Ig Nobel-winning researcher says science’s oddest prize is a point of pride
A University of Waterloo research team won the 2026 Ig Nobel Prize in Physics for work on a splash-free urinal — and doctoral student Kaveeshan
A University of Waterloo research team won the 2026 Ig Nobel Prize in Physics for work on a splash-free urinal — and doctoral student Kaveeshan Thurairajah says he was delighted by the news. The award celebrates unusual research with a playful twist on the Nobel Prizes.
Thurairajah recalled that his supervisor, fluid physicist Zhao Pan, first asked how he would feel if the team won. Thurairajah said he would be happy. Pan then told him they had won, producing a bottle of wine from his office cupboard; the two drank from espresso cups.
Testing designs to prevent splashes
The team’s award recognized theoretical and experimental work to develop a urinal that avoids splashing. Researchers built and tested several prototypes as they searched for a design that could reduce the mess.
One was the low, slender Nautilus. Another, the high and angular Cornocopia. The researchers’ project brought an everyday fluid-dynamics problem into the lab, where they could test how different shapes performed.
The Ig Nobels are distinct from the Nobel Prizes: they honor research that is unusual and imaginative, and present it in a deliberately lighthearted spirit. Thurairajah’s reaction suggests the humor did not make the recognition feel like a put-down.
A different kind of physics recognition
The award comes alongside a very different physics honor: the 2025 Nobel Prize went to John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis for experiments demonstrating quantum tunneling and quantized energy levels in an electrical circuit. The Nobel committee said their work revealed quantum effects in a system large enough to hold in a hand, and it has helped lay foundations for quantum computing.
The two prizes recognize sharply different kinds of work, but both put experimental physics in view. At Waterloo, the question was how to shape a urinal to curb splashes. For Thurairajah, the team’s unusual subject made the recognition memorable, not embarrassing. “Oh yeah, I’d be really happy,” he told CBC’s As It Happens.
Source: phys.org
