Charlotte Blonsky of New York City and San Jose, California, for inventing an Apparatus for facilitating the birth of a child by centrifugal force ({{US patent|3216423}}) to aid women in giving birth: the woman is strapped onto a circular table, and the table is then rotated at high speed.
• Medicine: Presented to Arvid Vatle of Stord, Norway, for carefully collecting, classifying, and contemplating which kinds of containers his patients chose when submitting urine samples.
• Peace: Presented to Charl Fourie and Michelle Wong of Johannesburg, South Africa, for inventing the Blaster, a foot-pedal activated flamethrower that motorists can use against carjackers.
• Physics: Presented to Dr. Len Fisher of Bristol, England and Sydney, Australia for calculating the optimal way to dunk a biscuit (cookie).{{Cite journal|last1=Fisher |first1=L.|title=Physics takes the biscuit|journal=Nature|volume=397|page=469|year=1999|doi=10.1038/17203|bibcode=1999Natur.397..469F |issue=6719|s2cid=4404966|doi-access=free}} Also, to Professor Jean-Marc Vanden-Broeck of the University of East Anglia, England, and Belgium, and Joseph Keller of the U.S.{{cite web|url=http://www.improbable.com/ig/winners/#ig1999|title=Special announcement in 2012 ceremony|date=August 2006}} for calculating how to make a teapot spout that does not drip.{{Cite journal |last1=Vanden-Broeck |first1=J. M. |last2=Keller |first2=J. B. |doi=10.1063/1.865735 |title=Pouring flows |journal=Physics of Fluids |volume=29 |issue=12 |page=3958 |year=1986 |bibcode=1986PhFl...29.3958V }}
• Science Education: Presented to the Kansas State Board of Education and the Colorado State Board of Education, for mandating that children should not believe in Darwin's theory of evolution any more than they believe in Newton's theory of gravitation, Faraday's and Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism, or Pasteur's theory that germs cause disease.
• Sociology: Presented to Steve Penfold, of York University in Toronto, for doing his PhD thesis on the history of Canadian doughnut shops.{{cite web|url=http://www.yorku.ca/gradhist/students/former/students_P.html |title=Former Students – P |publisher=Yorku.ca |access-date=4 August 2013}}

The ceremony took place on 5 October 2000.{{Cite web|url=https://www.improbable.com/ig/2000/|title=About the 2000 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, and related events|website=Improbable Research|access-date=23 April 2020|archive-date=18 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181118191033/https://www.improbable.com/ig/2000/|url-status=dead}}

• Biology: Presented to Richard Wassersug of Dalhousie University, for his firsthand report, "On the Comparative Palatability of Some Dry-Season Tadpoles from Costa Rica".{{cite journal|title=On the Comparative Palatability of Some Dry-Season Tadpoles from Costa Rica|first=Richard|last=Wassersug|journal=The American Midland Naturalist|volume=86|issue=1|date=July 1971|pages=101–109|doi=10.2307/2423690|jstor=2423690}}
• Chemistry: Presented to Donatella Marazziti, Alessandra Rossi, and Giovanni B. Cassano of the University of Pisa, Italy, and Hagop S. Akiskal of the University of California, San Diego, for their discovery that, biochemically, romantic love may be indistinguishable from having severe obsessive-compulsive disorder.{{Cite journal |last1=Marazziti |first1=D. |last2=Akiskal |first2=H. S. |last3=Rossi |first3=A. |last4=Cassano |first4=G. B. |title=Alteration of the platelet serotonin transporter in romantic love |journal=Psychological Medicine |volume=29 |pages=741–745 |year=1999 |doi=10.1017/S0033291798007946 |pmid=10405096 |issue=3|s2cid=12630172 }}
• Computer Science: Presented to Chris Niswander of Tucson, Arizona, for inventing PawSense, software that detects when a cat is walking across your computer keyboard.
• Economics: Presented to The Reverend Sun Myung Moon, for bringing efficiency and steady growth to the mass marriage industry, with, according to his reports, a 36-couple wedding in 1960, a 430-couple wedding in 1968, an 1800-couple wedding in 1975, a 6000-couple wedding in 1982, a 30,000-couple wedding in 1992, a 360,000-couple wedding in 1995, and a 36,000,000-couple wedding in 1997.
• Literature: Presented to Jasmuheen (formerly known as Ellen Greve) of Australia, first lady of Breatharianism, for her book Living on Light, ({{ISBN|978-3-929512-35-9}}) which explains that although some people do eat food, they don't ever really need to.
• Medicine: Presented to Willibrord Weijmar Schultz, Pek van Andel, and Eduard Mooyaart of Groningen, the Netherlands, and Ida Sabelis of Amsterdam, for their illuminating report "Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Male and Female Genitals During Coitus and Female Sexual Arousal."{{Cite journal|last1=Schultz |first1=W. W.|last2=Van Andel |first2=P.|last3=Sabelis |first3=I.|last4=Mooyaart |first4=E.|title=Magnetic resonance imaging of male and female genitals during coitus and female sexual arousal|journal=BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.)|volume=319|issue=7225|pages=1596–1600|year=1999|pmid=10600954|pmc=28302|doi=10.1136/bmj.319.7225.1596}}
• Peace: Presented to the Royal Navy, for ordering its sailors to stop using live cannon shells, and to instead just shout "Bang!"{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/757788.stm |title=Shell ban under fire |work=BBC News |date=21 May 2000 |access-date=4 August 2013}}
• Physics: Presented to Andre Geim of the University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and Michael Berry of Bristol University, England, for using magnets to levitate a frog.{{Cite journal |last1=Berry |first1=M. V. |author-link1=Michael Berry (physicist)|last2=Geim |first2=A. K. |author-link2=Andre Geim|title=Of flying frogs and levitrons |journal=European Journal of Physics |volume=18 |issue=4 |pages=307–313 |year=1997 |doi=10.1088/0143-0807/18/4/012|url=http://www.physics.bristol.ac.uk/people/berry_mv/the_papers/Berry285.pdf|bibcode=1997EJPh...18..307B |s2cid=250889203 }} Geim later shared the 2010 Nobel Prize in physics for his research on graphene, the first time anyone has been awarded both the Ig Nobel and (real) Nobel Prizes. By 2022, their magnetic levitation of a frog was reportedly part of the inspiration for China's lunar gravity research facility.{{cite web |author=|author-link=|title=China building "Artificial Moon" that simulates low gravity with magnets|url=https://futurism.com/the-byte/china-artificial-moon-magnets|website=Futurism.com|publisher=Recurrent Ventures|access-date=17 January 2022 |date=12 January 2022|language=|quote=Interestingly, the facility was partly inspired by previous research conducted by Russian physicist Andrew Geim in which he floated a frog with a magnet. The experiment earned Geim the Ig Nobel Prize in Physics, a satirical award given to unusual scientific research. It's cool that a quirky experiment involving floating a frog could lead to something approaching an honest-to-God antigravity chamber.}}{{cite web |author=Stephen Chen|author-link=|title=China has built an artificial moon that simulates low-gravity conditions on Earth|url=https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3162972/china-has-built-artificial-moon-simulates-low-gravity-conditions|website=|publisher=South China Morning Post|access-date=17 January 2022 |date=12 January 2022 |language=|quote=It is said to be the first of its kind and could play a key role in the country's future lunar missions. Landscape is supported by a magnetic field and was inspired by experiments to levitate a frog.}}
• Psychology: Presented to David Dunning of Cornell University and Justin Kruger of the University of Illinois, for their modest report, "Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments".{{Cite journal |last1=Kruger |first1=J |last2=Dunning |first2=D |title=Unskilled and unaware of it: how difficulties in recognizing one's own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments |journal=Journal of Personality and Social Psychology |volume=77 |issue=6 |pages=1121–34 |year=1999 |pmid=10626367|doi=10.1037/0022-3514.77.6.1121|citeseerx=10.1.1.64.2655 |s2cid=2109278 }}
• Public Health: Presented to Jonathan Wyatt, Gordon McNaughton, and William Tullett of Glasgow, for their alarming report, "The Collapse of Toilets in Glasgow".{{Cite journal |last1=Wyatt |first1=JP |last2=McNaughton |first2=GW |last3=Tullett |first3=WM |title=The collapse of toilets in Glasgow |journal=Scottish Medical Journal |volume=38 |issue=6 |page=185 |year=1993 |pmid=8146638|doi=10.1177/003693309303800609 |s2cid=25430948 }}

The ceremony took place on 4 October 2001.

• Astrophysics: Presented to Jack and Rexella Van Impe of Jack Van Impe Ministries, Rochester Hills, Michigan, for their discovery that black holes fulfill all the technical requirements for the location of Hell.
• Biology: Presented to Buck Weimer of Pueblo, Colorado for inventing Under-Ease, airtight underwear with a replaceable charcoal filter that removes bad-smelling gases before they escape.
• Economics: Presented to Joel Slemrod, of the University of Michigan Business School, and Wojciech Kopczuk, of the University of British Columbia, for their conclusion that people find a way to postpone their deaths if that would qualify them for a lower rate on the inheritance tax.{{Cite journal|last1=Kopczuk |first1=W.|last2=Slemrod |first2=J.|title=Dying to Save Taxes: Evidence from Estate-Tax Returns on the Death Elasticity|journal=Review of Economics and Statistics|volume=85|issue=2|pages=256–265|year=2003|doi=10.1162/003465303765299783|citeseerx=10.1.1.117.1898|s2cid=9175711}}{{cite news|last1=Harding|first1=Lesley|title=Business prof wins not so noble Nobel|url=http://ur.umich.edu/0102/Oct15_01/12.htm|access-date=21 May 2015|publisher=University Record|date=15 October 2001|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304140023/http://ur.umich.edu/0102/Oct15_01/12.htm|url-status=dead}}
• Literature: Presented to John Richards of Boston, England, founder of the Apostrophe Protection Society, for his efforts to protect, promote, and defend the differences between the plural and the possessive.
• Medicine: Presented to Peter Barss{{cite web|url=http://www.fmhs.uaeu.ac.ae/cmd/Barss.htm |title=Dr. Peter Barss |access-date=21 May 2005 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050430175117/http://www.fmhs.uaeu.ac.ae/cmd/Barss.htm |archive-date=30 April 2005 }} of McGill University, Canada, for his impactful medical report "Injuries Due to Falling Coconuts".{{Cite journal|doi=10.1097/00005373-198411000-00012|last1=Barss |first1=P.|title=Injuries due to falling coconuts|journal=The Journal of Trauma|volume=24|issue=11|pages=990–991|year=1984|pmid=6502774|s2cid=8241135 }}
• Peace: Presented to Viliumas Malinauskas of Grūtas, Lithuania, for creating the amusement park known as "Stalin World".
• Physics: Presented to David Schmidt of the University of Massachusetts, for his partial explanation of the shower-curtain effect: a shower curtain tends to billow inwards while a shower is being taken.{{cite news|title=How to Avoid Being Attacked in the Shower|author= Anthony Ramirez|date=15 July 2001|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/15/weekinreview/15RAMI.html|access-date=4 October 2010|work=The New York Times}}
• Psychology: Presented to Lawrence W. Sherman of Miami University, Ohio, for his influential research report "An Ecological Study of Glee in Small Groups of Preschool Children".{{Cite journal|last1=Sherman |first1=L. W.|title=An ecological study of glee in small groups of preschool children|journal=Child Development|volume=46|issue=1|pages=53–61|year=1975|pmid=1132281|doi=10.2307/1128833|jstor=1128833}}
• Public Health: Presented to Chittaranjan Andrade and B. S. Srihari of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore, India, for their probing medical discovery that nose picking is a common activity among adolescents.{{Cite journal|last1=Andrade |first1=C.|last2=Srihari |first2=B. S.|title=A preliminary survey of rhinotillexomania in an adolescent sample|journal=The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry|volume=62|issue=6|pages=426–431|year=2001|pmid=11465519|doi=10.4088/JCP.v62n0605}}
• Technology: Presented jointly to John Keogh of Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia, for patenting the wheel in the year 2001, and to the Australian Patent Office (IP Australia) for granting him [http://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/ols/auspat/applicationDetails.do?applicationNo=2001100012 Innovation Patent #2001100012]

The ceremony took place on 3 October 2002.

• Biology: Presented to Norma E. Bubier, Charles G.M. Paxton, Phil Bowers, and D. Charles Deeming of the United Kingdom, for their report "Courtship Behaviour of Ostriches Towards Humans Under Farming Conditions in Britain".{{Cite journal|last1=Bubier |first1=N. E.|last2=Paxton |first2=C. G. M.|last3=Bowers |first3=P.|last4=Deeming |first4=D. C.|title=Courtship behaviour of ostriches ( Struthio camelus ) towards humans under farming conditions in Britain|journal=British Poultry Science|volume=39|issue=4|pages=477–481|year=1998|doi=10.1080/00071669888629|pmid=9800029}}
• Chemistry: Presented to Theodore Gray of Wolfram Research, in Champaign, Illinois, for gathering many elements of the periodic table and assembling them into a literal four-legged table.
• Economics: Presented to the executives, corporate directors, and auditors of Enron, Lernout & Hauspie (Belgium), Adelphia, Bank of Commerce and Credit International (Pakistan), Cendant, CMS Energy, Duke Energy, Dynegy, Gazprom (Russia), Global Crossing, HIH Insurance (Australia), Informix, Kmart, Maxwell Communications (UK), McKessonHBOC, Merrill Lynch, Merck, Peregrine Systems, Qwest Communications, Reliant Resources, Rent-Way, Rite Aid, Sunbeam, Tyco, Waste Management, WorldCom, Xerox, and Arthur Andersen, for adapting the mathematical concept of imaginary numbers for use in the business world. (All companies except for Arthur Andersen were forced to restate their financial reports due to false or incorrect accounting. Andersen was the accounting firm most identified with the scandals, having been indicted on criminal charges stemming from its actions as auditor of Enron. All companies are U.S.-based unless otherwise noted.)
• Hygiene: Presented to Eduardo Segura, from Tarragona, Catalonia (Spain), for inventing a washing machine for cats and dogs, bearing the commercial name of Lavakan de Aste.[http://www.lavakan.cat/es/Videos/VI/index.html Video of Lavakan product] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101003162735/http://www.lavakan.cat/es/Videos/VI/index.html |date=3 October 2010 }}
• Interdisciplinary Research: Presented to Karl Kruszelnicki of The University of Sydney, Australia, for performing a comprehensive survey of human belly button fluff: who gets it, when, what color, and how much.
• Literature: Presented jointly to Vicki L. Silvers of the University of Nevada, Reno and David S. Kreiner of Central Missouri State University, for their colorful report "The Effects of Pre-Existing Inappropriate Highlighting on Reading Comprehension".{{Cite journal|last1=Silvers |first1=V.|last2=Kreiner |first2=D.|title=The effects of pre-existing inappropriate highlighting on reading comprehension|journal=Literacy Research and Instruction|volume=36|issue=3|pages=217–223|year=1997|doi=10.1080/19388079709558240}}
• Mathematics: Presented to K. P. Sreekumar and G. Nirmalan of Kerala Agricultural University, India, for their analytical report "Estimation of the Total Surface Area in Indian Elephants".{{Cite journal|doi=10.1007/BF00346377|last1=Sreekumar |first1=K. P.|last2=Nirmalan |first2=G.|title=Estimation of the total surface area in Indian elephants (Elephas maximus indicus)|journal=Veterinary Research Communications|volume=14|issue=1|pages=5–17|year=1990|pmid=2316192|s2cid=3342178 }}
• Medicine: Presented to Chris McManus of University College London, for his excruciatingly balanced report, "Scrotal Asymmetry in Man and in Ancient Sculpture".{{Cite journal |last1=McManus |first1=I. C. |title=Scrotal asymmetry in man and in ancient sculpture |journal=Nature |volume=259 |page=426 |year=1976 |doi=10.1038/259426b0 |bibcode=1976Natur.259..426M |issue=5542|pmid=765841|s2cid=4252913 |doi-access=free }}
• Peace: Presented to Keita Sato, President of Takara Co., Dr. Matsumi Suzuki, President of Japan Acoustic Lab, and Dr. Norio Kogure, executive director of the Kogure Veterinary Hospital, for promoting peace and harmony between humans and dogs by inventing Bow-Lingual, a computer-based automatic dog-to-human language translation device.
• Physics: Presented to {{Interlanguage link|Arnd Leike|de}} of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, for demonstrating that beer froth obeys the mathematical law of exponential decay.{{Cite journal|last1=Leike |first1=A.|title=Demonstration of the exponential decay law using beer froth|journal=European Journal of Physics|volume=23|issue=1|pages=21–26|year=2002|doi=10.1088/0143-0807/23/1/304|bibcode=2002EJPh...23...21L |citeseerx=10.1.1.693.5948|s2cid=250873501 }}

The ceremony took place on 2 October 2003.

• Biology: Presented to Kees Moeliker, of Natuurhistorisch Museum Rotterdam in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, for documenting the first scientifically recorded case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck.{{cite journal |url=http://www.hetnatuurhistorisch.nl/fileadmin/user_upload/documents-nmr/Persberichten/Persberichten/persberichten_2013/DSA8_243-248.pdf |last=Moeliker |first=C.W. |title=The first case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard Anas platyrhynchos (Aves: Anatidae) |journal=Deinsea |volume= 8 |pages=243–247 |issn=0923-9308 |date= 9 November 2001 |access-date=14 January 2016}}
• Chemistry: Presented to Yukio Hirose of Kanazawa University, for his chemical investigation of a bronze statue in the city of Kanazawa that fails to attract pigeons due to its arsenic content.{{cite web|url=http://improb.com/airchives/press/2004/yomiuri-2004-04-03.html|title=Fending off annoying birds from Daily Yomiuri|access-date=13 October 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041009231114/http://www.improb.com/airchives/press/2004/yomiuri-2004-04-03.html|archive-date=9 October 2004}}
• Economics: Presented to Karl Schwärzler and the nation of Liechtenstein, for making it possible to rent the entire country for corporate conventions, weddings, bar mitzvahs, and other gatherings.{{Cite web|url=https://mashable.com/2011/04/14/airbnb-xnet/|title=Airbnb Lets You Rent a Country ... For $70K a Night|first=Jennifer Van|last=Grove|website=Mashable|date=14 April 2011}}
• Engineering: Presented to John Paul Stapp, Edward A. Murphy, Jr., and George Nichols, for jointly giving birth in 1949 to Murphy's Law, the basic engineering principle that "If there are two or more ways to do something, and one of those ways can result in a catastrophe, someone will do it" (or, in other words: "If anything can go wrong, it will").
• Interdisciplinary Research: Presented to Stefano Ghirlanda, Liselotte Jansson, and Magnus Enquis of Stockholm University, for their inevitable report "Chickens Prefer Beautiful Humans."{{Cite journal|last1=Ghirlanda |first1=S.|last2=Jansson |first2=L.|last3=Enquist |first3=M.|title=Chickens prefer beautiful humans|journal=Human Nature|volume=13|issue=3|pages=383–389|year=2002|doi=10.1007/s12110-002-1021-6|pmid=26192929|s2cid=14621972|url=http://cogprints.org/5272/1/ghirlanda_jansson_enquist2002.pdf}}
• Literature: Presented to John Trinkaus of the Zicklin School of Business, New York City, for meticulously collecting data and publishing more than 80 detailed academic reports about things that annoyed him, such as:
• What percentage of young people wear baseball caps with the peak facing to the rear rather than to the front;
• What percentage of pedestrians wear sport shoes that are white rather than some other color;
• What percentage of swimmers swim laps in the shallow end of a pool rather than the deep end;
• What percentage of automobile drivers almost, but not completely, come to a stop at one particular stop-sign;
• What percentage of commuters carry attaché cases;
• What percentage of shoppers exceed the number of items permitted in a supermarket's express checkout lane;
• What percentage of students dislike the taste of Brussels sprouts.
• Medicine: Presented to Eleanor Maguire, David Gadian, Ingrid Johnsrude, Catriona Good, John Ashburner, Richard Frackowiak, and Christopher Frith of University College London, for presenting evidence that the hippocampi of London taxi drivers are more highly developed than those of their fellow citizens.{{Cite journal |last1=Maguire |first1=E. A. |last2=Gadian |first2=D. G. |last3=Johnsrude |first3=I. S. |last4=Good |first4=C. D. |last5=Ashburner |first5=J. |last6=Frackowiak |first6=R. S. J. |last7=Frith |first7=C. D. |title=Navigation-related structural change in the hippocampi of taxi drivers |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=97 |pages=4398–4403 |year=2000 |doi=10.1073/pnas.070039597 |pmid=10716738 |pmc=18253|bibcode=2000PNAS...97.4398M |issue=8|doi-access=free }}
• Peace: Presented to Lal Bihari, of Uttar Pradesh, India, for a triple accomplishment: First, for leading an active life even though he has been declared legally dead; second, for waging a lively posthumous campaign against bureaucratic inertia and greedy relatives; and third, for creating the Association of Dead People. Lal Bihari overcame the handicap of being dead, and managed to obtain a passport from the Indian government so that he could travel to Harvard to accept his Prize. However, the U.S. government refused to allow him into the country. {{Citation needed|date=April 2024}} His friend Madhu Kapoor therefore came to the Ig Nobel Ceremony and accepted the Prize on behalf of Lal Bihari. Several weeks later, the Prize was presented to Lal Bihari himself in a special ceremony in India.
• Physics: Presented to Jack Harvey, John Culvenor, Warren Payne, Steve Cowley, Michael Lawrance, David Stuart, and Robyn Williams of Australia, for their irresistible report "An analysis of the forces required to drag sheep over various surfaces".{{Cite journal |doi=10.1016/S0003-6870(02)00071-6 |last1=Harvey |first1=J. T. |last2=Culvenor |first2=J. |last3=Payne |first3=W. |last4=Cowley |first4=S. |last5=Lawrance |first5=M. |last6=Stuart |first6=D. |last7=Williams |first7=R. |title=An analysis of the forces required to drag sheep over various surfaces |journal=Applied Ergonomics |volume=33 |issue=6 |pages=523–531 |year=2002 |pmid=12507336|hdl=1959.17/62427 |url=http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/62427 }}
• Psychology: Presented to Gian Vittorio Caprara and Claudio Barbaranelli of the University of Rome La Sapienza, and to Philip Zimbardo of Stanford University, for their discerning report "Politicians' Uniquely Simple Personalities".{{Cite journal|last1=Caprara |first1=G. V.|last2=Barbaranelli |first2=C.|last3=Zimbardo |first3=P. G.|title=Politicians' uniquely simple personalities|journal=Nature|volume=385|page=493|year=1997|doi=10.1038/385493a0|bibcode=1997Natur.385..493C |issue=6616|s2cid=45115966|doi-access=free}}

The ceremony took place on 30 September 2004.

• Biology: Presented to Ben Wilson of the University of British Columbia, Lawrence Dill of Simon Fraser University, Canada, Robert Batty of the Scottish Association for Marine Science, Magnus Wahlberg of the University of Aarhus, Denmark, and Håkan Westerberg of Sweden's National Board of Fisheries, for showing that herrings apparently communicate by farting.{{Cite journal |last1=Wahlberg |first1=M. |title=Sounds produced by herring (Clupea harengus) bubble release |journal=Aquatic Living Resources |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=271–290 |year=2003 |doi=10.1016/S0990-7440(03)00017-2|bibcode=2003AqLR...16..271W |s2cid=85117425 }}{{Cite journal |last1=Wilson |first1=B. |last2=Batty |first2=R. |last3=Dill |first3=L. |title=Pacific and Atlantic herring produce burst pulse sounds |journal=Proceedings: Biological Sciences |volume=271 |issue=Suppl 3 |pages=S95–S97 |year=2004 |pmid=15101430 |pmc=1809969 |doi=10.1098/rsbl.2003.0107}}

:It has been suggested that the study of this phenomenon has had major political consequences. Following the sensational stranding of a Soviet submarine deep inside Swedish waters on 27 October 1981, the Swedish navy initiated a large-scale campaign to guard Swedish territorial waters from the perceived threat of infiltration by foreign submarines, despite the Soviets consistently asserting that the stranding had occurred due to navigational errors. The "submarine hunts", which lasted throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, have been a heavily debated issue in Sweden, as to whether or not there ever was any factual substance to the claims of Soviet infiltration. One widely reported piece of "evidence" were several sound recordings of what the Swedish navy suspected to be foreign submarines. Oceanographers and marine biologists were invited to study the recordings and would eventually find that the sounds heard were most probably produced not by submarines, but in fact were the noises made when herring passed gas. In a reportage by the Swedish science magazine "Vetenskapens värld" ("World of science") televised on 16 April 2012, it's suggested that these findings were important in putting an end to the costly "submarine hunts" which had continued for more than a decade, with Ig Nobel laureate Håkan Westerberg guessing that this would have saved Swedish tax payers hundreds of millions in SEK.Aired 16 April 2012. "[http://svtplay.se/v/2773069/vetenskapens_varld/ig_nobel?cb,a1364145,1,f,-1/pb,a1364142,1,f,-1/pl,v,,2781791/sb,p102815,1,f,-1 SVT Vetenskapens Värld: "Ig Nobel"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120427065553/http://svtplay.se/v/2773069/vetenskapens_varld/ig_nobel?cb%2Ca1364145%2C1%2Cf%2C-1%2Fpb%2Ca1364142%2C1%2Cf%2C-1%2Fpl%2Cv%2C%2C2781791%2Fsb%2Cp102815%2C1%2Cf%2C-1 |date=27 April 2012}}" (in Swedish). SVT.

• Chemistry: Presented to The Coca-Cola Company of Great Britain, for using advanced technology to convert liquid from the River Thames (via a drinking water tap in Sidcup) into Dasani, a brand of bottled water, which for precautionary reasons has been made unavailable to consumers.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/business/2004/mar/20/medicineandhealth.lifeandhealth|title=Things get worse with Coke|first1=Felicity|last1=Lawrence|date=20 March 2004|via=www.theguardian.com|newspaper=The Guardian}}
• Economics: Presented to the Vatican, for outsourcing prayers to India.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/13/world/short-on-priests-us-catholics-outsource-prayers-to-indian-clergy.html|title=Short on Priests, U.S. Catholics Outsource Prayers to Indian Clergy|first=Saritha|last=Rai|date=13 June 2004|newspaper=The New York Times}}
• {{anchor|2004Eng}}Engineering: Presented jointly to Donald J. Smith and his father, Frank J. Smith, of Orlando, Florida, for patenting the comb over ({{US patent|4022227}}).
• Literature: Presented to The American Nudist Research Library of Kissimmee, Florida, for preserving nudist history so that everyone can see it.
• Medicine: Presented jointly to Steven Stack of Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, and James Gundlach of Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, for their published report "The Effect of Country Music on Suicide".{{Cite journal |last1=Stack |first1=S. |last2=Gundlach |first2=J. |title=The Effect of Country Music on Suicide |journal=Social Forces |volume=71 |pages=211–218 |year=1992 |doi=10.1093/sf/71.1.211}}F. Chilargi, "Link between suicide and country music, Wayne State [Ig] Nobel Prize laureate says" The South End (Detroit) 3 December 2004, p. 1
• Peace: Presented to Daisuke Inoue of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, for inventing karaoke, thereby providing an entirely new way for people to learn to tolerate each other.
• Physics: Presented jointly to Ramesh Balasubramaniam of the University of Ottawa, and Michael Turvey of the University of Connecticut and Haskins Laboratory, for exploring and explaining the dynamics of hula-hooping.{{Cite journal |last1=Balasubramaniam |first1=R. |last2=Turvey |first2=M. T. |title=Coordination modes in the multisegmental dynamics of hula hooping |journal=Biological Cybernetics |volume=90 |issue=3 |pages=176–190 |year=2004 |pmid=15052481 |doi=10.1007/s00422-003-0460-4|s2cid=4180504 }}
• Psychology: Presented jointly to Daniel Simons of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and Christopher Chabris of Harvard University, for demonstrating that when people pay close attention to something, they can overlook even a woman in a gorilla suit.{{Cite journal |last1=Simons |first1=D. J. |last2=Chabris |first2=C. F. |title=Gorillas in our midst: Sustained inattentional blindness for dynamic events |journal=Perception |volume=28 |issue=9 |pages=1059–1074 |year=1999 |pmid=10694957 |doi=10.1068/p281059 |citeseerx=10.1.1.65.8130 |s2cid=1073781 }} (See inattentional blindness).
• Public Health: Presented to Jillian Clarke of the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences, and then Howard University, for investigating the scientific validity of the five-second rule about whether it's safe to eat food that's been dropped on the floor.{{Cite web|url=https://aces.illinois.edu/news/if-you-drop-it-should-you-eat-it-scientists-weigh-5-second-rule|title=If You Drop It, Should You Eat It? Scientists Weigh in on the 5-Second Rule|website=College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences|access-date=13 November 2019|archive-date=22 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210822160738/https://aces.illinois.edu/news/if-you-drop-it-should-you-eat-it-scientists-weigh-5-second-rule|url-status=dead}}

The ceremony took place on 6 October 2005.

• Agricultural History: James Watson of Massey University, New Zealand, for his scholarly study, "The Significance of Mr. Richard Buckley's exploding trousers".{{Cite journal |last1=Watson |first1=J. |title=The Significance of Mr. Richard Buckley's Exploding Trousers: Reflections on an Aspect of Technological Change in New Zealand Dairy Farming between the World Wars |journal=Agricultural History |volume=78 |issue=3 |pages=346–360 |year=2004 |doi=10.1525/ah.2004.78.3.346}}
• Biology: Presented jointly to Benjamin Smith of the University of Adelaide, Australia and the University of Toronto, Canada and the Firmenich perfume company, Geneva, Switzerland, and ChemComm Enterprises, Archamps, France; Craig Williams of James Cook University and the University of South Australia; Michael Tyler of the University of Adelaide; Brian Williams of the University of Adelaide; and Yoji Hayasaka of the Australian Wine Research Institute; for painstakingly smelling and cataloging the peculiar odors produced by 131 different species of frogs when the frogs were feeling stressed.{{Cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=B. P. C. |last2=Williams |first2=C. R. |last3=Tyler |first3=M. J. |last4=Williams |first4=B. D. |title=A survey of frog odorous secretions, their possible functions and phylogenetic significance |journal=Applied Herpetology |volume=2 |pages=47–82 |year=2004 |doi=10.1163/1570754041231587|s2cid=84621337 }}{{Cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=B. P. C. |last2=Tyler |first2=M. J. |last3=Williams |first3=B. D. |last4=Hayasaka |first4=Y. |title=Chemical and olfactory characterization of odorous compounds and their precursors in the parotoid gland secretion of the green tree frog, Litoria caerulea |journal=Journal of Chemical Ecology |volume=29 |issue=9 |pages=2085–2100 |year=2003 |pmid=14584677 |doi=10.1023/A:1025686418909|bibcode=2003JCEco..29.2085S |s2cid=346637 }}
• Chemistry: Presented jointly to Edward Cussler of the University of Minnesota and Brian Gettelfinger of the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin–Madison, for conducting a careful experiment to settle the longstanding scientific question: can people swim faster in syrup or in water?{{Cite journal |last1=Gettelfinger |first1=B. |last2=Cussler |first2=E. L. |title=Will humans swim faster or slower in syrup? |journal=AIChE Journal |volume=50 |issue=11 |pages=2646–2647 |year=2004 |doi=10.1002/aic.10389|s2cid=93709870 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2004AIChE..50.2646G }}{{cite web|url=http://www1.umn.edu/umnnews/Feature_Stories/Swimming_in_goop_nets_researchers_an_Ig_Nobel_Prize.html |title=Swimming in goop nets researchers an Ig Nobel Prize: UMNnews: U of M |publisher=.umn.edu |access-date=4 August 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081231080433/http://www1.umn.edu/umnnews/Feature_Stories/Swimming_in_goop_nets_researchers_an_Ig_Nobel_Prize.html |archive-date=31 December 2008 }}
• Economics: Gauri Nanda of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for inventing Clocky, an alarm clock that runs away and hides, repeatedly, thus ensuring that people get out of bed, and thus theoretically adding many productive hours to the workday.
• Fluid Dynamics: Presented jointly to Victor Benno Meyer-Rochow of International University Bremen, Germany and the University of Oulu, Finland; and József Gál of Loránd Eötvös University, Hungary, for using basic principles of physics to calculate the pressure that builds up inside a penguin, as detailed in their report "Pressures Produced When Penguins Poo—Calculations on Avian Defecation".{{Cite journal |last1=Meyer-Rochow |first1=V. B. |last2=Gal |first2=J. |title=Pressures produced when penguins pooh?calculations on avian defaecation |journal=Polar Biology |volume=27 |pages=56–58 |year=2003 |issue=1 |doi=10.1007/s00300-003-0563-3|bibcode=2003PoBio..27...56M |s2cid=43386022 }}
• Literature: Presented to the Internet entrepreneurs of Nigeria, for creating and then using e-mail to distribute a bold series of short stories, thus introducing millions of readers to a cast of rich characters—General Sani Abacha, Mrs. Mariam Sanni Abacha, Barrister Jon A Mbeki Esq., and others—each of whom requires just a small amount of expense money so as to obtain access to the great wealth to which they are entitled and which they would like to share with the kind person who assists them. (See advance fee fraud.)
• Medicine: Gregg A. Miller of Oak Grove, Missouri, for inventing Neuticles—artificial replacement testicles for dogs, which are available in three sizes, and three degrees of firmness.
• Nutrition: Dr. Yoshiro Nakamatsu of Tokyo, Japan, for photographing and retrospectively analyzing every meal he has consumed during a period of 34 years (and counting).
• Peace: Presented jointly to Claire Rind and Peter Simmons of University of Newcastle, in the UK, for electrically monitoring the activity of a brain cell in a locust while that locust was watching selected highlights from the movie Star Wars.{{cite journal|last1=Rind|first1=FC|last2=Simmons|first2=Peter|title=Orthopteran DCMD neuron: a reevaluation of responses to moving objects. I. Selective responses to approaching objects|journal=Journal of Neurophysiology|volume=68|issue=5|pages=1654–1666|year=1992|pmid=1479436|doi=10.1152/jn.1992.68.5.1654|s2cid=14539934}}
• Physics: Presented jointly to John Mainstone and Thomas Parnell of the University of Queensland, Australia, for patiently conducting the so-called pitch drop experiment that began in the year 1927—in which a glob of congealed black tar pitch has been slowly dripping through a funnel, at a rate of approximately one drop every nine years.{{Cite journal |last1=Edgeworth |first1=R. |last2=Dalton |first2=B. J. |last3=Parnell |first3=T. |title=The pitch drop experiment |journal=European Journal of Physics |volume=5 |issue=4 |pages=198–200 |year=1984 |doi=10.1088/0143-0807/5/4/003|bibcode=1984EJPh....5..198E |s2cid=119570811 }}

The ceremony took place on 5 October 2006.

• Acoustics: D. Lynn Halpern of Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, and Brandeis University, and Northwestern University, Randolph Blake of Vanderbilt University and Northwestern University and James Hillenbrand of Western Michigan University and Northwestern University for conducting experiments to learn why people dislike the sound of fingernails scraping chalkboard (Misophonia).{{Cite journal|last1=Halpern|first1=DL|last2=Blake|first2=R|last3=Hillenbrand|first3=J|title=Psychoacoustics of a chilling sound|journal=Perception & Psychophysics|volume=39|issue=2|pages=77–80|year=1986|pmid=3725541|doi=10.3758/bf03211488|doi-access=free}}
• Biology: Bart Knols of Wageningen Agricultural University, in Wageningen, the Netherlands, and of the National Institute for Medical Research / Ifakara Health Institute, Tanzania, and of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in Vienna, Austria; and Ruurd de Jong of Wageningen Agricultural University, and of Santa Maria degli Angeli, Italy 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.{{Cite journal|last1=Knols |first1=B.|title=On human odour, malaria mosquitoes, and Limburger cheese|journal=The Lancet|volume=348|issue=9037|page=1322|year=1996|doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(05)65812-6|pmid=8909415|s2cid=12571262}}
• Chemistry: Antonio Mulet, José Javier Benedito and José Bon of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain, and Carmen Rosselló of the University of Illes Balears, in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, for their study "Ultrasonic Velocity in Cheddar Cheese as Affected by Temperature".{{Cite journal |last1=Mulet |first1=A. |last2=Benedito |first2=J. |last3=Bon |first3=J. |last4=Rossello |first4=C. |title=Ultrasonic Velocity in Cheddar Cheese as Affected by Temperature |journal=Journal of Food Science |volume=64 |issue=6 |pages=1038–1041 |year=1999 |doi=10.1111/j.1365-2621.1999.tb12277.x}}
• Literature: Daniel M. Oppenheimer of Princeton University for his report "Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized Irrespective of Necessity: Problems with Using Long Words Needlessly".{{Cite journal |last1=Oppenheimer |first1=D. M. |title=Consequences of erudite vernacular utilized irrespective of necessity: problems with using long words needlessly |journal=Applied Cognitive Psychology |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=139–156 |year=2006 |doi=10.1002/acp.1178|s2cid=16375001 }}
• Mathematics: Nic Svenson and Piers Barnes of the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, for calculating the number of photographs that must be taken to (almost) ensure that nobody in a group photo will have their eyes closed.{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/the-chance-of-taking-a-blink-free-photo/3324442|title=The chance of taking a blink-free photo|website=Radio National|access-date=13 October 2014|date=19 May 2006}}
• Medicine: Francis M. Fesmire of the University of Tennessee College of Medicine, for his medical case report "Termination of Intractable Hiccups with Digital Rectal Massage";{{Cite journal |last1=Fesmire |first1=F. |title=Termination of intractable hiccups with digital rectal massage |journal=Annals of Emergency Medicine |volume=17 |issue=8 |page=872|year=1988 |doi=10.1016/S0196-0644(88)80594-8|pmid=3395000}}
• Nutrition: Wasmia Al-Houty of Kuwait University and Faten Al-Mussalam of the Kuwait Environment Public Authority, for showing that dung beetles are finicky eaters.{{Cite journal |last1=Al-Houty |first1=W. |title=Dung preference of the dung beetleScarabaeus cristatusFab (Coleoptera-Scarabaeidae) from Kuwait |journal=Journal of Arid Environments |volume=35 |issue=3 |pages=511–516 |year=1997 |doi=10.1006/jare.1996.0179|bibcode=1997JArEn..35..511A }}
• Ornithology: Ivan R. Schwab, of the University of California, Davis, and Philip R.A. May of the University of California, Los Angeles, for exploring and explaining why woodpeckers don't get headaches.{{Cite journal |last1=Schwab |first1=I. R. |title=Cure for a headache |journal=British Journal of Ophthalmology |volume=86 |issue=8 |page=843 |year=2002 |doi=10.1136/bjo.86.8.843|pmc=1771249 }}
• Peace: Howard Stapleton of Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, for inventing an electromechanical teenager repellant, a device that makes annoying high-pitched noise designed to be audible to teenagers but not to adults; and for later using that same technology to make telephone ringtones that are audible to teenagers but probably not to their teachers.
• Physics: Basile Audoly and Sebastien Neukirch of the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, for their analysis that explains why uncooked spaghetti breaks into several pieces when it is bent.{{Cite journal |last1=Audoly |first1=B. |last2=Neukirch |first2=S.|title=Fragmentation of Rods by Cascading Cracks: Why Spaghetti Does Not Break in Half |journal=Physical Review Letters |volume=95 |issue=9 |page=095505 |year=2005 |pmid=16197227 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.095505|bibcode=2005PhRvL..95i5505A|s2cid=9618208 }}

The ceremony took place on 4 October 2007.

• Aviation: Patricia V. Agostino, Santiago A. Plano and Diego A. Golombek, of the National University of Quilmes, for discovering that hamsters recover from jetlag more quickly when given Viagra.{{Cite journal |last1=Agostino |first1=P. V. |last2=Plano |first2=S. A. |last3=Golombek |first3=D. A. |title=Sildenafil accelerates reentrainment of circadian rhythms after advancing light schedules |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=104 |pages=9834–9 |year=2007 |doi=10.1073/pnas.0703388104|pmid=17519328|issue=23|pmc=1887561|bibcode=2007PNAS..104.9834A |doi-access=free }}{{Cite journal |last1=Plano |first1=S. |last2=Agostino |first2=P. |last3=Golombek |first3=D. |title=Extracellular nitric oxide signaling in the hamster biological clock |journal=FEBS Letters |volume=581 |issue=28 |pages=5500–5504 |year=2007 |pmid=17991439 |doi=10.1016/j.febslet.2007.10.058|s2cid=34648625 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2007FEBSL.581.5500P }}
• Biology: Johanna E.M.H. van Bronswijk of Eindhoven University of Technology for taking a census of all the mites and other life forms that live in people's beds.{{Cite journal |last1=Rijckaert |first1=G. |last2=Bronswijk |first2=J. E. M. H. |last3=Linskens |first3=H. F. |title=House-dust community (Fungi, mites) in different climatic regions |journal=Oecologia |volume=48 |issue=2 |pages=183–185 |year=1981 |doi=10.1007/BF00347961|pmid=28309797 |bibcode=1981Oecol..48..183R |s2cid=22874874 }}
• Chemistry: Mayu Yamamoto of the International Medical Center of Japan for extracting vanilla flavour from cow dung.{{Cite journal |last1=Yamamoto |first1=M. |last2=Futamura |first2=Y. |last3=Fujioka |first3=K. |last4=Yamamoto |first4=K. |title=Novel Production Method for Plant Polyphenol from Livestock Excrement Using Subcritical Water Reaction |journal=International Journal of Chemical Engineering |volume=2008 |pages=1–5 |year=2008 |doi=10.1155/2008/603957|doi-access=free }}
• Economics: Kuo Cheng Hsieh, for patenting a device to catch bank robbers by ensnaring them in a net.{{cite web |url=http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6,219,959.PN.&OS=PN/6,219,959&RS=PN/6,219,959 |title=United States Patent: 6219959 Net trapping system for capturing a robber immediately |publisher=Patft.uspto.gov |access-date=4 August 2013 |archive-date=9 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201109042209/http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6%2C219%2C959.PN.&OS=PN%2F6%2C219%2C959&RS=PN%2F6%2C219%2C959 |url-status=dead }}
• Linguistics: Barcelona Science Park researchers Juan Manuel Toro, Josep B. Trobalon and Nuria Sebastian-Galles, for determining that rats sometimes can't distinguish between recordings of Japanese and Dutch played backward.{{Cite journal |last1=Toro |first1=J. M. |last2=Trobalon |first2=J. B. |last3=Sebastián-Gallés |first3=N. |title=Effects of Backward Speech and Speaker Variability in Language Discrimination by Rats |journal=Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes |volume=31 |pages=95–100 |year=2005 |doi=10.1037/0097-7403.31.1.95|pmid=15656730|issue=1|s2cid=6235050 }}
• Literature: Freelance indexer Glenda Browne for her study into indexing entries that start with the definitive article "the".{{Cite journal |author1=Glenda Browne |date=April 2001 |title=The Definite Article: Acknowledging 'The' in Index Entries |url= |journal=The Indexer |volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=119–22 |doi=10.3828/indexer.2001.22.3.4|s2cid=63643570 }}
• Medicine: Brian Witcombe of Gloucestershire Royal Hospital and Dan Meyer of Sword Swallowers' Association International in Antioch, Tennessee, for investigating the side-effects of swallowing swords.{{Cite journal |last1=Witcombe |first1=B. |last2=Meyer |first2=D. |title=Sword swallowing and its side effects |journal=BMJ |volume=333 |issue=7582 |pages=1285–1287 |year=2006 |pmid=17185708 |pmc=1761150 |doi=10.1136/bmj.39027.676690.55}}
• Nutrition: Brian Wansink of Cornell University for investigating people's appetite for mindless eating by secretly feeding them a self-refilling bowl of soup.{{Cite journal |last1=Wansink |first1=B. |last2=Painter |first2=J. E. |last3=North |first3=J. |title=Bottomless Bowls: Why Visual Cues of Portion Size May Influence Intake** |journal=Obesity |volume=13 |pages=93–100 |year=2005 |doi=10.1038/oby.2005.12|pmid=15761167|issue=1|s2cid=1761759 |doi-access=free }}
• Peace: The United States Air Force Wright Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio, for suggesting the research and development of a "gay bomb," which would cause enemy troops to become sexually attracted to each other.{{cite web|last=Ashley|first=O'Rene|title=The U.S. Military Once Proposed a "Gay" Bomb|url=https://gizmodo.com/the-u-s-military-once-proposed-a-gay-bomb-1443813176|website=Gizmodo|date=11 October 2013 |access-date=9 November 2013}}
• Physics: Lakshminarayanan Mahadevan and Enrique Cerda Villablanca at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for their theoretical study of how sheets become wrinkled.{{Cite journal |last1=Cerda |first1=E. |last2=Mahadevan |first2=L. |title=Conical Surfaces and Crescent Singularities in Crumpled Sheets |journal=Physical Review Letters |volume=80 |issue=11 |pages=2358–2361 |year=1998 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.80.2358|bibcode=1998PhRvL..80.2358C|s2cid=121528664 }}

The ceremony took place on 2 October 2008.[http://improbable.com/ig/winners/#ig2008 Improbable Research] Retrieved on 3 October 2008.

• Archaeology: Astolfo Gomes de Mello Araujo and Jose Carlos Marcelino, of São Paulo, for showing that armadillos can mix up the contents of an archaeological site.{{Cite journal |last1=Araujo |first1=A. G. M. |last2=Marcelino |first2=J. C. |title=The role of armadillos in the movement of archaeological materials: an experimental approach |journal=Geoarchaeology |volume=18 |issue=4 |pages=433–460 |year=2003 |doi=10.1002/gea.10070|bibcode=2003Gearc..18..433A |citeseerx=10.1.1.182.9723 |s2cid=16653586 }}{{Cite news

|first=Stephan

|last=Reebs

|date=September 2003

|title=Experiment of the month

|periodical=Natural History

|publisher=American Museum of Natural History

|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1134/is_/ai_107897176

|access-date=3 October 2008

|url-status=dead

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081007030353/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1134/is_/ai_107897176

|archive-date=7 October 2008

}}

• Biology: Marie-Christine Cadiergues, Christel Joubert, and Michel Franc, of the National Veterinary School of Alfort, for discovering that fleas that live on dogs jump higher than fleas that live on cats.{{Cite journal |last1=Cadiergues |first1=M. |title=A comparison of jump performances of the dog flea, Ctenocephalides canis (Curtis, 1826) and the cat flea, Ctenocephalides felis felis (Bouché, 1835) |journal=Veterinary Parasitology |volume=92 |issue=3 |pages=239–990 |year=2000 |doi=10.1016/S0304-4017(00)00274-0|pmid=10962162 }}
• Chemistry: Sheree Umpierre, Joseph Hill, and Deborah Anderson, of Harvard Medical School, for discovering that Coca-Cola is an effective spermicide,{{Cite journal|title=Effect of Coke on Sperm Motility|journal=New England Journal of Medicine|volume=313|issue=21|page=1351|year=1985|doi=10.1056/NEJM198511213132111|pmid=4058526|last1=Umpierre|first1=S. A|last2=Hill|first2=J. A|last3=Anderson|first3=D. J}} and C.Y. Hong, C.C. Shieh, P. Wu, and B.N. Chiang of Taipei Veterans General Hospital for accidentally proving it is not.{{Cite journal |last1=Hong |first1=C. Y. |last2=Shieh |first2=C. C. |last3=Wu |first3=P. |last4=Chiang |first4=B. N. |title=The Spermicidal Potency of Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola |journal=Human & Experimental Toxicology |volume=6 |pages=395–396 |year=1987 |doi=10.1177/096032718700600508 |pmid=3679247 |issue=5|s2cid=7830790 }}{{cite web

|first=Barbara |last=Mikkelson

|date=16 March 2007

|title=Killer Sperm: Coca-Cola Spermicide

|series=Snopes

|url=http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/sperm.asp

|access-date=3 October 2008

}}

• Cognitive Science: Toshiyuki Nakagaki, Hiroyasu Yamada, Ryo Kobayashi, Atsushi Tero, Akio Ishiguro, and Ágota Tóth, for discovering that slime molds can solve puzzles.{{Cite journal |last1=Nakagaki |first1=T. |last2=Yamada |first2=H. |last3=Tóth |first3=Á. . |title=Maze-solving by an amoeboid organism |journal=Nature |volume=407 |issue=6803 |page=470 |year=2000 |pmid=11028990 |doi=10.1038/35035159 |bibcode=2000Natur.407..470N|s2cid=205009141 |doi-access=free }}{{Cite journal

|first=Tony

|last=Phillips

|date=October 2000

|title=Math in the Media

|publisher=American Mathematical Society

|url=https://www.ams.org/mathmedia/archive/10-2000-media.html#slime

|access-date=3 October 2008

|archive-date=7 October 2008

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081007074143/http://www.ams.org/mathmedia/archive/10-2000-media.html#slime

|url-status=dead

}}

• Economics: University of New Mexico researchers Geoffrey Miller, Joshua Tybur, and Brent Jordan, for discovering that exotic dancers earn more when at peak fertility.{{Cite journal |last1=Miller |first1=G. |last2=Tybur |first2=J. |last3=Jordan |first3=B. |title=Ovulatory cycle effects on tip earnings by lap dancers: economic evidence for human estrus?☆☆ |journal=Evolution and Human Behavior |volume=28 |issue=6 |pages=375–381 |year=2007 |doi=10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2007.06.002|citeseerx=10.1.1.154.8176 }}
• Literature: David Sims of Cass Business School, for his study "You Bastard: A Narrative Exploration of the Experience of Indignation within Organizations".{{Cite journal |last1=Sims |first1=D. |title=You Bastard: A Narrative Exploration of the Experience of Indignation within Organizations |journal=Organization Studies |volume=26 |issue=11 |pages=1625–1640 |year=2005 |doi=10.1177/0170840605054625|s2cid=145611326 }}{{Cite news |last=Abrahams |first=Robin |date=16 May 2008 |title=Best. Paper. Ever. |url=http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/magazine/missconduct/2008/05/best_paper_ever.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081229181605/https://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/magazine/missconduct/2008/05/best_paper_ever.html |archive-date=29 December 2008 |access-date=3 October 2008 |periodical=The Boston Globe Magazine |publisher=P. Steven Ainsley |series=Miss Conduct's Blog}}
• Medicine: Rebecca Waber of MIT, Baba Shiv of Stanford University, Ziv Carmon of INSEAD, and Dan Ariely of MIT for demonstrating that expensive placebos are more effective than inexpensive placebos.{{Cite journal |last1=Waber |first1=R. L. |last2=Shiv |first2=B. |last3=Carmon |first3=Z. |last4=Ariely |first4=D. |title=Commercial Features of Placebo and Therapeutic Efficacy |journal=Journal of the American Medical Association |volume=299 |pages=1016–1017 |year=2008 |doi=10.1001/jama.299.9.1016 |pmid=18319411 |issue=9}}{{Cite web

|date=March 2008

|title=Price of a Medication May Affect How Well It Works

|publisher=Stanford Graduate School of Business

|url=http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/research/mktg_shiv_pricing.shtml

|access-date=3 October 2008

}}

• Nutrition: Massimiliano Zampini and Charles Spence, of the University of Oxford, for demonstrating that potato chips taste better when their audible crispness sounds more appealing.{{Cite journal |last1=Zampini |first1=M. |last2=Spence |first2=C. |title=The Role of Auditory Cues in Modulating the Perceived Crispness and Staleness of Potato Chips |journal=Journal of Sensory Studies |volume=19 |issue=5 |pages=347–363 |year=2004 |doi=10.1111/j.1745-459x.2004.080403.x}}{{Cite news

|first=Marc |last=Abrahams

|date=23 May 2006

|title=Crisp sounds: An experiment to get your teeth into

|periodical=The Guardian

|url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2006/may/23/highereducation.research

|access-date=3 October 2008

|location=London

}}

• Peace: The Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology and the citizens of Switzerland, for adopting the legal principle that plants have dignity.{{Cite journal

|title=Dignity of living beings

|publisher=Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology (ECNH)

|url=http://www.ekah.admin.ch/en/topics/dignity-of-creation/index.html

|access-date=3 October 2008

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081006004312/http://www.ekah.admin.ch/en/topics/dignity-of-creation/index.html

|archive-date=6 October 2008

|url-status=dead

}}

• Physics: University of California at San Diego researchers Dorian M. Raymer and Douglas Smith, for proving that heaps of string or hair will inevitably tangle.{{Cite journal |last1=Raymer |first1=D. M. |last2=Smith |first2=D. E. |title=Spontaneous knotting of an agitated string |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=104 |issue=42 |pages=16432–16437 |year=2007 |doi=10.1073/pnas.0611320104|bibcode=2007PNAS..10416432R |pmid=17911269 |pmc=2034230|doi-access=free }}

The ceremony took place on 1 October 2009.

• Biology: Fumiaki Taguchi, Song Guofu, and Zhang Guanglei of Kitasato University Graduate School of Medical Sciences in Sagamihara, Japan, for demonstrating that kitchen refuse can be reduced more than 90% in mass by using bacteria extracted from the feces of giant pandas.{{Cite journal|last1=Taguchi |first1=F.|title=Microbial treatment of kitchen refuse with enzyme-producing thermophilic bacteria from Giant Panda feces|journal=Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering|volume=92|issue=6|pages=602–606|year=2001|doi=10.1016/S1389-1723(01)80326-1}}{{cite web|url=http://sciencelinks.jp/j-east/article/200310/000020031003A0267180.php |title=Microbial Treatment of Food-Production Waste with Thermopile Enzyme-Producing Bacterial Flora from a Giant Panda |publisher=Sciencelinks.jp |date=18 March 2009 |access-date=4 August 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131117040540/http://sciencelinks.jp/j-east/article/200310/000020031003A0267180.php |archive-date=17 November 2013 }}
• Chemistry: Javier Morales, Miguel Apatiga, and Victor M. Castano of Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, for creating diamond film from tequila.{{cite magazine

|date=20 June 2008

|title=Tequila is surprise raw material for diamond films

|magazine=New Scientist

|url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19826615.700-tequila-is-surprise-raw-material-for-diamond-films.html

}}{{cite arXiv|eprint=0806.1485v1|author1=Javier Morales|author2=Miguel Apátiga|author3=Castaño|title=Growth of Diamond Films from Tequila|class=cond-mat.mtrl-sci|year=2008}}

• Economics: The directors, executives, and auditors of four Icelandic banks—Kaupthing Bank, Landsbanki, Glitnir Bank, and Central Bank of Iceland—for demonstrating that tiny banks can be rapidly transformed into huge banks, and vice versa (and for demonstrating that similar things can be done to an entire national economy).
• Literature: Garda Síochána for writing and presenting more than 50 traffic tickets to a Polish individual, by the name of "Prawo Jazdy". Mr. "Jazdy" was widely thought to be the most frequent driving offender in Ireland, until an investigation uncovered the fact that Prawo Jazdy is the Polish term for "Driving License".{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/7899171.stm |work=BBC News |title=The mystery of Ireland's worst driver |date=19 February 2009 |access-date=8 May 2010}}
• Mathematics: Gideon Gono, governor of Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank, for giving people a simple, everyday way to cope with a wide range of numbers by having his bank print notes with denominations ranging from one cent to one hundred trillion dollars.
• Medicine: Donald L. Unger of Thousand Oaks, California, US, for investigating a possible cause of arthritis of the fingers, by diligently cracking the knuckles of his left hand but not his right hand every day for 50 years.{{Cite journal |last1=Unger |first1=D. L. |title=Does knuckle cracking lead to arthritis of the fingers? |journal=Arthritis & Rheumatism |volume=41 |pages=949–950 |year=1998 |doi=10.1002/1529-0131(199805)41:5<949::AID-ART36>3.0.CO;2-3|pmid=9588755|issue=5|s2cid=7029759 |doi-access=free }}
• Peace: Stephan Bolliger, Steffen Ross, Lars Oesterhelweg, Michael Thali, and Beat Kneubuehl of the University of Bern, Switzerland, for determining whether it is better to be hit on the head with a full bottle of beer or with an empty bottle.{{Cite journal|doi=10.1016/j.jflm.2008.07.013|pmid=19239964|year=2009|last1=Bolliger |first1=S.|last2=Ross |first2=S.|last3=Oesterhelweg |first3=L.|last4=Thali |first4=M.|last5=Kneubuehl |first5=B.|title=Are full or empty beer bottles sturdier and does their fracture-threshold suffice to break the human skull?|volume=16|issue=3|pages=138–142|journal=Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine }}
• Physics: Katherine K. Whitcome of the University of Cincinnati, Daniel E. Lieberman of Harvard University, and Liza J. Shapiro of the University of Texas at Austin, all in the US, for analytically determining why pregnant women do not tip over.{{Cite journal |last1=Whitcome |first1=K. K. |last2=Shapiro |first2=L. J. |last3=Lieberman |first3=D. E. |title=Fetal load and the evolution of lumbar lordosis in bipedal hominins |journal=Nature |volume=450 |issue=7172 |pages=1075–1078 |year=2007 |pmid=18075592 |doi=10.1038/nature06342|bibcode=2007Natur.450.1075W |s2cid=10158 |url=http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:3743553 }}
• Public Health: Elena N. Bodnar, Raphael C. Lee, and Sandra Marijan of Chicago, US, for inventing a bra that can be quickly converted into a pair of face masks—one for the wearer and one to be given to a needy bystander.{{patent|US|7255627|"Garment device convertible to one or more facemasks"}}
• Veterinary medicine: Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson of Newcastle University, UK, for showing that cows with names give more milk than cows that are nameless.{{Cite journal|last1=Bertenshaw |first1=C.|last2=Rowlinson |first2=P.|title=Exploring Stock Managers' Perceptions of the Human–Animal Relationship on Dairy Farms and an Association with Milk Production|journal=Anthrozoös|volume=22|pages=59–69|year=2009|doi=10.2752/175303708X390473|s2cid=145538403|doi-access=free}}

The ceremony took place on 30 September 2010.

• Biology: Libiao Zhang, Min Tan, Guangjian Zhu, Jianping Ye, Tiyu Hong, Shanyi Zhou, and Shuyi Zhang of China, and Gareth Jones of the University of Bristol, UK, for scientifically documenting fellatio in fruit bats.{{Cite journal |last1=Tan |first1=M. |last2=Jones |first2=G. |last3=Zhu |first3=G. |last4=Ye |first4=J. |last5=Hong |first5=T. |last6=Zhou |first6=S. |last7=Zhang |first7=S. |last8=Zhang |first8=L. |editor1-last=Hosken |editor1-first=David |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0007595 |title=Fellatio by Fruit Bats Prolongs Copulation Time |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=4 |issue=10 |page=e7595 |year=2009 |pmid= 19862320|pmc =2762080 |bibcode=2009PLoSO...4.7595T |doi-access=free }}
• Chemistry: Eric Adams, Scott Socolofsky, Stephen Masutani and BP, for disproving the old belief that oil and water don't mix.[http://www.boemre.gov/tarprojects/377.htm Project Deep Spill] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101004114232/http://www.boemre.gov/tarprojects/377.htm |date=4 October 2010 }}
• Economics: The executives and directors of Goldman Sachs, AIG, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, and Magnetar Capital for creating and promoting new ways to invest money—ways that maximize financial gain and minimize financial risk for the world economy, or for a portion thereof.
• Engineering: Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse and Agnes Rocha-Gosselin of the Zoological Society of London, UK, and Diane Gendron of Instituto Politecnico Nacional, Baja California Sur, Mexico, for perfecting a method to collect whale snot, using a remote-control helicopter.{{Cite journal|year=2010|volume=13|doi=10.1111/j.1469-1795.2009.00326.x|journal=Animal Conservation|issue=2|pages=217–225|title=A novel non-invasive tool for disease surveillance of free-ranging whales and its relevance to conservation programs|last3=Gendron |first1=K. . |first3=D. .|last1=Acevedo-Whitehouse|last2=Rocha-Gosselin |first2=A. .|bibcode=2010AnCon..13..217A |s2cid=86518859}}
• Management: Alessandro Pluchino, Andrea Rapisarda, and Cesare Garofalo of the University of Catania, Italy, for demonstrating mathematically that organizations would become more efficient if they promoted people at random.{{Cite journal|arxiv=0907.0455|title=The Peter Principle Revisited: A Computational Study|journal=Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and Its Applications|volume=389|issue=3|pages=467–472|last1=Pluchino|first1=Alessandro|last2= Rapisarda|first2= Andrea|last3= Garofalo|first3= Cesare|year= 2010|doi= 10.1016/j.physa.2009.09.045|bibcode= 2010PhyA..389..467P|s2cid= 9077554}}
• Medicine: Simon Rietveld of the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and Ilja van Beest of Tilburg University, The Netherlands, for discovering that symptoms of asthma can be treated with a roller coaster ride.{{Cite journal|year=2007|issue=5|pmid=16989773|doi=10.1016/j.brat.2006.07.009|pages=977–987|volume=45|journal=Behaviour Research and Therapy |first1=S. |first2=I.|title=Rollercoaster asthma: when positive emotional stress interferes with dyspnea perception|last1=Rietveld|last2=Van Beest}}
• Peace: Richard Stephens, John Atkins, and Andrew Kingston of Keele University, UK, for confirming the widely held belief that swearing relieves pain.{{Cite journal |year=2009 |doi=10.1097/WNR.0b013e32832e64b1 |pmid=19590391 |title=Swearing as a response to pain |journal=NeuroReport |volume=20 |issue=12 |pages=1056–60 |first3=A. |first2=J. |last3=Kingston |last1=Stephens |first1=R. |last2=Atkins|s2cid=14705045 }}
• Physics: Lianne Parkin, Sheila Williams, and Patricia Priest of the University of Otago, New Zealand, for demonstrating that, on icy footpaths in wintertime, people slip and fall less often if they wear socks on the outside of their shoes.{{Cite journal |last1=Parkin |first1=L. |last2=Williams |first2=S. M. |last3=Priest |first3=P. |title=Preventing winter falls: A randomised controlled trial of a novel intervention |journal=The New Zealand Medical Journal |volume=122 |issue=1298 |pages=31–38 |year=2009 |pmid=19680302}}
• Public Health: Manuel Barbeito, Charles Mathews, and Larry Taylor of the Industrial Health and Safety Office, Fort Detrick for determining by experiment that microbes cling to bearded scientists.{{Cite journal |last1=Barbeito |first1=M. |last2=Mathews |first2=C. |last3=Taylor |first3=L. |title=Microbiological laboratory hazard of bearded men |journal=Applied Microbiology |volume=15 |issue=4 |pages=899–906 |year=1967 |pmid=4963447 |pmc=547091|doi=10.1128/AEM.15.4.899-906.1967 }}
• Transportation Planning: Atsushi Tero, Toshiyuki Nakagaki, Seiji Takagi, Tetsu Saigusa, Kentaro Ito, Kenji Yumiki, Ryo Kobayashi of Japan, and Dan Bebber, Mark Fricker of the UK, for using slime mold to determine the optimal routes for railroad tracks.{{Cite journal |first2=S. . |first1=A. . |first3=T. .|last4=Ito|last3=Saigusa |first4=K. .|last5=Bebber|last1=Tero|last2=Takagi |first5=D. .|last6=Fricker |first6=M. .|last7=Yumiki |first7=K. .|last8=Kobayashi|volume=327|journal=Science |first8=R. .|title=Rules for biologically inspired adaptive network design|pmid=20093467|doi=10.1126/science.1177894|issue=5964|pages=439–442|year=2010 |first9=T. .|last9=Nakagaki |bibcode=2010Sci...327..439T |citeseerx=10.1.1.225.9609 |s2cid=5001773 }}

The ceremony took place on 29 September 2011.

• Biology: Darryl Gwynne and David Rentz of the University of Western Australia for discovering that certain kinds of beetle mate with certain kinds of Australian beer bottles.{{Cite journal |last1=Gwynne |first1=D. T. |last2=Rentz |first2=D. C. F. |title=Beetles on the Bottle: Male Buprestids Mistake Stubbies for Females (Coleoptera) |journal=Australian Journal of Entomology |volume=22 |pages=79–80 |year=1983 |doi=10.1111/j.1440-6055.1983.tb01846.x|doi-access=free }}
• Chemistry: Makoto Imai, Naoki Urushihata, Hideki Tanemura, Yukinobu Tajima, Hideaki Goto, Koichiro Mizoguchi and Junichi Murakami for determining the ideal density of airborne wasabi (pungent horseradish) to awaken sleeping people in case of a fire or other emergency, and for applying this knowledge to invent the wasabi alarm.{{cite web|title=Wasabi Silent Fire Alarm Alerts the Deaf with the Power of Scent|url=http://inventorspot.com/articles/wasabi_silent_fire_alarm_alerts__11514|publisher=InvestorSpot|author=Levenstein, Steve|access-date=5 October 2011|archive-date=10 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310144126/http://inventorspot.com/articles/wasabi_silent_fire_alarm_alerts__11514|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=http://www.google.com/patents?id=qmXlAAAAEBAJ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111002071246/http://www.google.com/patents?id=qmXlAAAAEBAJ |url-status=dead |archive-date=2 October 2011 |title=Odor Generation Alarm And Method For Informing Unusual Situation |date=5 February 2009 |access-date=4 August 2013}}
• Literature: John Perry of Stanford University for his Theory of Structured Procrastination, which states: "To be a high achiever, always work on something important, using it as a way to avoid doing something that's even more important."{{cite journal|last=Perry |first=John |url=http://chronicle.com/article/How-to-ProcrastinateStill/93959 |title=Chronicle of Higher Education: How to Procrastinate and Still Get Things Done (the original 1996 article) |journal=The Chronicle of Higher Education |date=23 February 1996 |access-date=4 August 2013}}{{cite web|url=http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/ |title=Structured Procrastination website |publisher=Structuredprocrastination.com |access-date=4 August 2013}}{{cite journal |url=http://chronicle.com/article/10-Ig-Nobels-Awarded-/129224/ |title=15 Years After an Essay on Procrastination, a Philosopher Wins an Ig Nobel (& his reaction) |journal=The Chronicle of Higher Education |date=29 September 2011 |access-date=3 November 2011 |author=Troop, Don}}
• Mathematics: Dorothy Martin of the U.S. (who predicted the world would end in 1954), Pat Robertson of the U.S. (who predicted the world would end in 1982), Elizabeth Clare Prophet of the U.S. (who predicted the world would end in 1990), Lee Jang Rim of Korea (who predicted the world would end in 1992), Credonia Mwerinde of Uganda (who predicted the world would end in 1999), and Harold Camping of the U.S. (who originally predicted the world would end on 6 September 1994, and later predicted that the world would end on 21 May 2011, which preceded his final prediction on 21 October 2011), for teaching the world to be careful when making mathematical assumptions and calculations.
• Medicine: Mirjam Tuk, Debra Trampe and Luk Warlop,{{Cite journal |last1=Tuk |first1=M. A. |last2=Trampe |first2=D. |last3=Warlop |first3=L. |year=2011 |title=Inhibitory Spillover: Increased Urination Urgency Facilitates Impulse Control in Unrelated Domains |url=https://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/bitstream/10044/1/10464/2/Tuk_etal_PsychologicalScience_2011.pdf |journal=Psychological Science |volume=22 |issue=5 |pages=627–633 |doi=10.1177/0956797611404901 |pmid=21467548 |s2cid=13896846 |hdl-access=free |hdl=10044/1/10464|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706045822/https://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/bitstream/10044/1/10464/2/Tuk_etal_PsychologicalScience_2011.pdf |archive-date=6 July 2017 }} and jointly to Matthew Lewis, Peter Snyder, Robert Feldman, Robert Pietrzak, David Darby and Paul Maruff for demonstrating that people make better decisions about some kinds of things: but worse decisions about other kinds of things: when they have a strong urge to urinate.{{Cite journal |last1=Lewis |first1=M. S. |last2=Snyder |first2=P. J. |last3=Pietrzak |first3=R. H. |last4=Darby |first4=D. |last5=Feldman |first5=R. A. |last6=Maruff |first6=P. |title=The effect of acute increase in urge to void on cognitive function in healthy adults |journal=Neurourology and Urodynamics |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=183–187 |year=2011 |pmid=21058363 |doi=10.1002/nau.20963|s2cid=28730291 }}
• Peace: Arturas Zuokas, the mayor of Vilnius, Lithuania, for demonstrating that the problem of illegally parked luxury cars can be solved by running them over with a tank.{{cite magazine|url=https://newsfeed.time.com/2011/08/03/watch-lithuanian-mayor-crushes-illegally-parked-car-with-a-tank/ |title=Time Newsfeed: Watch: Lithuanian Mayor Crushes Illegally Parked Car With a Tank |magazine=Time |date=3 August 2011 |access-date=4 August 2013|last1=Peckham |first1=Matt }}{{cite web|url=http://www.vilnius.lt/newvilniusweb/index.php/116/?itemID=94256 |title=Official City Info |access-date=13 October 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150604113905/http://www.vilnius.lt/newvilniusweb/index.php/116/?itemID=94256 |archive-date=4 June 2015 }} (Note, the vehicle used was not a tank, but a BTR-60 Armoured personnel carrier.){{cite web|author=John Reed |url=http://defensetech.org/2011/08/05/video-apc-crushes-illegally-parked-cars/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120206111731/http://defensetech.org/2011/08/05/video-apc-crushes-illegally-parked-cars/ |url-status=usurped |archive-date=6 February 2012 |title=Video: APC Crushes Illegally Parked Cars |publisher=Defensetech.org |date=5 August 2011 |access-date=4 August 2013}}
• Psychology: Karl Halvor Teigen of the University of Oslo, Norway, for trying to understand why, in everyday life, people sigh.{{Cite journal |last1=Teigen |first1=K. H. |title=Is a sigh "just a sigh"? Sighs as emotional signals and responses to a difficult task |journal=Scandinavian Journal of Psychology |volume=49 |issue=1 |pages=49–57 |year=2008 |pmid=18190402 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-9450.2007.00599.x}}
• Physics: Henri Poincaré University researchers Philippe Perrin, Cyril Perrot, Dominique Deviterne, Bruno Ragaru and Herman Kingma for trying to determine why discus throwers become dizzy, and why hammer throwers don't, in their paper "Dizziness in discus throwers is related to motion sickness generated while spinning".{{Cite journal |last1=Philippe Perrin |first1=C. P. |last2=Perrot |first2=C. |last3=Deviterne |first3=D. |last4=Ragaru |first4=B. |last5=Kingma |first5=H. |title=Dizziness in Discus Throwers is Related to Motion Sickness Generated While Spinning |journal=Acta Oto-Laryngologica |volume=120 |issue=3 |pages=390–395 |year=2000 |pmid=10894415 |doi=10.1080/000164800750000621|s2cid=35636534 }}
• Physiology: University of Vienna team Anna Wilkinson, Natalie Sebanz, Isabella Mandl and Ludwig Huber for their study "No evidence of contagious yawning in the red-footed tortoise Geochelone carbonaria".{{cite web|url=http://www.actazool.org/paperdetail.asp?id=11922&volume=57&number=4&bgpage=477&endpage=484&year=2011&month=null |title=No evidence of contagious yawning in the red-footed tortoise Geochelone carbonaria |publisher=Actazool.org |access-date=4 August 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120330131123/http://www.actazool.org/paperdetail.asp?id=11922&volume=57&number=4&bgpage=477&endpage=484&year=2011&month=null |archive-date=30 March 2012 }}
• Public safety: John Senders of the University of Toronto, Canada, for conducting a series of safety experiments in which a person drives an automobile on a major highway while a visor repeatedly flaps down over their face, blinding them.{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOguslSPpqo |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/kOguslSPpqo| archive-date=2021-12-12 |url-status=live|title=Video from experiments |date=24 March 2008 |publisher=Youtube.com |access-date=4 August 2013}}{{cbignore}}

The ceremony took place on 20 September 2012.

• Acoustics: Japanese researchers Kazutaka Kurihara and Koji Tsukada for creating the SpeechJammer, a machine that disrupts a person's speech by making them hear their own spoken words at a very slight delay.{{cite arXiv |last1=Kurihara |first1=Kazutaka |last2=Tsukada |first2=Koji |eprint=1202.6106 |title=SpeechJammer: A System Utilizing Artificial Speech Disturbance with Delayed Auditory Feedback |year=2012 |class=cs.HC }}
• Anatomy: Frans de Waal and Jennifer Pokorny, of Emory University, for discovering that chimpanzees can identify other chimpanzees individually by seeing photographs of their anogenital regions (their behinds).{{Cite journal |last1=De Waal |first1=F. B. M. |last2=Pokorny |first2=J. J. |doi=10.1166/asl.2008.006 |title=Faces and Behinds: Chimpanzee Sex Perception |journal=Advanced Science Letters |volume=1 |pages=99–103 |year=2008 |s2cid=74183 }}
• Chemistry: Swedish environmental engineer Johan Pettersson, for solving the puzzle of why, in certain new houses in the town of Anderslöv, Sweden, people's hair turned green. Water pipes connected to these houses lacked coatings, so hot water left in the pipes overnight peeled copper from them, leading to very high copper levels in the water.{{cite web|url=http://www.thelocal.se/20111217/37994 |title=The Local – Sweden's News in English. 'New homes' turn Swedes' hair green Published December 17, 2011 |publisher=Thelocal.se |date= 17 December 2011|access-date=4 August 2013}}
• Fluid Dynamics: UC Santa Barbara researchers Rouslan Krechetnikov and Hans Mayer for studying the dynamics of liquid sloshing, to learn what happens when a person walks while carrying a cup of coffee.{{Cite journal |last1=Mayer |first1=H. |last2=Krechetnikov |first2=R. |doi=10.1103/PhysRevE.85.046117 |title=Walking with coffee: Why does it spill? |journal=Physical Review E |volume=85 |issue=4 |page=046117 |year=2012 |pmid= 22680548|bibcode=2012PhRvE..85d6117M }}
• Literature: The US Government General Accountability Office, for issuing a report about reports about reports that recommends the preparation of a report about the report about reports about reports.{{cite journal|url=http://gao.gov/products/GAO-12-480R |title=Actions Needed to Evaluate the Impact of Efforts to Estimate Costs of Reports and Studies GAO-12-480R, May 10, 2012 |issue=GAO-12-480R |publisher=Gao.gov |date= 10 May 2012|access-date=4 August 2013|last1=Office |first1=U. S. Government Accountability }}
• Medicine: Emmanuel Ben-Soussan and Michel Antonietti, of Athens and Paris, for advising doctors who perform colonoscopies how to minimize the chance that their patients will explode.{{cite journal|last1=Ladas|first1=S. D.|last2=Karamanolis|first2=G.|last3=Ben-Soussan|first3=E. |date=2007|title=Colonic gas explosion during therapeutic colonoscopy with electrocautery |journal=World Journal of Gastroenterology |volume=13 |issue=40|pages=5295–5298 |pmid=17879396 |doi=10.3748/wjg.v13.i40.5295 |pmc=4171316 |doi-access=free }}{{Cite journal |last1=Ben-Soussan |first1=E. |last2=Antonietti |first2=M. |last3=Savoye |first3=G. |last4=Herve |first4=S. |last5=Ducrott?? |first5=P. |last6=Lerebours |first6=E. |doi=10.1097/00042737-200412000-00013 |title=Argon plasma coagulation in the treatment of hemorrhagic radiation proctitis is efficient but requires a perfect colonic cleansing to be safe |journal=European Journal of Gastroenterology & Hepatology |volume=16 |issue=12 |pages=1315–8 |year=2004 |pmid= 15618838|s2cid=9655672 }}
• Neuroscience: Craig Bennett (UC Santa Barbara), Abigail Baird (Vassar), Michael Miller (UC Santa Barbara), and George Wolford (Dartmouth), for demonstrating that brain researchers, by using complicated instruments and simple statistics, can see meaningful brain activity anywhere, even in a dead salmon.{{Cite journal |last1=Bennett |first1=C. M. |last2=Miller |first2=M. B. |last3=Wolford |first3=G. L. |title=Neural correlates of interspecies perspective taking in the post-mortem Atlantic Salmon: An argument for multiple comparisons correction |doi=10.1016/S1053-8119(09)71202-9 |journal=NeuroImage |volume=47 |page=S125 |year=2009 |url=http://prefrontal.org/files/posters/Bennett-Salmon-2009.pdf|citeseerx=10.1.1.161.8384 |s2cid=220973284 }}
• Peace: The SKN Company, for converting old Russian ammunition into new diamonds.{{cite web|url=http://english.pravda.ru/news/science/21-09-2012/122235-ig_nobel_prize-0/ |title=Russian engineer wins Ig Nobel Prize for nano-diamonds |publisher=English.pravda.ru |date=21 September 2012 |access-date=4 August 2013}}{{cite web|url=http://www.forbes.ru/news/135997-rossiyanin-poluchil-shnobelevskuyu-premiyu |title=Двое россиян получили Шнобелевскую премию |language=ru|work=Forbes.ru |date= 21 September 2012|access-date=4 August 2013}}
• Physics: English researchers Joseph Keller, Raymond E. Goldstein, Patrick Warren, and {{ill|Robin C. Ball|lt=Robin Ball|qid=Q56579194}}, for calculating the balance of forces that shape and move the hair in a human ponytail.{{Cite journal |last1=Goldstein |first1=R. |author-link1=Raymond E. Goldstein|last2=Warren |first2=P. |last3=Ball |first3=R. |title=Shape of a Ponytail and the Statistical Physics of Hair Fiber Bundles |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.078101 |journal=Physical Review Letters |volume=108 |issue=7 |year=2012 |pmid= 22401258|url=http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/gold/pdfs/ponytail_prl.pdf|arxiv=1204.0371 |bibcode=2012PhRvL.108g8101G |page=078101|s2cid=31964168 }}
• Psychology: Erasmus University Rotterdam team Anita Eerland, Rolf Zwaan, and Tulio Guadalupe for their study "Leaning to the Left Makes the Eiffel Tower Seem Smaller".{{Cite journal |last1=Eerland |first1=A. |last2=Guadalupe |first2=T. M. |last3=Zwaan |first3=R. A. |doi=10.1177/0956797611420731 |title=Leaning to the Left Makes the Eiffel Tower Seem Smaller: Posture-Modulated Estimation |journal=Psychological Science |volume=22 |issue=12 |pages=1511–1514 |year=2011 |pmid= 22123776|s2cid=27106730 |hdl=11858/00-001M-0000-0012-5BD9-C |url=https://psyarxiv.com/8pjp9/ |hdl-access=free }}

The ceremony took place on 12 September 2013.

• Archaeology: Brian Crandall and Peter Stahl of Binghamton University for parboiling a dead shrew, and then swallowing the shrew without chewing, and then carefully examining everything excreted during subsequent days—all so they could see which bones would dissolve inside the human digestive system, and which bones would not.{{Cite journal |last1=Crandall |first1=B. D. |last2=Stahl |first2=P. W. |doi=10.1016/0305-4403(95)90008-X |title=Human digestive effects on a micromammalian skeleton |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |volume=22 |issue=6 |pages=789–797 |year=1995 |bibcode=1995JArSc..22..789C }}
• Biology/Astronomy: Marie Dacke, Emily Baird, Marcus Byrne, Clarke Scholtz, and Eric Warrant, from institutions in Sweden and South Africa, for discovering that when dung beetles get lost, they can navigate their way home by looking at the Milky Way.{{Cite journal |last1=Dacke |first1=M. |last2=Baird |first2=E. |last3=Byrne |first3=M. |last4=Scholtz |first4=C. H. |last5=Warrant |first5=E. J. |title=Dung Beetles Use the Milky Way for Orientation |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2012.12.034 |journal=Current Biology |volume=23 |issue=4 |pages=298–300 |year=2013 |pmid= 23352694|doi-access=free |bibcode=2013CBio...23..298D }}
• Chemistry: Japanese researchers Shinsuke Imai, Nobuaki Tsuge, Muneaki Tomotake, Yoshiaki Nagatome, Toshiyuki Nagata, and Hidehiko Kumagai, for discovering that the biochemical process by which onions make people cry is even more complicated than scientists previously realized.{{Cite journal |last1=Imai |first1=S. |last2=Tsuge |first2=N. |last3=Tomotake |first3=M. |last4=Nagatome |first4=Y. |last5=Sawada |first5=H. |last6=Nagata |first6=T. |last7=Kumagai |first7=H. |doi=10.1038/419685a |title=Plant biochemistry: An onion enzyme that makes the eyes water |journal=Nature |volume=419 |issue=6908 |page=685 |year=2002 |pmid= 12384686|bibcode=2002Natur.419..685I |s2cid=4407001 |doi-access=free }}
• Medicine: Japanese researchers Masateru Uchiyama, Xiangyuan Jin, Qi Zhang, Toshihito Hirai, Atsushi Amano, Hisashi Bashuda, and Masanori Niimi, for assessing the effect of listening to opera on mice which have had heart transplant operations.{{Cite journal |last1=Uchiyama |first1=M. |last2=Jin |first2=X. |last3=Zhang |first3=Q. |last4=Hirai |first4=T. |last5=Amano |first5=A. |last6=Bashuda |first6=H. |last7=Niimi |first7=M. |title=Auditory stimulation of opera music induced prolongation of murine cardiac allograft survival and maintained generation of regulatory CD4+CD25+ cells |doi=10.1186/1749-8090-7-26 |journal=Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery |volume=7 |page=26 |year=2012 |pmid= 22445281|pmc =3338095 |doi-access=free }}
• Peace: Alexander Lukashenko, president of Belarus, for making it illegal to applaud in public, and to the Belarus State Police, for arresting a one-armed man for applauding.{{Cite journal|url=https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2011/0708/In-Belarus-one-armed-man-arrested-for-clapping|title=In Belarus, one-armed man arrested for clapping|date=8 July 2011|journal=Christian Science Monitor}}
• Probability: Bert Tolkamp, Marie Haskell, Fritha Langford, David Roberts, and Colin Morgan, for making two related discoveries: First, that the longer a cow has been lying down, the more likely that cow will soon stand up; and second, that once a cow stands up, you cannot easily predict how soon that cow will lie down again.{{Cite journal |last1=Tolkamp |first1=B. J. |last2=Haskell |first2=M. J. |last3=Langford |first3=F. M. |last4=Roberts |first4=D. J. |last5=Morgan |first5=C. A. |title=Are cows more likely to lie down the longer they stand? |doi=10.1016/j.applanim.2010.02.004 |journal=Applied Animal Behaviour Science |volume=124 |issue=1–2 |pages=1–10 |year=2010 }}
• Physics: Alberto Minetti, Yuri Ivanenko, Germana Cappellini, Nadia Dominici, and Francesco Lacquaniti, from Italy and Spain, for discovering that some people would be physically capable of running across the surface of a pond—if those people and that pond were on the moon.{{Cite journal |last1=Minetti |first1=A. E. |last2=Ivanenko |first2=Y. P. |last3=Cappellini |first3=G. |last4=Dominici |first4=N. |author-link5=Francesco Lacquaniti |last5=Lacquaniti |first5=F. |editor1-last=Lucia |editor1-first=Alejandro |title=Humans Running in Place on Water at Simulated Reduced Gravity |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0037300 |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=7 |issue=7 |page=e37300 |year=2012 |pmid= 22815681|pmc =3399875 |bibcode=2012PLoSO...737300M |doi-access=free }}
• Psychology: Researchers based in Grenoble, Columbus, and Paris, Laurent Bègue, Brad Bushman, Oulmann Zerhouni, Baptiste Subra, and Medhi Ourabah, for confirming, by experiment, that people who think they are drunk also think they are attractive.{{Cite journal |last1=Bègue |first1=L. |last2=Bushman |first2=B. J. |last3=Zerhouni |first3=O. |last4=Subra |first4=B. |last5=Ourabah |first5=M. |title='Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder': People who think they are drunk also think they are attractive |doi=10.1111/j.2044-8295.2012.02114.x |journal=British Journal of Psychology |volume=104 |issue=2 |pages=225–234 |year=2013 |pmid= 23560668|s2cid=8354214 }}
• Public Health: Mahidol University researchers Kasian Bhanganada, Tu Chayavatana, Chumporn Pongnumkul, Anunt Tonmukayakul, Piyasakol Sakolsatayadorn, Krit Komaratal, and Henry Wilde, for the medical techniques described in their report "Surgical Management of an Epidemic of Penile Amputations in Siam"—techniques which they recommend, except in cases where the amputated penis had been partially eaten by a duck.{{Cite journal |last1=Bhanganada |first1=K. |last2=Chayavatana |first2=T. |last3=Pongnumkul |first3=C. |last4=Tonmukayakul |first4=A. |last5=Sakolsatayadorn |first5=P. |last6=Komaratat |first6=K. |last7=Wilde |first7=H. |doi=10.1016/0002-9610(83)90420-8 |title=Surgical management of an epidemic of penile amputations in siam |journal=The American Journal of Surgery |volume=146 |issue=3 |pages=376–382 |year=1983 |pmid= 6614331}}
• Safety Engineering: The late Gustano Pizzo, for inventing an electro-mechanical system to trap airplane hijackers—the system drops a hijacker through trap doors, seals them into a package, then drops the encapsulated hijacker through the airplane's specially-installed bomb bay doors, whence they parachute to earth, where police, having been alerted by radio, await the hijacker's arrival. ({{US patent|3811643}})

The ceremony took place on 18 September 2014.

• Arctic on Science: University of Oslo researchers Eigil Reimers and Sindre Eftestøl, for testing how reindeer react to seeing humans who are disguised as polar bears.{{Cite journal |doi=10.1657/1938-4246-44.4.483|title=Response Behaviors of Svalbard Reindeer Towards Humans and Humans Disguised as Polar Bears on Edgeøya|journal=Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research|volume=44|issue=4|pages=483–489|year=2012|last1=Reimers |first1=E. |last2=Eftestøl |first2=S. |bibcode=2012AAAR...44..483R |s2cid=130355679|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1034507|doi-access=free}}
• Art: Marina de Tommaso, Michele Sardaro, and Paolo Livrea, of the University of Bari, for measuring the relative pain people suffer while looking at an ugly painting, rather than a pretty painting, while being shot [in the hand] by a powerful laser beam.{{Cite journal |doi=10.1016/j.concog.2008.07.002|pmid=18762434|title=Aesthetic value of paintings affects pain thresholds|journal=Consciousness and Cognition|volume=17|issue=4|pages=1152–1162|year=2008|last1=Tommaso |first1=M. D. |last2=Sardaro |first2=M. |last3=Livrea |first3=P. |s2cid=1202657}}
• Biology: Vlastimil Hart, Petra Nováková, Erich Pascal Malkemper, Sabine Begall, Vladimír Hanzal, Miloš Ježek, Tomáš Kušta, Veronika Němcová, Jana Adámková, Kateřina Benediktová, Jaroslav Červený and Hynek Burda, mostly of the Czech University of Life Sciences, for carefully documenting that when dogs defecate and urinate, they prefer to align their body axis with Earth's north–south geomagnetic field lines.{{Cite journal |doi=10.1186/1742-9994-10-80|pmid=24370002|pmc=3882779|title=Dogs are sensitive to small variations of the Earth's magnetic field|journal=Frontiers in Zoology|volume=10|issue=1|page=80|year=2013|last1=Hart |first1=V. |last2=Nováková |first2=P. |last3=Malkemper |first3=E. |last4=Begall |first4=S. |last5=Hanzal |first5=V. R. |last6=Ježek |first6=M. |last7=Kušta |first7=T. Š. |last8=Němcová |first8=V. |last9=Adámková |first9=J. |last10=Benediktová |first10=K. I. |last11=Červený |first11=J. |last12=Burda |first12=H. |doi-access=free }}
• Economics: ISTAT: the Italian government's National Institute of Statistics, for including revenue from illegal drug sales, prostitution, smuggling, etc., in GDP reporting, in order to meet an EU regulatory mandate.{{cite web |url=http://www.istat.it/it/archivio/110424 |title=Sec 2010: Cambia il sistema dei conti nazionali |publisher=ISTAT |date=28 January 2014 |access-date=22 July 2015 |quote=Negli ultimi due anni, pressoché tutti gli aspetti della compilazione dei conti nazionali italiani sono stati sottoposti a verifica e a modifiche finalizzate a migliorarne sia i presupposti metodologici, sia le fonti dei dati. Ne deriva un aumento della robustezza delle misurazioni ma anche l'emergere di revisioni significative per molti aggregati economici (lo stesso livello del Pil, il valore aggiunto settoriale, l'occupazione, ecc.). Molte di queste innovazioni sono fondate sull'utilizzo di nuove fonti informative, provenienti dall'integrazione tra basi di dati amministrativi e dati di indagine (ad esempio la nuova base di informazioni per le statistiche strutturali di impresa). La disponibilità di basi informative più ricche, che permettono un utilizzo massiccio di dati individuali relativi a imprese e lavoratori, ha contribuito in maniera determinante al ridisegno delle procedure di stima di due degli elementi centrali dei conti nazionali: il modello di definizione dell'input di lavoro e i metodi di misura dell'economia non-osservata e, in particolare, della componente connessa con la sotto dichiarazione dell'attività economica da parte della imprese |language=it}}
• Medicine: Ian Humphreys, Sonal Saraiya, Walter Belenky and James Dworkin, from institutions in Michigan, for treating "uncontrollable" nosebleeds, using the method of nasal-packing-with-strips-of-cured-pork.{{Cite journal |doi=10.1177/000348941112001107|title=Nasal Packing with Strips of Cured Pork as Treatment for Uncontrollable Epistaxis in a Patient with Glanzmann Thrombasthenia|journal=Annals of Otology, Rhinology, and Laryngology|volume=120|issue=11|pages=732–736|year=2011|last1=Humphreys|first1=I.|last2=Saraiya|first2=S.|last3=Belenky|first3=W.|last4=Dworkin|first4=J. |pmid=22224315 |s2cid=37412350}}
• Neuroscience: Chinese and Canadian researchers Jiangang Liu, Jun Li, Lu Feng, Ling Li, Shubham Bose, Jie Tian, and Kang Lee, for trying to understand what happens in the brains of people who see the face of Jesus in a piece of toast.{{Cite journal |doi=10.1016/j.cortex.2014.01.013|pmid=24583223|pmc=3980010|title=Seeing Jesus in toast: Neural and behavioral correlates of face pareidolia|journal=Cortex|volume=53|pages=60–77|year=2014|last1=Liu |first1=J. |last2=Li |first2=J. |last3=Feng |first3=L. |last4=Li |first4=L. |last5=Tian |first5=J. |last6=Lee |first6=K. }}
• Nutrition: From the Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology in Spain, Raquel Rubio, Anna Jofré, Belén Martín, Teresa Aymerich, and Margarita Garriga, for their study titled "Characterization of Lactic Acid Bacteria Isolated from Infant Faeces as Potential Probiotic Starter Cultures for Fermented Sausages."{{Cite journal |doi=10.1016/j.fm.2013.07.015|pmid=24290655|title=Characterization of lactic acid bacteria isolated from infant faeces as potential probiotic starter cultures for fermented sausages|journal=Food Microbiology|volume=38|pages=303–311|year=2014|last1=Rubio |first1=R. |last2=Jofré |first2=A. |last3=Martín |first3=B. N. |last4=Aymerich |first4=T. |last5=Garriga |first5=M. }}
• Physics: Kitasato University team Kiyoshi Mabuchi, Kensei Tanaka, Daichi Uchijima and Rina Sakai, for measuring the amount of friction between a shoe and a banana skin, and between a banana skin and the floor, when a person steps on a banana skin that's on the floor.{{Cite journal |doi=10.2474/trol.7.147|title=Frictional Coefficient under Banana Skin|journal=Tribology Online|volume=7|issue=3|pages=147–151|year=2012|last1=Mabuchi |first1=K. |last2=Tanaka |first2=K. |last3=Uchijima |first3=D. |last4=Sakai |first4=R. |doi-access=free }}
• Psychology: Peter K. Jonason of University of Western Sydney and Amy Jones and Minna Lyons of Liverpool Hope University for amassing evidence that people who habitually stay up late are, on average, more self-admiring, more manipulative, and more psychopathic than people who habitually arise early in the morning.{{Cite journal |doi=10.1016/j.paid.2013.05.001|title=Creatures of the night: Chronotypes and the Dark Triad traits|journal=Personality and Individual Differences|volume=55|issue=5|pages=538–541|year=2013|last1=Jonason |first1=P. K. |last2=Jones |first2=A. |last3=Lyons |first3=M. |s2cid=17020467 }}{{cite web |url=http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/news/2014/09/ig-nobel-awards-2014 |title=Aussie wins Ig Nobel with study into the darker side of night owls |publisher=The Australian Geographic Society |website=Australian Geographic |date=19 September 2014 |access-date=18 November 2014 |author=Penberthy, Natsumi |quote=This year, Peter K. Jonason from University of Western Sydney, along with two other colleagues, received an Ig Nobel for amassing evidence that people who habitually stay up late are, on average, more self-admiring, more manipulative, and more psychopathic than people who habitually arise early in the morning. The research team argued, in their study of 263 people, that Dark Triad traits—narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy—were linked to night owl personalities.}}
• Public Health: Jaroslav Flegr, Jan Havlíček and Jitka Hanušova-Lindova, and to University of Michigan and Virginia Tech researchers David Hanauer, Naren Ramakrishnan, Lisa Seyfried, for investigating whether it is mentally hazardous for a human being to own a cat.{{Cite journal |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0070585|pmid=23936453|title=Describing the Relationship between Cat Bites and Human Depression Using Data from an Electronic Health Record|journal=PLOS ONE|volume=8|issue=8|page=e70585|year=2013|last1=Hanauer |first1=D. A. |last2=Ramakrishnan |first2=N. |last3=Seyfried |first3=L. S. |pmc=3731284|bibcode=2013PLoSO...870585H|doi-access=free}}

The ceremony took place on 17 September 2015.

• Biology: Bruno Grossi, Omar Larach, Mauricio Canals, Rodrigo A. Vásquez, José Iriarte-Díaz, of Chicago and Santiago, for observing that when you attach a weighted stick to the rear end of a chicken, the chicken then walks in a manner similar to that in which dinosaurs are thought to have walked.{{cite journal |title=Walking Like Dinosaurs: Chickens with Artificial Tails Provide Clues about Non-Avian Theropod Locomotion|journal=PLOS ONE|first1=Bruno |last1=Grossi |first2=José |last2=Iriarte-Díaz |first3=Omar |last3=Larach |first4=Mauricio |last4=Canals |first5=Rodrigo A. |last5=Vásquez|date=February 2014|volume=9|issue=2|page=e88458|editor=Andrew A. Farke |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0088458|pmid=24505491|bibcode=2014PLoSO...988458G |pmc=3915051|doi-access=free}}
• Chemistry: Researchers from UC Irvine and Australia, Callum Ormonde and Colin Raston, and Tom Yuan, Stephan Kudlacek, Sameeran Kunche, Joshua N. Smith, William A. Brown, Kaitlin Pugliese, Tivoli Olsen, Mariam Iftikhar, Gregory Weiss, for inventing a chemical recipe to partially un-boil an egg.{{cite journal |title=Shear-Stress-Mediated Refolding of Proteins from Aggregates and Inclusion Bodies |last1=Yuan |first1=T. Z. |last2=Ormonde |first2=C. F. G. |last3=Kudlacek |first3=S. T. |last4=Kunche |first4=S. |last5=Smith |first5=J. N. |last6=Brown |first6=W. A. |last7=Pugliese |first7=K. M. |last8=Olsen |first8=T. J. |last9=Iftikhar |first9=M. |last10=Raston |first10=C. L. |last11=Weiss |first11=G. A. |date=2015 |journal=ChemBioChem |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=393–396 |doi=10.1002/cbic.201402427|pmid=25620679 |pmc=4388321}}
• Diagnostic Medicine: Diallah Karim, Anthony Harnden, Nigel D'Souza, Andrew Huang, Abdel Kader Allouni, Helen Ashdown, Richard J. Stevens, and Simon Kreckler, of the University of Oxford and Stoke Mandeville Hospital, for determining that acute appendicitis can be accurately diagnosed by the amount of pain evident when the patient is driven over speed bumps.{{cite journal |title=Pain over speed bumps in diagnosis of acute appendicitis: diagnostic accuracy study|first1=H. F. |last1=Ashdown |first2=N. |last2=D'Souza |first3=D. |last3=Karim |first4=R. J. |last4=Stevens |first5=A. |last5=Huang |first6=A. |last6=Harnden|journal=BMJ|volume=345|page=e8012 |date=December 2012 |doi=10.1136/bmj.e8012|pmid=23247977|pmc=3524367}}
• Economics: The Bangkok Metropolitan Police, for offering to pay police officers extra cash if they refuse to take bribes.{{cite news|url=http://www.khaosodenglish.com/detail.php?newsid=1442571460|title=Thailand Wins 'Ig Nobel' Distinction for Bribing Cops not to Take Bribes|date=18 September 2015|publisher=Khaosod English|access-date=27 October 2015|archive-date=6 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160506083959/http://www.khaosodenglish.com/detail.php?newsid=1442571460|url-status=dead}}
• Literature: Dutch researchers Mark Dingemanse, Francisco Torreira, and Nick J. Enfield, for discovering that the word "huh?" (or its equivalent) seems to exist in every human language — and for not being quite sure why.{{cite journal |title=Is "Huh?" a Universal Word? Conversational Infrastructure and the Convergent Evolution of Linguistic Items |last1=Dingemanse |first1=M. |last2=Torreira |first2=F. |last3=Enfield |first3=N. J. |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=8 |issue=11 |page=e78273 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0078273|year=2013 |pmid=24260108 |pmc=3832628|bibcode=2013PLoSO...878273D |doi-access=free }}
• Management: Gennaro Bernile of Singapore Management University, Vineet Bhagwat of the University of Oregon, and P. Raghavendra Rau of the University of Cambridge, for discovering that many business leaders developed in childhood a fondness for risk-taking, when they experienced natural disasters (such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, and wildfires) that — for them—had no dire personal consequences.{{cite journal|last1=Bernile|first1=Gennaro|last2=Bhagwat|first2=Vineet|last3=Rau|first3=P. Raghavendra|date=1 September 2015|title=What Doesn't Kill You Will Only Make You More Risk-Loving: Early-Life Disasters and CEO Behavior|journal=The Journal of Finance|volume=72|issue=1|url=http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/jofi.2017.72.issue-1|doi=10.2139/ssrn.2423044|s2cid=219339281}}
• Mathematics: University of Vienna researchers Elisabeth Oberzaucher and Karl Grammer, for trying to use mathematical techniques to determine whether and how Moulay Ismail, the Alawi sultan of Morocco, managed, during the years from 1697 through 1727, to father 888 children.{{cite journal |date=February 2014|volume=9|issue=2|page=e85292|first1=Elisabeth |last1=Oberzaucher |first2=Karl |last2=Grammer|editor=Attila Szolnoki|title=The Case of Moulay Ismael – Fact or Fancy?|journal=PLOS ONE|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0085292|pmid=24551034|bibcode=2014PLoSO...985292O |pmc=3925083|doi-access=free}}
• Medicine: Awarded jointly to two groups: Hajime Kimata of Satou Hospital in Japan; and to Jaroslava Durdiaková, Peter Celec, Natália Kamodyová, Tatiana Sedláčková, Gabriela Repiská, Barbara Sviežená, and Gabriel Minárik, of Comenius University, for experiments to study the biomedical benefits or biomedical consequences of intense kissing (and other intimate, interpersonal activities).{{cite journal |title=Kissing reduces allergic skin wheal responses and plasma neurotrophin levels|first=Hajime |last=Kimata|journal=Physiology & Behavior |volume=80|issue=2–3|date=November 2003|pages=395–398|doi=10.1016/j.physbeh.2003.09.004|pmid=14637240 |s2cid=13122664 }}{{cite journal |title=Reduction of allergic skin weal responses by sexual intercourse in allergic patients|author=Hajime Kimata|journal=Sexual and Relationship Therapy|volume=19|issue=2|pages=151–154|date=May 2004|doi=10.1080/14681990410001691361|s2cid=145394223}}{{cite journal |title=Kissing selectively decreases allergen-specific IgE production in atopic patients|author=H. Kimata|journal=Journal of Psychosomatic Research|date=May 2006|volume=60|issue=5|pages=545–547|doi=10.1016/j.jpsychores.2005.09.007|pmid=16650596}}{{cite journal |title=Prevalence and persistence of male DNA identified in mixed saliva samples after intense kissing|first1=Natália |last1=Kamodyová |first2=Jaroslava |last2=Durdiaková |first3=Peter |last3=Celec |first4=Tatiana |last4=Sedláčková |first5=Gabriela |last5=Repiská |first6=Barbara |last6=Sviežená |first7=Gabriel |last7=Minárik|journal=Forensic Science International: Genetics |date=January 2013 |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=124–128|doi=10.1016/j.fsigen.2012.07.007|pmid=22917815 }}
• Physics: Patricia Yang, David Hu, Jonathan Pham, and Jerome Choo, of Georgia Tech, for testing the biological principle that nearly all mammals empty their bladders in about 21 seconds (plus or minus 13 seconds).{{cite journal |title=Duration of urination does not change with body size |last1=Yang |first1=Patricia J. |last2=Pham |first2=Jonathan |last3=Choo |first3=Jerome |last4=Hu |first4=David L. |journal=PNAS |volume=111 |issue=33 |pages=11932–11937 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1402289111|pmid=24969420 |year=2014 |bibcode=2014PNAS..11111932Y |pmc=4143032 |doi-access=free }}
• Physiology and Entomology: Awarded jointly to two individuals: Justin Schmidt of the Southwestern Biological Institute in Tucson, for painstakingly creating the Schmidt sting pain index, which rates the relative pain people feel when stung by various insects;{{cite journal|title=Hemolytic activities of stinging insect venoms|first1=Justin O.|last1=Schmidt|first2=Murray S.|last2=Blum|first3=William L.|last3=Overal|journal=Archives of Insect Biochemistry and Physiology|volume=1|issue=2|pages=155–160|date=1983|doi=10.1002/arch.940010205}} and to Michael L. Smith of Cornell University for carefully arranging for honey bees to sting him repeatedly on 25 different locations on his body, to learn which locations are the least painful (the skull, middle toe tip, and upper arm) and which are the most painful (the nostril, upper lip, and penis shaft).{{cite journal|author=Michael L. Smith|title=Honey bee sting pain index by body location|journal=PeerJ|volume=2|page=e338|date=2014|doi=10.7717/peerj.338|pmid=24765572|pmc=3994616 |doi-access=free }}

The ceremony took place on 22 September 2016.

• Reproduction: The late Ahmed Shafik of Cairo University for testing the effects of wearing polyester, cotton, or wool trousers on the sex life of rats,{{cite journal|pmid=8262106|title=Effect of different types of textiles on sexual activity. Experimental study|last=Shafik|first=Ahmed|journal=European Urology|volume=24|pages=375–80|number=3|date=1993|doi=10.1159/000474332}} and for then conducting similar tests on the human male.{{cite journal|title=Contraceptive efficacy of polyester-induced azoospermia in normal men|journal=Contraception|doi=10.1016/0010-7824(92)90157-O|last=Shafik|first=Ahmed|volume=45|issue=5|pages=439–51|date=May 1992|pmid=1623716}}
• Economics: Massey University researcher Mark Avis and colleagues, for assessing the perceived personalities of rocks from a sales and marketing perspective.{{cite journal|title=The Brand Personality of Rocks: A Critical Evaluation of a Brand Personality Scale|last1=Avis|first1=Mark|last2=Forbes|first2=Sarah|last3=Ferguson|first3=Shelagh|journal=Marketing Theory|volume=14|pages=451–475|number=4|date=2014|doi=10.1177/1470593113512323|s2cid=147602379}}
• Physics: Gabor Horvath of Eötvös University and colleagues, for discovering why white-haired horses are the most horsefly-proof horses,{{cite journal|title=An Unexpected Advantage of Whiteness in Horses: The Most Horsefly-Proof Horse Has a Depolarizing White Coat|last1=Horváth|first1=Gábor|last2=Blahó|first2=Miklós|last3=Kriska|first3=György|last4=Hegedüs|first4=Ramón|first5=Balázs|last5=Gerics|first6=Róbert|last6=Farkas|first7=Susanne|last7=Åkesson|journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society B|volume=277|pages=1643–50|number=1688|date=June 2010|doi=10.1098/rspb.2009.2202|pmid=20129982|pmc=2871857}} and for discovering why dragonflies are fatally attracted to black tombstones.{{cite journal|title=Ecological Traps for Dragonflies in a Cemetery: The Attraction of Sympetrum species (Odonata: Libellulidae) by Horizontally Polarizing Black Grave-Stones|first1=Gábor|last1=Horváth|first2=Péter|last2=Malik|first3=György|last3=Kriska|first4=Hansruedi|last4=Wildermuth|journal=Freshwater Biology|doi=10.1111/j.1365-2427.2007.01798.x|volume=52|issue=9|pages=1700–1709|date=September 2007|bibcode=2007FrBio..52.1700H |s2cid=29452669}}
• Chemistry: Volkswagen, for solving the problem of excessive automobile pollution emissions by automatically, electromechanically producing fewer emissions whenever the cars are being tested.
• Medicine: Christoph Helmchen and University of Luebeck colleagues, for discovering that if you have an itch on the left side of your body, you can relieve it by looking into a mirror and scratching the right side of your body (and vice versa).{{cite journal|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0082756|last1=Helmchen|first1=Christoph|last2=Palzer|first2=Carina|last3=Münte|first3=Thomas F.|last4=Anders|first4=Silke|last5=Sprenger|first5=Andres|title=Itch Relief by Mirror Scratching. A Psychophysical Study|journal=PLOS ONE|volume=8|number=12|page=e82756|date= November 2013|pmid=24386113|pmc=3873464|bibcode=2013PLoSO...882756H|doi-access=free}}
• Psychology: Ghent University researcher Evelyne Debey and colleagues, for asking a thousand liars how often they lie, and for deciding whether to believe those answers.{{cite journal|title=From junior to senior Pinocchio: A cross-sectional lifespan investigation of deception|doi=10.1016/j.actpsy.2015.06.007|last1=Debey|first1=Evelyne|last2=De Schryver|first2=Maarten|last3=Logan|first3=Gordon D.|last4=Suchotzki|first4=Christina|last5=Verschuere|first5=Bruno|journal=Acta Psychologica|volume=160|pages=58–68|date=September 2015|pmid=26182909|url=https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/2474422/175865_1_s2.0_S0001691815300184_main.pdf}}
• Peace: University of Waterloo psychology researcher Gordon Pennycook and colleagues, for their scholarly study called "On the Reception and Detection of Pseudo-Profound Bullshit".{{cite journal|url=http://journal.sjdm.org/15/15923a/jdm15923a.html|title=On the Reception and Detection of Pseudo-Profound Bullshit|

last1=Pennycook|first1=Gordon|last2=Cheyne|first2=James Allan|last3=Barr|first3=Nathaniel|last4=Koehler|first4=Derek J.|last5=Fugelsang|first5=Jonathan A.|journal=Judgment and Decision Making|date=November 2015|volume=10|number=6|pages=549–563|doi=10.1017/S1930297500006999 |s2cid=16505606 |doi-access=free}}

• Biology: Awarded jointly to Charles Foster, for living in the wild as, at different times, a badger, an otter, a deer, a fox, and a bird; and to Thomas Thwaites, for creating prosthetic extensions of his limbs that allowed him to move in the manner of, and spend time roaming hills in the company of, goats.{{Cite news |date=2016-09-22 |title=Ig Nobel win for Alpine 'goat man' |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-37443204 |access-date=2025-03-24 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}
• Literature: Swedish writer and entomologist {{ill|Fredrik Sjöberg|sv|Fredrik Sjöberg (författare)}}, for his three-volume autobiographical work about the pleasures of collecting flies that are dead, and flies that are not yet dead.{{Cite book |last=Fredrik |first=sjöberg |title=En flugsamlares väg |publisher=Pantheon Books |year=2015 |isbn=978-1101870150 |trans-title=The Path of a Fly Collector}}
• Perception: Atsuki Higashiyama of Ritsumeikan University and Kohei Adachi of Osaka University for investigating whether things look different when you bend over and view them between your legs.{{cite journal|doi=10.1016/j.visres.2006.04.002|last1=Higashiyama|first1=Atsuki|last2=Adachi|first2=Kohei|title=Perceived size and perceived distance of targets viewed from between the legs: Evidence for proprioceptive theory|date= November 2006|pmid=16979687|volume=46|issue=23|journal=Vision Res.|pages=3961–76|s2cid=18168744|doi-access=free}}

The ceremony took place on 14 September 2017.{{Cite web |date=1 August 2006 |title=The Ig Nobel Prize Winners |url=https://www.improbable.com/ig-about/winners/}}{{Cite web |url=http://cen.acs.org/articles/95/i37/2017-Ig-Nobel-Prizes.html |title=2017 Ig Nobel Prizes {{pipe}} September 18, 2017 Issue – Vol. 95 Issue 37 {{pipe}} Chemical & Engineering News |website=cen.acs.org}}

• Physics: Marc-Antoine Fardin of University of León for using fluid dynamics to probe the question "Can a Cat Be Both a Solid and a Liquid?"{{Cite journal |last=Fardin |first=Marc-Antoine |date=July 2014 |title=On the Rheology of Cats |url=https://www.rheology.org/SoR/Publications/RheoBulletin/RB2014Jul.pdf |url-status=live |journal=Rheology Bulletin |volume=83 |issue=2 |pages=16–17, 30 |issn=0035-4538 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181220171954/https://www.rheology.org/sor/publications/rheology_b/RB2014Jul.pdf/ |archive-date=20 December 2018}}
• Peace: Milo Puhan, Alex Suarez, Christian Lo Cascio, Alfred Zahn, Markus Heitz, and Otto Braendli of the University of Zurich for demonstrating that regular playing of a didgeridoo is an effective treatment for obstructive sleep apnoea and snoring.{{Cite journal |last1=Puhan |first1=Milo A |last2=Suarez |first2=Alex |last3=Cascio |first3=Christian Lo |last4=Zahn |first4=Alfred |last5=Heitz |first5=Markus |last6=Braendli |first6=Otto |date=2006-02-04 |title=Didgeridoo playing as alternative treatment for obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome: randomised controlled trial |journal=BMJ |volume=332 |issue=7536 |pages=266–270 |doi=10.1136/bmj.38705.470590.55 |issn=0959-8138 |pmc=1360393 |pmid=16377643}}
• Economics: Matthew Rockloff and Nancy Greer of Central Queensland University for their experiments to see how contact with a live crocodile affects a person's willingness to gamble.{{Cite journal |last1=Rockloff |first1=Matthew J. |last2=Greer |first2=Nancy |date=December 2010 |title=Never Smile at a Crocodile: Betting on Electronic Gaming Machines is Intensified by Reptile-Induced Arousal |journal=Journal of Gambling Studies |volume=26 |issue=4 |pages=571–581 |doi=10.1007/s10899-009-9174-4 |issn=1050-5350 |pmid=20052606 |s2cid=5354413 |url=http://hdl.cqu.edu.au/10018/50458 }}{{Dead link|date=June 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
• Anatomy: British physician James Heathcote for his medical research study "Why Do Old Men Have Big Ears?"{{Cite journal |last=Heathcote |first=James A. |date=1995-12-23 |title=Why Do Old Men Have Big Ears? |journal=BMJ |volume=311 |issue=7021 |page=1668 |doi=10.1136/bmj.311.7021.1668 |issn=0959-8138 |pmc=2539087 |pmid=8541753}}
• Biology: Kazunori Yoshizawa, Rodrigo Ferreira, Yoshitaka Kamimura, and Charles Lienhard, for their discovery of a female penis, and a male vagina, in a cave insect.{{Cite journal |last1=Yoshizawa |first1=Kazunori |last2=Ferreira |first2=Rodrigo L. |last3=Kamimura |first3=Yoshitaka |last4=Lienhard |first4=Charles |date=May 2014 |title=Female Penis, Male Vagina, and Their Correlated Evolution in a Cave Insect |journal=Current Biology|volume=24 |issue=9 |pages=1006–1010 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2014.03.022 |pmid=24746797|doi-access=free |bibcode=2014CBio...24.1006Y |hdl=2115/56857 |hdl-access=free }}
• Fluid Dynamics: Jiwon Han, high school student Gangwon Province, South Korea, for studying the dynamics of liquid-sloshing to learn what happens when a person walks backwards while carrying a cup of coffee.{{Cite journal |last=Han |first=Jiwon |date=June 2016 |title=A Study on the Coffee Spilling Phenomena in the Low Impulse Regime |journal=Achievements in the Life Sciences |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=87–101 |doi=10.1016/j.als.2016.05.009|doi-access=free }}
• Nutrition: Fernanda Ito, Enrico Bernard, and Rodrigo Torres, for the first scientific report of human blood in the diet of the hairy-legged vampire bat.{{Cite journal |last1=Ito |first1=Fernanda |last2=Bernard |first2=Enrico |last3=Torres |first3=Rodrigo A. |date=2016-12-01 |title=What is for Dinner? First Report of Human Blood in the Diet of the Hairy-Legged Vampire Bat Diphylla ecaudata |journal=Acta Chiropterologica |volume=18 |issue=2 |page=509 |doi=10.3161/15081109ACC2016.18.2.017 |s2cid=88845021 |issn=1508-1109}}
• Medicine: University of Lyon researchers Jean-Pierre Royet, David Meunier, Nicolas Torquet, Anne-Marie Mouly and Tao Jiang, for using advanced brain-scanning technology to measure the extent to which some people are disgusted by cheese.{{Cite journal |last1=Royet |first1=Jean-Pierre |last2=Meunier |first2=David |last3=Torquet |first3=Nicolas |last4=Mouly |first4=Anne-Marie |last5=Jiang |first5=Tao |date=2016-10-17 |title=The Neural Bases of Disgust for Cheese: An fMRI Study |journal=Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |volume=10 |page=511 |doi=10.3389/fnhum.2016.00511 |issn=1662-5161 |pmc=5065955 |pmid=27799903|doi-access=free }}
• Cognition: Matteo Martini, Ilaria Bufalari, Maria Antonietta Stazi, and Salvatore Maria Aglioti, for demonstrating that many identical twins cannot tell each other apart visually.{{Cite journal |last1=Martini |first1=Matteo |last2=Bufalari |first2=Ilaria |last3=Stazi |first3=Maria Antonietta |last4=Aglioti |first4=Salvatore Maria |date=2015-04-08 |editor-last=Hills |editor-first=Peter James |title=Is That Me or My Twin? Lack of Self-Face Recognition Advantage in Identical Twins |journal=PLOS ONE|volume=10 |issue=4 |page=e0120900 |bibcode=2015PLoSO..1020900M |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0120900 |issn=1932-6203 |pmc=4390198 |pmid=25853249|doi-access=free }}
• Obstetrics: At Institut Marquès and the University of Barcelona, researchers Marisa López-Teijón, Álex García-Faura, Alberto Prats-Galino, and Luis Pallarés Aniorte, for showing that a developing human fetus responds more strongly to music that is played electromechanically inside the mother's vagina than to music that is played electromechanically on the mother's belly.{{Cite journal |last1=López-Teijón |first1=Marisa |last2=García-Faura |first2=Álex |last3=Prats-Galino |first3=Alberto |date=November 2015 |title=Fetal facial expression in response to intravaginal music emission |journal=Ultrasound|volume=23 |issue=4 |pages=216–223 |doi=10.1177/1742271X15609367 |issn=1742-271X |pmc=4616906 |pmid=26539240}}Fetal Acoustic Stimulation Device, patent [https://patents.google.com/patent/ES2546919R1/es ES2546919B1], granted 29 September 2015 to Luis y Pallarés Aniorte and Maria Luisa López-Teijón Pérez.

The ceremony took place on 13 September 2018.{{Cite web|url=https://www.improbable.com/ig/2018/|title=Improbable Research|date=6 February 2022}}{{Cite web |title=2018 Ig Nobel Prizes |url=https://cen.acs.org/people/awards/2018-Ig-Nobel-Prizes/96/i37 |access-date=2024-10-22 |website=Chemical & Engineering News |language=en}}

• Medicine: Marc Mitchell and David Wartinger, for using roller coaster rides to try to hasten the passage of kidney stones.{{cite journal | doi = 10.7556/jaoa.2016.128 | volume=116 | title=Validation of a Functional Pyelocalyceal Renal Model for the Evaluation of Renal Calculi Passage While Riding a Roller Coaster | year=2016 | journal=The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association | last1 = Mitchell | first1 = Marc A. | issue=10 | pages=647–52 | pmid=27669068| doi-access=free }}
• Anthropology: Tomas Persson, Gabriela-Alina Sauciuc, and Elainie Madsen, of Lund University for collecting evidence, in a zoo, that chimpanzees imitate humans about as often, and about as well, as humans imitate chimpanzees.{{cite journal | doi = 10.1007/s10329-017-0624-9 | volume=59 | title=Spontaneous cross-species imitation in interactions between chimpanzees and zoo visitors | year=2018 | journal=Primates | pages=19–29 | last1 = Persson | first1 = Tomas | last2 = Sauciuc | first2 = Gabriela-Alina | last3 = Alenkær Madsen | first3 = Elainie| issue=1 | pmid=28815382 | pmc=5740201 }}
• Biology: Paul Becher, Sebastien Lebreton, Erika Wallin, Erik Hedenström, Felipe Borrero-Echeverry, Marie Bengtsson, Volker Jörger, and Peter Witzgall, of Sweden, Germany, and Colombia, for demonstrating that wine experts can reliably identify, by smell, the presence of a single fruit fly in a glass of wine.{{cite journal | doi = 10.1007/s10886-018-0950-4 | volume=44 | title=The Scent of the Fly | year=2018 | journal=Journal of Chemical Ecology | pages=431–435 | last1 = Becher | first1 = Paul G. | last2 = Lebreton | first2 = Sebastien | last3 = Wallin | first3 = Erika A. | last4 = Hedenström | first4 = Erik | last5 = Borrero | first5 = Felipe | last6 = Bengtsson | first6 = Marie | last7 = Joerger | first7 = Volker | last8 = Witzgall | first8 = Peter| issue=5 | pmid=29611073 | bibcode=2018JCEco..44..431B | s2cid=4560561 | url=http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-33632 }}
• Chemistry: Paula Romão, Adília Alarcão and the late César Viana, of Portugal, for measuring the degree to which human saliva is a good cleaning agent for dirty surfaces.{{cite journal | doi = 10.2307/1506167 | volume=35 | title=Human Saliva as a Cleaning Agent for Dirty Surfaces | year=1990 | journal=Studies in Conservation | page=153 | last1 = Romão | first1 = Paula M. S. | last2 = Alarcão | first2 = Adília M. | last3 = Viana | first3 = César A. N. | last4 = Romao | first4 = Paula M. S. | last5 = Alarcao | first5 = Adilia M. | last6 = Viana | first6 = Cesar A. N.| issue=3 | jstor=1506167 }}
• Medical Education: Japanese physician Akira Horiuchi for the medical report "Colonoscopy in the Sitting Position: Lessons Learned From Self-Colonoscopy."{{cite journal | doi = 10.1016/j.gie.2005.10.014 | volume=63 | title=Colonoscopy in the sitting position: lessons learned from self-colonoscopy by using a small-caliber, variable-stiffness colonoscope | year=2006 | journal=Gastrointestinal Endoscopy | pages=119–120 | last1 = Horiuchi | first1 = Akira | last2 = Nakayama | first2 = Yoshiko| issue=1 | pmid=16377328 }}
• Literature: Thea Blackler, Rafael Gomez, Vesna Popovic and M. Helen Thompson of Queensland University of Technology, for documenting that most people who use complicated products do not read the instruction manual.{{cite journal | doi = 10.1093/iwc/iwu023 | volume=28 | title=Life Is Too Short to RTFM: How Users Relate to Documentation and Excess Features in Consumer Products | year=2016 | journal=Interacting with Computers | pages=27–46 | last1 = Blackler | first1 = Alethea L. | last2 = Gomez | first2 = Rafael | last3 = Popovic | first3 = Vesna | last4 = Thompson | first4 = M. Helen| url=https://eprints.qut.edu.au/80826/24/RTFM%20for%20eprints%202018.pdf | doi-access = free }}
• Nutrition: James Cole of the University of Brighton for calculating that the caloric intake from a human-cannibalism diet is significantly lower than the caloric intake from most other traditional meat diets.{{cite journal | doi = 10.1038/srep44707 | volume=7 | title=Assessing the calorific significance of episodes of human cannibalism in the Palaeolithic | year=2017 | journal=Scientific Reports | last1 = Cole | first1 = James| page=44707 | pmid=28383521 | pmc=5382840 | bibcode=2017NatSR...744707C }}
• Peace: University of Valencia researchers Francisco Alonso, Cristina Esteban, Andrea Serge, Maria-Luisa Ballestar, Jaime Sanmartín, Constanza Calatayud, and Beatriz Alamar, for measuring the frequency, motivation, and effects of shouting and cursing while driving an automobile."La Justicia en el Tráfico: Conocimiento y Valoración de la Población Española" ["Justice in Traffic: Knowledge and Valuation of the Spanish Population")], F. Alonso, J. Sanmartín, C. Calatayud, C. Esteban, B. Alamar, and M. L. Ballestar, Cuadernos de Reflexión Attitudes, 2005. doi:?
• Reproductive Medicine: John Barry, Bruce Blank, and Michel Boileau of the University of Oregon for using postage stamps to test whether the male sexual organ is functioning properly—as described in their study "Nocturnal Penile Tumescence Monitoring With Stamps."{{cite journal | doi = 10.1016/0090-4295(80)90414-8 | volume=15 | title=Nocturnal penile tumescence monitoring with stamps | year=1980 | journal=Urology | pages=171–172 | last1 = Barry | first1 = John M. | last2 = Blank | first2 = Bruce | last3 = Boileau | first3 = Michael| issue=2 | pmid=7355543 }}
• Economics: Lindie Hanyu Liang, Douglas Brown, Huiwen Lian, Samuel Hanig, D. Lance Ferris, and Lisa Keeping, from Waterloo, Lexington, and East Lansing, investigating whether it is effective for employees to use voodoo dolls to retaliate against abusive bosses.{{cite journal | doi = 10.1016/j.leaqua.2018.01.004 | volume=29 | title=Righting a wrong: Retaliation on a voodoo doll symbolizing an abusive supervisor restores justice | year=2018 | journal=The Leadership Quarterly | pages=443–456 | last1 = Liang | first1 = Lindie H. | last2 = Brown | first2 = Douglas J. | last3 = Lian | first3 = Huiwen | last4 = Hanig | first4 = Samuel | last5 = Ferris | first5 = D. Lance | last6 = Keeping | first6 = Lisa M.| issue=4 | doi-access = free }}

File:The 29th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony (2019).webm

The ceremony took place on 12 September 2019.{{Cite web|url=https://www.improbable.com/2019/09/12/announcing-the-2019-ig-nobel-prize-winners/|title=Announcing the 2019 Ig Nobel Prize Winners|date=13 September 2019|website=Improbable Research|access-date=13 September 2019}}

• Medicine: Mario Negri Institute researcher Silvano Gallus and colleagues, for collecting evidence that pizza might protect against illness and death, if the pizza is made and eaten in Italy.{{Cite journal|last1=Gallus|first1=Silvano|last2=Bosetti|first2=Cristina|last3=Negri|first3=Eva|last4=Talamini|first4=Renato|last5=Montella|first5=Maurizio|last6=Conti|first6=Ettore|last7=Franceschi|first7=Silvia|last8=Vecchia|first8=Carlo La|date=2003|title=Does pizza protect against cancer?|journal=International Journal of Cancer|volume=107|issue=2|pages=283–284|doi=10.1002/ijc.11382|pmid=12949808|s2cid=23775396|issn=1097-0215|doi-access=free}}
• Medical Education: Karen Pryor and Theresa McKeon, of TAGteach in Norton, Massachusetts, for using a simple animal-training technique—called "clicker training"—to train surgeons to perform orthopedic surgery.{{Cite journal|last1=Levy|first1=Martin|last2=Pryor|first2=Karen|last3=McKeon|first3=Theresa|date=April 2016|title=Is Teaching Simple Surgical Skills Using an Operant Learning Program More Effective Than Teaching by Demonstration|journal=Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research|volume=474|issue=4|pages=945–955|doi=10.1007/s11999-015-4555-8|pmid=26369658|pmc=4773331}}
• Biology: Singapore and Gdańsk researchers Ling-Jun Kong, Herbert Crepaz, Agnieszka Górecka, Aleksandra Urbanek, Rainer Dumke, and Tomasz Paterek, for discovering that dead magnetized cockroaches demagnetize slower than living magnetized cockroaches.{{Cite journal|last1=Kong|first1=Ling-Jun|last2=Crepaz|first2=Herbert|last3=Górecka|first3=Agnieszka|last4=Urbanek|first4=Aleksandra|last5=Dumke|first5=Rainer|last6=Paterek|first6=Tomasz|date=2018|title=In-Vivo Biomagnetic Characterisation of the American Cockroach|journal=Scientific Reports|volume=8|issue=1|page=5140|doi=10.1038/s41598-018-23005-1|pmid=29572509|bibcode=2018NatSR...8.5140K|arxiv=1702.00538|pmc=5865160}}
• Anatomy: Roger Mieusset and Bourras Bengoudifa in Toulouse, France for measuring scrotal temperature asymmetry in naked and clothed postmen in France.{{Cite journal|last1=Bengoudifa|first1=B.|last2=Mieusset|first2=R.|date=1 August 2007|title=Thermal asymmetry of the human scrotum|journal=Human Reproduction|volume=22|issue=8|pages=2178–2182|doi=10.1093/humrep/dem133|pmid=17623724|issn=0268-1161|doi-access=free}}
• Chemistry: Shigeru Watanabe, Mineko Ohnishi, Kaori Imai, Eiji Kawano, and Seiji Igarashi, for estimating the total saliva volume produced per day by a typical five-year-old child.{{Cite journal|last1=Watanabe|first1=S.|last2=Ohnishi|first2=M.|last3=Imai|first3=K.|last4=Kawano|first4=E.|last5=Igarashi|first5=S.|date=1 August 1995|title=Estimation of the total saliva volume produced per day in five-year-old children|journal=Archives of Oral Biology|volume=40|issue=8|pages=781–782|doi=10.1016/0003-9969(95)00026-L|pmid=7487581|issn=0003-9969}}
• Engineering: Iman Farahbakhsh of Azad University for inventing a diaper-changing machine for use on human infants.{{Cite web|url=http://www.freepatentsonline.com/10034582.pdf|title=Infant washer and diaper-changer apparatus and method|website=www.freepatentsonline.com|access-date=30 September 2019}}
• Economics: Habip Gedik, Timothy A. Voss, and Andreas Voss, for testing which country's paper money is best at transmitting dangerous bacteria.{{Cite journal|last1=Gedik|first1=Habip|last2=Voss|first2=Timothy A.|last3=Voss|first3=Andreas|date=28 August 2013|title=Money and transmission of bacteria|journal=Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control|volume=2|issue=1|page=22|doi=10.1186/2047-2994-2-22|issn=2047-2994|pmc=3765964|pmid=23985137 |doi-access=free }}
• Peace: Ghada A. bin Saif, Alexandru Papoiu, Liliana Banari, Francis McGlone, Shawn G. Kwatra, Yiong-Huak Chan, and Gil Yosipovitch, for trying to measure the pleasurability of scratching an itch.{{Cite journal|last1=Saif|first1=G. A. bin|last2=Papoiu|first2=A. D. P.|last3=Banari|first3=L.|last4=McGlone|first4=F.|last5=Kwatra|first5=S. G.|last6=Chan|first6=Y.-H.|last7=Yosipovitch|first7=G.|date=2012|title=The pleasurability of scratching an itch: a psychophysical and topographical assessment|journal=British Journal of Dermatology|volume=166|issue=5|pages=981–985|doi=10.1111/j.1365-2133.2012.10826.x|issn=1365-2133|pmc=3335970|pmid=22242789}}
• Psychology: Fritz Strack, University of Würzburg psychologist, for discovering that holding a pen in one's mouth makes one smile,{{Cite journal|last1=Strack|first1=Fritz|last2=Martin|first2=Leonard L.|last3=Stepper|first3=Sabine|date=1988|title=Inhibiting and facilitating conditions of the human smile: A nonobtrusive test of the facial feedback hypothesis.|journal=Journal of Personality and Social Psychology|volume=54|issue=5|pages=768–777|doi=10.1037/0022-3514.54.5.768|issn=1939-1315|pmid=3379579|s2cid=15291233}} which makes one happier—and for then discovering that it does not.{{Cite journal|last=Strack|first=Fritz|date=2017|title=From Data to Truth in Psychological Science. A Personal Perspective.|journal=Frontiers in Psychology|volume=8|page=702|doi=10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00702|issn=1664-1078|pmc=5432643|pmid=28559859|doi-access=free}}
• Physics: Georgia Tech researchers Patricia Yang, Alexander Lee, Miles Chan, Alynn Martin, Ashley Edwards, Scott Carver (University of Tasmania), and David Hu, for studying how, and why, wombats make cube-shaped feces.{{Cite journal|title=71st Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics – Event – How do wombats make cubed poo?|url=http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/DFD18/Event/333058|journal=Bulletin of the American Physical Society|publisher=American Physical Society|volume=63|issue=13}}

The ceremony took place on 17 September 2020 and was webcast.{{cite web |title=Ig Nobel Prize Winners |url=https://www.improbable.com/ig-about/winners/#ig2020 |website=Improbable Research |date=August 2006}}

• Acoustics: University of Vienna biologist Stephan Reber, and researchers Takeshi Nishimura, Judith Janisch, Mark Robertson, and Tecumseh Fitch, for inducing a female Chinese alligator to bellow in an airtight chamber filled with helium-enriched air.{{cite journal |last1=Reber |first1=Stephan A. |last2=Nishimura |first2=Takeshi |last3=Janisch |first3=Judith |last4=Robertson |first4=Mark |last5=Fitch |first5=W. Tecumseh |title=A Chinese alligator in heliox: formant frequencies in a crocodilian |journal=Journal of Experimental Biology |date=1 August 2015 |volume=218 |issue=15 |pages=2442–2447 |doi=10.1242/jeb.119552 |pmid=26246611 |pmc=4528706 |bibcode=2015JExpB.218.2442R |url=https://jeb.biologists.org/content/218/15/2442.short |issn=0022-0949}}
• Economics: Christopher Watkins, Juan David Leongómez, Jeanne Bovet, Agnieszka Żelaźniewicz, Max Korbmacher, Marco Antônio Corrêa Varella, Ana Maria Fernandez, Danielle Wagstaff, and Samuela Bolgan, for trying to quantify the relationship between different countries' national income inequality and the average amount of mouth-to-mouth kissing.{{cite journal |last1=Watkins |first1=Christopher D. |last2=Leongómez |first2=Juan David |last3=Bovet |first3=Jeanne |last4=Żelaźniewicz |first4=Agnieszka |last5=Korbmacher |first5=Max |last6=Varella |first6=Marco Antônio Corrêa |last7=Fernandez |first7=Ana Maria |last8=Wagstaff |first8=Danielle |last9=Bolgan |first9=Samuela |title=National income inequality predicts cultural variation in mouth to mouth kissing |journal=Scientific Reports |date=30 April 2019 |volume=9 |issue=1 |page=6698 |doi=10.1038/s41598-019-43267-7 |pmid=31040378 |pmc=6491799 |bibcode=2019NatSR...9.6698W |issn=2045-2322}}
• Entomology: Richard Vetter of UC Riverside for finding evidence that many entomologists are afraid of spiders (which are not insects, which entomologists study).{{cite journal |last1=Vetter |first1=Richard S. |title=Arachnophobic Entomologists: When Two More Legs Makes a Big Difference |journal=American Entomologist |date=1 July 2013 |volume=59 |issue=3 |pages=168–175 |doi=10.1093/ae/59.3.168 |url=https://academic.oup.com/ae/article/59/3/168/6813 |issn=1046-2821|doi-access=free }}
• Management: Xi Guang'an, Mo Tianxiang, Yang Kangsheng, Yang Guangsheng, and Ling Xiansi, five professional hitmen in Guangxi, China, who managed a contract for a hit job (a murder performed for money) in the following way: After accepting payment to perform the murder, Xi Guang'an then instead subcontracted the task to Mo Tianxiang, who then instead subcontracted the task to Yang Kangsheng, who then instead subcontracted the task to Yang Guangsheng, who then instead subcontracted the task to Ling Xiansi, with each subsequently enlisted hitman receiving a smaller percentage of the fee, and nobody actually performing a murder.{{Cite web |last=Ouellette |first=Jennifer |date=2020-09-17 |title=Here are the winners of the 2020 Ig Nobel Prizes to make you laugh, then think |url=https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/09/bellowing-alligators-and-frozen-poop-knives-the-2020-ig-nobel-prizes/ |access-date=2024-09-25 |website=Ars Technica |language=en-us}}{{Cite web |date=2006-08-01 |title=Past Ig Winners |url=https://improbable.com/ig/winners/#ig2020 |access-date=2024-09-25 |website=improbable.com |language=en-US}}
• Medicine: University of Amsterdam researchers Nienke Vulink, Damiaan Denys, and Arnoud van Loon, for diagnosing misophonia, the distress at hearing other people make chewing sounds.{{cite journal |last1=Schröder |first1=Arjan |last2=Vulink |first2=Nienke |last3=Denys |first3=Damiaan |title=Misophonia: Diagnostic Criteria for a New Psychiatric Disorder |journal=PLOS ONE |date=23 January 2013 |volume=8 |issue=1 |page=e54706 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0054706 |pmid=23372758 |pmc=3553052 |bibcode=2013PLoSO...854706S |issn=1932-6203|doi-access=free }}{{cite journal |last1=Schröder |first1=Arjan E. |last2=Vulink |first2=Nienke C. |last3=van Loon |first3=Arnoud J. |last4=Denys |first4=Damiaan A. |title=Cognitive behavioral therapy is effective in misophonia: An open trial |journal=Journal of Affective Disorders |date=1 August 2017 |volume=217 |pages=289–294 |doi=10.1016/j.jad.2017.04.017 |pmid=28441620 |s2cid=4871003 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0165032716321681 |issn=0165-0327}}
• Medical Education: Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom, Narendra Modi of India, Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico, Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, Donald Trump of the United States, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey, Vladimir Putin of Russia, and Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow of Turkmenistan, for using the COVID-19 viral pandemic to teach the world that politicians can have a more immediate effect on life and death than scientists and doctors can. The announcement noted that this is the second time Lukashenko won the prize (the first time was in 2013).
• Materials Science: Kent State University researchers Metin Eren, Michelle Bebber, James Norris, Alyssa Perrone, Ashley Rutkoski, Michael Wilson, and Mary Ann Raghanti, for showing that knives manufactured from frozen human feces are not effective tools for skinning or butchery.{{cite journal |title=Experimental replication shows knives manufactured from frozen human feces do not work |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports |date=1 October 2019 |volume=27 |page=102002 |doi=10.1016/j.jasrep.2019.102002 |issn=2352-409X|last1=Eren |first1=Metin I. |last2=Bebber |first2=Michelle R. |last3=Norris |first3=James D. |last4=Perrone |first4=Alyssa |last5=Rutkoski |first5=Ashley |last6=Wilson |first6=Michael |last7=Raghanti |first7=Mary Ann |bibcode=2019JArSR..27j2002E |doi-access=free }}
• Peace: The governments of India and Pakistan, for having their diplomats surreptitiously ring each other's doorbells in the middle of the night, and then run away before anyone had a chance to answer the door.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/16/pakistan-recalls-envoy-from-india-harassment-claims-doorbell-ringing|title=Pakistan recalls envoy from India in ding-dong over harassment claims|date=16 March 2018|access-date=17 March 2021|work=The Guardian|first=Michael|last=Safi}}
• Physics: Ivan Maksymov and Andriy Pototsky, of Swinburne University of Technology, for determining, experimentally, what happens to the shape of a living earthworm when one vibrates the earthworm at high frequency.{{cite journal |last1=Maksymov |first1=Ivan S. |last2=Pototsky |first2=Andrey |title=Excitation of Faraday-like body waves in vibrated living earthworms |journal=Scientific Reports |date=22 May 2020 |volume=10 |issue=1 |page=8564 |doi=10.1038/s41598-020-65295-4 |pmid=32444625 |pmc=7244598 |arxiv=1912.07593 |bibcode=2020NatSR..10.8564M |issn=2045-2322}}
• Psychology: Miranda Giacomin and Nicholas Rule of University of Toronto, for devising a method to identify narcissists by examining their eyebrows.{{cite journal|last1=Giacomin|first1=Miranda|last2=Rule|first2=Nicholas O.|title=Eyebrows cue grandiose narcissism|journal=Journal of Personality|date=2019|volume=87|issue=2|pages=373–385|doi=10.1111/jopy.12396|pmid=29729185|s2cid=19150980|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jopy.12396|issn=1467-6494}}

The 31st First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony took place on Thursday, 9 September 2021 and was webcast.{{cite web|title=The 31st First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony 2021| website=YouTube | date=9 September 2021 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Rr8NxPDzBM |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/_Rr8NxPDzBM| archive-date=2021-12-12 |url-status=live|language=en|access-date=2021-09-10}}{{cbignore}}{{Cite web|date=2006-08-01|title=Past Ig Winners|url=https://www.improbable.com/2021-ceremony/winners/|access-date=2021-09-10|website=Improbable Research}}

• Biology: Swedish researchers Susanne Schötz, Robert Eklund and Joost van de Weijer for analyzing variations in purring, chirping, chattering, trilling, tweedling, murmuring, meowing, moaning, squeaking, hissing, yowling, howling, growling, and other modes of cat–human communication.{{Cite journal|last1=Schötz|first1=Susanne|last2=Eklund|first2=Robert|date=2011|title=A comparative acoustic analysis of purring in four cats|url=https://www.ida.liu.se/~robek28/pdf/Schotz_Eklund_2011_Purring_DomesticCats.pdf|journal=Quarterly Progress and Status Report TMH-QPSR, Volume 51, 2011. Proceedings from Fonetik 2011|language=English|publisher=Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, 8–10 June 2011|pages=9–12}}{{Cite journal|last=Schötz|first=Susanne|date=2012|title=A phonetic pilot study of vocalisations in three cats|url=https://portal.research.lu.se/portal/en/publications/a-phonetic-pilot-study-of-vocalisations-in-three-cats(d2621c3b-fdc1-485c-ade6-e5b2b6ad5dfb).html|journal=Proceedings from FONETIK 2012|language=English|publisher=University of Gothenburg|pages=45–48}}{{Cite journal|last=Schötz|first=Susanne|year=2013|title=A phonetic pilot study of chirp, chatter, tweet and tweedle in three domestic cats|url=https://portal.research.lu.se/portal/en/publications/a-phonetic-pilot-study-of-chirp-chatter-tweet-and-tweedle-in-three-domestic-cats(60fb046d-0955-4885-adfa-73de254500e6).html|journal=Proceedings of Fonetik 2013 (R. Eklund, Ed.)|language=English|publisher=Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden, 12–13 June 2013|pages=65–68}}{{Cite journal|last1=Schötz|first1=Susanne|last2=van de Weijer|first2=Joost|date=2014|title=A Study of Human Perception of Intonation in Domestic Cat Meows|url=http://fastnet.netsoc.ie/sp7/sp7book.pdf|journal=Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Speech Prosody (N. Campbell, D. Gibbon and D. Hirst (Eds.))|language=English|publisher=Dublin, Ireland, 20–23 May 2014|access-date=11 October 2021|archive-date=23 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200723150121/http://fastnet.netsoc.ie/sp7/sp7book.pdf|url-status=dead}}{{Cite journal|last1=Schötz|first1=Susanne|last2=Eklund|first2=Robert|last3=van de Weijer|first3=Joost|date=2016|title=Melody in Human-Cat Communication (Meowsic): Origins, Past, Present and Future|url=https://www.ida.liu.se/~robek28/pdf/Schotz_Eklund_VanDeWeijer_2016_Meowsic_Fonetik2016.pdf|journal=Proceedings of Fonetik 2016, TMH-QPSR 57(1)|language=English|publisher=KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, 13–15 June 2016|pages=19–24}}
• Ecology: University of Valencia researchers Leila Satari, Alba Guillén, Àngela Vidal-Verdú, and Manuel Porcar, for using genetic analysis to identify the different species of bacteria that reside in wads of discarded chewing gum stuck on pavements in various countries.{{Cite journal|last1=Satari|first1=Leila|last2=Guillén|first2=Alba|last3=Vidal-Verdú|first3=Àngela|last4=Porcar|first4=Manuel|date=2020-10-08|title=The wasted chewing gum bacteriome|journal=Scientific Reports|language=en|volume=10|issue=1|pages=16846|doi=10.1038/s41598-020-73913-4|issn=2045-2322|pmc=7545173|pmid=33033386|bibcode=2020NatSR..1016846S}}
• Chemistry: Jörg Wicker, Nicolas Krauter, Bettina Derstroff, Christof Stönner, Efstratios Bourtsoukidis, Achim Edtbauer, Jochen Wulf, Thomas Klüpfel, Stefan Kramer, and Jonathan Williams, for chemically analyzing the air inside movie theaters, to test whether the odours produced by an audience reliably indicate the levels of violence, sex, antisocial behavior, drug use, and profanity in the movie the audience is watching.{{Cite journal|last1=Stönner|first1=C.|last2=Edtbauer|first2=A.|last3=Derstroff|first3=B.|last4=Bourtsoukidis|first4=E.|last5=Klüpfel|first5=T.|last6=Wicker|first6=J.|last7=Williams|first7=J.|date=2018-10-11|title=Proof of concept study: Testing human volatile organic compounds as tools for age classification of films|journal=PLOS ONE|language=en|volume=13|issue=10|pages=e0203044|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0203044|issn=1932-6203|pmc=6181293|pmid=30307954|bibcode=2018PLoSO..1303044S|doi-access=free}}
• Economics: Pavlo Blavatskyy, of Montpellier Business School, for discovering that the obesity of a country's politicians may be a good indicator of that country's corruption perception.{{Cite journal|last=Blavatskyy|first=Pavlo|date=2021|title=Obesity of politicians and corruption in post-Soviet countries|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ecot.12259|journal=Economics of Transition and Institutional Change|language=en|volume=29|issue=2|pages=343–356|doi=10.1111/ecot.12259|s2cid=225574749|issn=2577-6983}}
• Medicine: Olcay Cem Bulut, Dare Oladokun, Burkard Lippert, and Ralph Hohenberger, for demonstrating that sexual orgasms can be as effective as decongestant medicines at improving nasal breathing.{{Cite journal|last1=Bulut|first1=Olcay Cem|last2=Oladokun|first2=Dare|last3=Lippert|first3=Burkard M.|last4=Hohenberger|first4=Ralph|date=2021-01-04|title=Can Sex Improve Nasal Function?—An Exploration of the Link Between Sex and Nasal Function|journal=Ear, Nose & Throat Journal|volume=102 |issue=1 |language=en|pages=40–45|doi=10.1177/0145561320981441|pmid=33393816|s2cid=230488367|issn=0145-5613|doi-access=free}}
• Peace: Ethan Beseris, Steven Naleway, and David Carrier, of the University of Utah, for testing the hypothesis that humans evolved beards to protect themselves from punches to the face.{{Cite journal|last1=Beseris|first1=E A|last2=Naleway|first2=S E|last3=Carrier|first3=D R|date=2020-01-01|title=Impact Protection Potential of Mammalian Hair: Testing the Pugilism Hypothesis for the Evolution of Human Facial Hair|url=https://doi.org/10.1093/iob/obaa005|journal=Integrative Organismal Biology|volume=2|issue=1|pages=obaa005|doi=10.1093/iob/obaa005|issn=2517-4843|pmc=7671116|pmid=33791549}}
• Physics: Alessandro Corbetta, Jasper Meeusen, Chung-min Lee, Roberto Benzi, and Federico Toschi, for conducting experiments to learn why pedestrians do not constantly collide with other pedestrians.{{Cite journal|last1=Corbetta|first1=Alessandro|last2=Meeusen|first2=Jasper A.|last3=Lee|first3=Chung-min|last4=Benzi|first4=Roberto|last5=Toschi|first5=Federico|date=2018-12-14|title=Physics-based modeling and data representation of pairwise interactions among pedestrians|url=https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevE.98.062310|journal=Physical Review E|volume=98|issue=6|pages=062310|doi=10.1103/PhysRevE.98.062310|arxiv=1808.02466|bibcode=2018PhRvE..98f2310C|s2cid=119064454}}
• Kinetics: Hisashi Murakami, Claudio Feliciani, Yuta Nishiyama, and Katsuhiro Nishinari, of the University of Tokyo and Nagaoka University, for conducting experiments to learn how mutual anticipation can contribute to self-organization in crowds.{{Cite journal|last1=Murakami|first1=Hisashi|last2=Feliciani|first2=Claudio|last3=Nishiyama|first3=Yuta|last4=Nishinari|first4=Katsuhiro|date=March 2021|title=Mutual anticipation can contribute to self-organization in human crowds|journal=Science Advances|volume=7|issue=12|pages=eabe7758|language=EN|doi=10.1126/sciadv.abe7758|pmc=7968841|pmid=33731351|bibcode=2021SciA....7.7758M}}
• Entomology: Naval Air Station Jacksonville researchers John Mulrennan Jr, Roger Grothaus, Charles Hammond, and Jay Lamdin, for their research study "A New Method of Cockroach Control on Submarines".{{Cite journal|last1=Mulrennan|first1=J. A.|last2=Grothaus|first2=R. H.|last3=Hammond|first3=C. L.|last4=Lamdin|first4=J. M.|date=1971-10-15|title=A New Method of Cockroach Control on Submarines12|url=https://doi.org/10.1093/jee/64.5.1196|journal=Journal of Economic Entomology|volume=64|issue=5|pages=1196–1198|doi=10.1093/jee/64.5.1196|pmid=5122339|issn=1938-291X}}
• Transportation: Robin Radcliffe, Mark Jago, Peter Morkel, Estelle Morkel, Pierre du Preez, Piet Beytell, Birgit Kotting, Bakker Manuel, Jan Hendrik du Preez, Michele Miller, Julia Felippe, Stephen Parry, and Robin Gleed, for determining by experiment whether it is safer to transport an airborne rhinoceros upside-down.{{Cite journal|last1=Radcliffe|first1=Robin W.|last2=Jago|first2=Mark|last3=Morkel|first3=Peter vdB|last4=Morkel|first4=Estelle|last5=du Preez|first5=Pierre|last6=Beytell|first6=Piet|last7=Kotting|first7=Birgit|last8=Manuel|first8=Bakker|last9=du Preez|first9=Jan Hendrik|last10=Miller|first10=Michele A.|last11=Felippe|first11=Julia|title=The Pulmonary and Metabolic Effects of Suspension by the Feet Compared with Lateral Recumbency in Immobilized Black Rhinoceroses (Diceros Bicornis) Captured by Aerial Darting|date=2021-03-25|url=https://bioone.org/journals/journal-of-wildlife-diseases/volume-57/issue-2/2019-08-202/THE-PULMONARY-AND-METABOLIC-EFFECTS-OF-SUSPENSION-BY-THE-FEET/10.7589/2019-08-202.full|journal=Journal of Wildlife Diseases|volume=57|issue=2|pages=357–367|doi=10.7589/2019-08-202|pmid=33822147|s2cid=232357722|issn=0090-3558}}

The 32nd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony took place on Thursday, 15 September 2022, and was presented in a webcast format.{{Cite web |date=2022-05-25 |title=2022 Ceremony |url=https://improbable.com/ig/2022-ceremony/ |access-date=2022-09-16 |website=improbable.com |language=en-US}}

• Applied Cardiology: Leiden University researchers Eliska Prochazkova, Elio Sjak-Shie, Friederike Behrens, Daniel Lindh (University of Birmingham), and Mariska Kret, for seeking and finding evidence that when new romantic partners meet for the first time, and feel attracted to each other, their heart rates synchronize.{{Cite journal |last1=Prochazkova |first1=E. |last2=Sjak-Shie |first2=E. |last3=Behrens |first3=F. |last4=Lindh |first4=D. |last5=Kret |first5=M. E. |date=1 November 2021 |title=Physiological synchrony is associated with attraction in a blind date setting |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-021-01197-3 |journal=Nature Human Behaviour |language=en |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=269–278 |doi=10.1038/s41562-021-01197-3 |pmid=34725513 |hdl=1887/3248710 |s2cid=240423236 |issn=2397-3374|hdl-access=free }}
• Literature: Eric Martínez, Francis Mollica, and Edward Gibson, of MIT and University of Edinburgh, for analyzing what makes legal documents unnecessarily difficult to understand.{{Cite journal |last1=Martínez |first1=Eric |last2=Mollica |first2=Francis |last3=Gibson |first3=Edward |date=2022-07-01 |title=Poor writing, not specialized concepts, drives processing difficulty in legal language |journal=Cognition |language=en |volume=224 |pages=105070 |doi=10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105070 |pmid=35257980 |s2cid=247233209 |issn=0010-0277|doi-access=free |hdl=20.500.11820/2daa48c5-476f-4d06-877a-2e783f7aeba6 |hdl-access=free }}
• Biology: University of São Paulo researchers Solimary García-Hernández and Glauco Machado, for studying whether and how constipation affects the mating prospects of scorpions.{{Cite journal |last1=García-Hernández |first1=Solimary |last2=Machado |first2=Glauco |date=2021-12-04 |title=Short- and long-term effects of an extreme case of autotomy: does "tail" loss and subsequent constipation decrease the locomotor performance of male and female scorpions? |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1749-4877.12604 |journal=Integrative Zoology |volume=17 |issue=5 |language=en |pages=1749–4877.12604 |doi=10.1111/1749-4877.12604 |pmid=34741423 |s2cid=243801432 |issn=1749-4877}}
• Medicine: Medical University of Warsaw researchers Marcin Jasiński, Martyna Maciejewska, Anna Brodziak, Michał Górka, Kamila Skwierawska, Wiesław Jędrzejczak, Agnieszka Tomaszewska, Grzegorz Basak, and Emilian Snarski, for showing that when patients undergo some forms of toxic chemotherapy, they suffer fewer harmful side effects when ice cream replaces one traditional component of the procedure.{{Cite journal |last1=Jasiński |first1=Marcin |last2=Maciejewska |first2=Martyna |last3=Brodziak |first3=Anna |last4=Górka |first4=Michał |last5=Skwierawska |first5=Kamila |last6=Jędrzejczak |first6=Wiesław W. |last7=Tomaszewska |first7=Agnieszka |last8=Basak |first8=Grzegorz W. |last9=Snarski |first9=Emilian |date=2021-11-18 |title=Ice-cream used as cryotherapy during high-dose melphalan conditioning reduces oral mucositis after autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation |journal=Scientific Reports |language=en |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=22507 |doi=10.1038/s41598-021-02002-x |pmid=34795377 |pmc=8602377 |bibcode=2021NatSR..1122507J |issn=2045-2322}}
• Engineering: Japanese researchers Gen Matsuzaki, Kazuo Ohuchi, Masaru Uehara, Yoshiyuki Ueno, and Goro Imura, for trying to discover the most efficient way for people to use their fingers when turning a knob.{{Cite web |title=Japanese researchers win Ig Nobel for research on knob turning {{!}} NHK WORLD-JAPAN News |url=https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20220916_09/ |access-date=2022-09-16 |website=NHK WORLD |url-status=dead | archive-date=3 October 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221003024150/https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20220916_09/ |language=en}}
• Art History: Peter de Smet of The Hague and Nicholas Hellmuth of Culver City, California, for their study "A Multidisciplinary Approach to Ritual Enema Scenes on Ancient Maya Pottery."{{Cite journal |last1=de Smet |first1=Peter A. G. M. |last2=Hellmuth |first2=Nicholas M. |date=1986-06-01 |title=A multidisciplinary approach to ritual enema scenes on ancient Maya pottery |url=https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0378-8741%2886%2990091-7 |journal=Journal of Ethnopharmacology |language=en |volume=16 |issue=2 |pages=213–262 |doi=10.1016/0378-8741(86)90091-7 |pmid=3528674 |issn=0378-8741}}
• Physics: Frank Fish, Zhi-Ming Yuan, Minglu Chen, Laibing Jia, Chunyan Ji, and Atilla Incecik, of Zhenjiang and Glasgow, for trying to understand how ducklings manage to swim in formation.{{cite journal | title = Wave-riding and wave-passing by ducklings in formation swimming | last1 = Yuan | first1 = Zhi-Ming | last2 = Chen | first2 = Minglu | last3 = Jia | first3 = Liabing | last4 = Ji | first4 = Chunyan | last5 = Incecik | first5 = Atilla | doi = 10.1017/jfm.2021.820 | journal = Journal of Fluid Mechanics | year = 2021 | volume = 928 (R2)| bibcode = 2021JFM...928R...2Y | s2cid = 238260899 | doi-access = free }}
• Peace: Junhui Wu, Szabolcs Számadó, Pat Barclay, Bianca Beersma, Terence Dores Cruz, Sergio Lo Iacono, Annika Nieper, Kim Peters, Wojtek Przepiorka, Leo Tiokhin and Paul Van Lange, for developing an algorithm to help gossipers decide when to tell the truth and when to lie.{{Cite journal |last1=Wu |first1=Junhui |last2=Számadó |first2=Szabolcs |last3=Barclay |first3=Pat |last4=Beersma |first4=Bianca |last5=Dores Cruz |first5=Terence D. |last6=Iacono |first6=Sergio Lo |last7=Nieper |first7=Annika S. |last8=Peters |first8=Kim |last9=Przepiorka |first9=Wojtek |last10=Tiokhin |first10=Leo |last11=Van Lange |first11=Paul A. M. |date=2021-11-22 |title=Honesty and dishonesty in gossip strategies: a fitness interdependence analysis |journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |volume=376 |issue=1838 |pages=20200300 |doi=10.1098/rstb.2020.0300 |pmc=8487735 |pmid=34601905}}
• Economics: University of Catania researchers Alessandro Pluchino, Alessio Emanuele Biondo, and Andrea Rapisarda, for explaining, mathematically, why success most often goes not to the most talented people, but instead to the luckiest.{{Cite journal |last1=Biondo |first1=A. Pluchino A. E. |last2=Rapisarda |first2=A. |date=20 Feb 2018 |title=Talent vs Luck: the role of randomness in success and failure |journal=Advances in Complex Systems |volume=21 |issue=3n04 |pages=1850014 |doi=10.1142/S0219525918500145 |arxiv=1802.07068 |s2cid=53290251 |issn=0219-5259}}
• Safety Engineering: Magnus Gens of KTH Royal Institute of Technology for developing a moose crash test dummy.{{Cite news |date=2022-09-16 |title=Swedish moose crash-test dummy wins spoof Ig Nobel prize |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-62915382 |access-date=2022-09-16}}{{Cite book |last=Gens |first=Magnus |url=http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:vti:diva-4543 |title=Moose crash test dummy : master's thesis |date=2001 |publisher=Statens väg- och transportforskningsinstitut}}

The 33rd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony took place on Thursday, 14 September 2023, and was presented in webcast.{{Cite web |date=2023-05-06 |title=The 33rd First Annual Ig Nobel Prizes |url=https://improbable.com/ig/2023-ceremony/ |access-date=2023-09-15 |website=improbable.com |language=en-US}}

• Chemistry and Geology: Jan Zalasiewicz of the University of Leicester for explaining why many scientists like to lick rocks.{{Cite report |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/ig-nobel-prizes-honor-zombie-spiders-rock-licking-scientists-and-clever-commode |title=Ig Nobel Prizes honor zombie spiders, rock-licking scientists, and a clever commode |last=Jacobs |first=Phie |date=2023-09-14 |doi=10.1126/science.adk8631 |language=en}}
• Literature: Chris Moulin, Nicole Bell, Merita Turunen, Arina Baharin, and Akira O'Connor, for studying the sensations people feel "when they repeat a single word many, many, many, many, many, many, many times".{{cite journal|doi=10.1080/09658211.2020.1727519 |title={{notatypo|The th|e}} {{notatypo|the t|he}} induction of jamais vu in the laboratory: Word alienation and semantic satiation |date=2021 |last1=Moulin |first1=Chris J. A. |last2=Bell |first2=Nicole |last3=Turunen |first3=Merita |last4=Baharin |first4=Arina |last5=o'Connor |first5=Akira R. |journal=Memory |volume=29 |issue=7 |pages=933–942 |pmid=32079491 |hdl=10023/21466 |s2cid=211231684 |hdl-access=free }}
• Nutrition: Homei Miyashita of Meiji University and Hiromi Nakamura of the University of Tokyo, for experiments to determine how electrified chopsticks and drinking straws can change the taste of food.{{Cite web |date=2006-08-01 |title=Past Ig Winners |url=https://improbable.com/ig/winners/ |access-date=2023-09-15 |website=improbable.com |language=en-US}}{{Cite news |last1=Davis |first1=Nicola |date=2023-09-14 |title=Reanimated spiders and smart toilets triumph at Ig Nobel prizes |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/sep/14/reanimated-spiders-and-smart-toilets-triumph-at-ig-nobel-prizes |access-date=2023-09-15 |issn=0261-3077}}{{cite book|doi=10.1145/1959826.1959860 |chapter=Augmented gustation using electricity |title=Proceedings of the 2nd Augmented Human International Conference |date=2011 |last1=Nakamura |first1=Hiromi |last2=Miyashita |first2=Homei |pages=1–2 |isbn=9781450304269 |s2cid=6258891 }}
• Medicine: UC Irvine researchers Christine Pham, Bobak Hedayati, Kiana Hashemi, Ella Csuka, Tiana Mamaghani, Margit Juhasz, Jamie Wikenheiser, and Natasha Mesinkovska, for using cadavers to explore whether there is an equal number of hairs in each of a person's two nostrils.{{cite journal|doi=10.1111/ijd.15921 |title=Measurement and quantification of cadaveric nasal hairs |date=2022 |last1=Pham |first1=Christine T. |last2=Hashemi |first2=Kiana |last3=Hedayati |first3=Bobak |last4=Csuka |first4=Ella |last5=Babadjouni |first5=Arash |last6=Mamaghani |first6=Tiana |last7=Wikenheiser |first7=Jamie |last8=Juhasz |first8=Margit |last9=Atanaskova Mesinkovska |first9=Natasha |journal=International Journal of Dermatology |volume=61 |issue=11 |pages=e456–e457 |pmid=34636419 |s2cid=238636754 }}
• Mechanical Engineering: Te Faye Yap, Zhen Liu, Anoop Rajappan, Trevor Shimokusu, and Daniel Preston, of Rice University, for re-animating dead spiders to use as mechanical gripping tools.{{cite journal|doi=10.1002/advs.202201174 |title=Necrobotics: Biotic Materials as Ready-to-Use Actuators |date=2022 |last1=Yap |first1=Te Faye |last2=Liu |first2=Zhen |last3=Rajappan |first3=Anoop |last4=Shimokusu |first4=Trevor J. |last5=Preston |first5=Daniel J. |journal=Advanced Science |volume=9 |issue=29 |pages=e2201174 |pmid=35875913 |pmc=9561765 }}
• Public Health: Stanford University's Seung-min Park, for inventing the Stanford Toilet, a device that uses a variety of technologies such as dipstick test strip for urine, a computer vision system for defecation analysis, an anal-print sensor paired with an identification camera, and a telecommunications link that can analyze the substances that humans excrete.{{cite journal|doi=10.1038/s41551-020-0534-9 |title=A mountable toilet system for personalized health monitoring via the analysis of excreta |date=2020 |last1=Park |first1=Seung-min |last2=Won |first2=Daeyoun D. |last3=Lee |first3=Brian J. |last4=Escobedo |first4=Diego |last5=Esteva |first5=Andre |last6=Aalipour |first6=Amin |last7=Ge |first7=T. Jessie |last8=Kim |first8=Jung Ha |last9=Suh |first9=Susie |last10=Choi |first10=Elliot H. |last11=Lozano |first11=Alexander X. |last12=Yao |first12=Chengyang |last13=Bodapati |first13=Sunil |last14=Achterberg |first14=Friso B. |last15=Kim |first15=Jeesu |last16=Park |first16=Hwan |last17=Choi |first17=Youngjae |last18=Kim |first18=Woo Jin |last19=Yu |first19=Jung Ho |last20=Bhatt |first20=Alexander M. |last21=Lee |first21=Jong Kyun |last22=Spitler |first22=Ryan |last23=Wang |first23=Shan X. |last24=Gambhir |first24=Sanjiv S. |journal=Nature Biomedical Engineering |volume=4 |issue=6 |pages=624–635 |pmid=32251391 |pmc=7377213 }}{{cite journal|doi=10.1038/s41575-021-00462-0 |title=Digital biomarkers in human excreta |date=2021 |last1=Park |first1=Seung-min |last2=Ge |first2=T. Jessie |last3=Won |first3=Daeyoun D. |last4=Lee |first4=Jong Kyun |last5=Liao |first5=Joseph C. |journal=Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology |volume=18 |issue=8 |pages=521–522 |pmid=33972768 |pmc=8107801 }}{{cite journal|doi=10.1038/s41746-022-00582-0 |title=Smart toilets for monitoring COVID-19 surges: Passive diagnostics and public health |date=2022 |last1=Ge |first1=T. Jessie |last2=Chan |first2=Carmel T. |last3=Lee |first3=Brian J. |last4=Liao |first4=Joseph C. |last5=Park |first5=Seung-min |journal=npj Digital Medicine |volume=5 |issue=1 |page=39 |pmid=35354937 |pmc=8967843 }}{{cite journal|doi=10.1126/scitranslmed.abk3489 |title=Passive monitoring by smart toilets for precision health |date=2023 |last1=Ge |first1=T. Jessie |last2=Rahimzadeh |first2=Vasiliki Nataly |last3=Mintz |first3=Kevin |last4=Park |first4=Walter G. |last5=Martinez-Martin |first5=Nicole |last6=Liao |first6=Joseph C. |last7=Park |first7=Seung-min |journal=Science Translational Medicine |volume=15 |issue=681 |pages=eabk3489 |pmid=36724240 |pmc=10311987 }}
• Physics: Bieito Fernández Castro, Marian Peña, Enrique Nogueira, Miguel Gilcoto, Esperanza Broullón, Antonio Comesaña, Damien Bouffard, Alberto C. Naveira Garabato, and Beatriz Mouriño-Carballido, for measuring the extent to which ocean-water mixing is affected by the sexual activity of anchovy fishes.{{cite journal|doi=10.1038/s41561-022-00916-3 |title=Intense upper ocean mixing due to large aggregations of spawning fish |date=2022 |last1=Fernández Castro |first1=Bieito |last2=Peña |first2=Marian |last3=Nogueira |first3=Enrique |last4=Gilcoto |first4=Miguel |last5=Broullón |first5=Esperanza |last6=Comesaña |first6=Antonio |last7=Bouffard |first7=Damien |last8=Naveira Garabato |first8=Alberto C. |last9=Mouriño-Carballido |first9=Beatriz |journal=Nature Geoscience |volume=15 |issue=4 |pages=287–292 |bibcode=2022NatGe..15..287F |s2cid=248004232 |url=https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/457468/1/Bioturbulence.pdf }}
• Education: Katy Tam, Cyanea Poon, Victoria Hui, Wijnand van Tilburg, Christy Wong, Vivian Kwong, Gigi Yuen, and Christian Chan, for carefully studying the boredom of teachers and students.{{cite journal|doi=10.1111/bjep.12549 |title=Whatever will bore, will bore: The mere anticipation of boredom exacerbates its occurrence in lectures |date=2023 |last1=Tam |first1=Katy Y. Y. |last2=Van Tilburg |first2=Wijnand A. P. |last3=Chan |first3=Christian S. |journal=British Journal of Educational Psychology |volume=93 |issue=1 |pages=198–210 |pmid=36148478 |s2cid=252465152 |url=http://repository.essex.ac.uk/33376/1/Accepted%20version.pdf }}
• Communication: María José Torres-Prioris, Diana López-Barroso, Estela Càmara, Sol Fittipaldi, Lucas Sedeño, Agustín Ibáñez, Marcelo Berthier, and Adolfo García, of Spain and Argentina, for studying the mental activities of people who are experts at speaking backward.{{cite journal|doi=10.1038/s41598-020-67551-z |title=Neurocognitive signatures of phonemic sequencing in expert backward speakers |date=2020 |last1=Torres-Prioris |first1=María José |last2=López-Barroso |first2=Diana |last3=Càmara |first3=Estela |last4=Fittipaldi |first4=Sol |last5=Sedeño |first5=Lucas |last6=Ibáñez |first6=Agustín |last7=Berthier |first7=Marcelo L. |last8=García |first8=Adolfo M. |journal=Scientific Reports |volume=10 |issue=1 |page=10621 |pmid=32606382 |pmc=7326922 |bibcode=2020NatSR..1010621T }}
• Psychology: Stanley Milgram of Yale, Lawrence Bickman, and Leonard Berkowitz of University of Wisconsin for experiments on a city street to see how many passersby stop to look upward when they see strangers looking upward.{{cite journal|doi=10.1037/h0028070 |title=Note on the drawing power of crowds of different size |date=1969 |last1=Milgram |first1=Stanley |last2=Bickman |first2=Leonard |last3=Berkowitz |first3=Lawrence |journal=Journal of Personality and Social Psychology |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=79–82 |s2cid=11957720 }}

The 34th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony took place on Thursday, 12 September 2024, and was held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.{{Cite web |date=2024-09-13 |title=The 34th First Annual Ig Nobel Ceremony |url=https://improbable.com/ig/archive/2024-ceremony/ |access-date=2024-09-13 |website=improbable.com |language=en-US}}

• Anatomy: Marjolaine Willems, Quentin Hennocq, Sara Tunon de Lara, Nicolas Kogane, Vincent Fleury, Romy Rayssiguier, Juan José Cortés Santander, Roberto Requena, Julien Stirnemann, and Roman Hossein Khonsari, for finding that scalp hair whorls are more likely to spiral in a counter-clockwise direction in the Southern Hemisphere compared to the Northern Hemisphere.
• Biology: Fordyce Ely and William Petersen, both posthumously awarded for repeatedly exploding paper bags next to a cat that was standing on the back of a cow and finding that it caused the cow to produce less milk.{{Cite journal |last1=Fordyce |first1=Ely |last2=Petersen |first2=W. E. |date=1939-12-01 |title=Factors Involved in the Ejection of Milk |url=https://academic.oup.com/jas/article/1939/1/80/4771774 |journal=Journal of Animal Science |language=en |volume=1939 |issue=1 |pages=80 |doi=10.1093/ansci/1939.1.80 |issn=0021-8812}}
• Botany: Independent Magna, Utah-based researcher Jacob White and Felipe Yamashita, of the University of Bonn, for finding that certain plants imitate the leaf shape of nearby plastic plants and concluding that "plant vision" is plausible.{{Cite news |last1=Sample |first1=Ian |date=2024-09-13 |title=Ig Nobel prize goes to team who found mammals can breathe through anuses |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/sep/12/ig-nobel-prize-goes-to-team-who-found-mammals-can-breathe-through-anuses |access-date=2024-09-13}}{{Cite journal |last1=White |first1=Jacob |last2=Yamashita |first2=Felipe |date=2022 |title=Boquila trifoliolata mimics leaves of an artificial plastic host plant |journal=Plant Signaling & Behavior |language=en |volume=17 |issue=1 |doi=10.1080/15592324.2021.1977530 |issn=1559-2324 |pmid=34545774|pmc=8903786 |bibcode=2022PlSiB..1777530W }}
• Chemistry: Amsterdam team of Tess Heeremans, Antoine Deblais, Daniel Bonn and Sander Woutersen, for their use of chromatography to separate drunk worms from sober worms.{{cite journal|doi=10.1126/sciadv.abj7918 |title=Chromatographic separation of active polymer–like worm mixtures by contour length and activity |date=2022 |last1=Heeremans |first1=Tess |last2=Deblais |first2=Antoine |last3=Bonn |first3=Daniel |last4=Woutersen |first4=Sander |journal=Science Advances |volume=8 |issue=23 |pages=eabj7918 |pmid=35675403 |pmc=9177071 |bibcode=2022SciA....8J7918H }}
• Demography: Saul Justin Newman, of the University of Oxford, for finding that supercentenarians and extreme age records tend to come from areas with no birth certificates, rampant clerical errors, pension fraud, and short life spans.{{cite journal|doi=10.1101/704080 |title=Supercentenarian and remarkable age records exhibit patterns indicative of clerical errors and pension fraud |date=2024 |last1=Newman |first1=Saul Justin |journal=bioRxiv }}
• Medicine: Lieven Schenk, Tahmine Fadai and Christian Büchel, for finding that fake medicine that induces painful side-effects can be more effective than fake medicine that does not cause painful side-effects.{{cite journal|doi=10.1093/brain/awae132 |title=How side effects can improve treatment efficacy: a randomized trial |date=2024 |last1=Schenk |first1=Lieven A. |last2=Fadai |first2=Tahmine |last3=Büchel |first3=Christian |journal=Brain |volume=147 |issue=8|pages=2643–2651 |pmid=38701224 }}
• Peace: B. F. Skinner, posthumously awarded for his study on housing live pigeons inside missiles to guide them to their targets.
• Physics: James Liao of the University of Florida for his long-running study on how dead trout can swim.
• Physiology: Takanori Takebe, for finding that several mammals can breathe through their anus.{{Cite news |date=2024-09-13 |title=Japan, U.S. scientists win Ig Nobel prize for study on anal breathing |language=en |work=Kyodo News |url=https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2024/09/10df07ef418b-japan-us-scientists-win-ig-nobel-prize-for-study-on-anal-breathing.html |access-date=2024-09-13}}
• Probability: A team of 50 researchers, mostly Dutch, for performing 350,757 experiments to show that when a coin is flipped, it is slightly more likely to land on the same side as it started.{{cite arXiv |last1=Bartoš |first1=František |title=Fair coins tend to land on the same side they started: Evidence from 350,757 flips |date=2024-06-02 |eprint=2310.04153 |last2=Sarafoglou |first2=Alexandra |last3=Godmann |first3=Henrik R. |last4=Sahrani |first4=Amir |last5=Leunk |first5=David Klein |last6=Gui |first6=Pierre Y. |last7=Voss |first7=David |last8=Ullah |first8=Kaleem |last9=Zoubek |first9=Malte J.|class=math.HO }}

• Jacques Benveniste, 1991 and 1998 Chemistry
• Joseph Keller, 1999 and 2012 Physics
• Toshiyuki Nakagaki and Atsushi Tero, 2008 Cognitive Science and 2010 Transportation Planning
• Alessandro Pluchino and Andrea Rapisarda, 2010 Management and 2022 Economics
• Alexander Lukashenko, 2013 Peace and 2020 Medical Education
• David Hu and Patricia Yang, 2015 and 2019 Physics

• Andre Geim, 2000 Ig Nobel Prize in Physics and 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics.[https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2010/summary/ "The Nobel Prize in Physics 2010"]. Retrieved 17 September 2022

{{reflist}}

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• [http://www.improbable.com/ig/winners/ Ig Nobel Prize Winner List] (public domain)
• {{cite web|last1=Gold |first1=Jon |title=2013 Ig Nobel Prize winners: from opera-loving mice to stargazing dung beetles |url=http://www.networkworld.com/slideshow/119712/2013-ig-nobel-prize-winners-from-opera-loving-mice-to-stargazing-dung-beetles.html |website=Network World |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131002191806/http://www.networkworld.com/slideshow/119712/2013-ig-nobel-prize-winners-from-opera-loving-mice-to-stargazing-dung-beetles.html |date=13 September 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2 October 2013 }}

{{DEFAULTSORT:List of Ig Nobel Prize Winners}}

Ig Nobel Prize winners

*List

Category:Science and technology award winners