Feb 21 2019
Nobel Laureate Professor Sir Kostya Novoselov is celebrating 15 years since his triumphant isolation of graphene and will create pieces of art using the ground-breaking material, live at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2019.
Image credit: Manchester University
Novoselov is most popular for his revolutionary experiments on graphene, which is lightweight, flexible, stronger than steel, and more conductive when compared to copper. Due to this feat, Professors Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov grabbed the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010. Moreover, Novoselov is one of the founding principal researchers of the Graphene Flagship, which is a €1 billion research project funded by the European Commission.
At MWC 2019, Novoselov will join hands with British textile artist Kate Daudy, a collaboration which indicates his usual interest in art projects. During the show, the pair will produce a piece of art using materials printed with embedded graphene. The installation will be named “Everything is Connected,” the slogan of the Graphene Flagship and reflective of the themes at MWC 2019.
The demonstration will be held on Tuesday, February 26th, 2019 at 11:30 CET in the Graphene Pavilion, an area devoted to showcasing inventions accomplished by funding from the Graphene Flagship. Apart from the art demonstration, exhibitors in the Graphene Pavilion will demonstrate 26 modern graphene-based prototypes and devices that will revolutionize the future of telecommunications, mobile phones, home technology, and wearables.
Interactive demonstrations include a range of health-related wearable technologies, which will be showcased in the “wearables of the future” area. Prototypes in this zone comprise graphene-enabled pressure sensing insoles, which have been produced by Graphene Flagship investigators at the University of Cambridge to precisely find out problematic walking patterns in wearers.
Another prototype will show how graphene can be used to decrease heat in mobile phone batteries and hence extend their lifespan. Actually, the material needed for this invention and the one that will be used during the art set-up demonstration are the same.
Graphene and related layered materials have steadily progressed from fundamental to applied research and from the lab to the factory floor. Mobile World Congress is a prime opportunity for the Graphene Flagship to showcase how the European Commission’s investment in research is beginning to create tangible products and advanced prototypes. Outreach is also part of the Graphene Flagship mission and the interplay between graphene, culture and art has been explored by several Flagship initiatives over the years. This unique live exhibition of Kostya is a first for the Flagship and the Mobile World Congress, and I invite everybody to attend.
Professor Andrea Ferrari, Science and Technology Officer, Graphene Flagship
Professor Andrea Ferrari is also the Chair of the management panel of the Graphene Flagship.