The Ig Nobel Prizes leave the United States and head to Zurich

For thirty-five years the Ig Nobel ceremony, the awards promoted by the magazine Annals of Improbable Research, took place between Harvard, MIT and Boston University. The thirty-sixth edition was held on September 3, 2026 at 7 p.m. at the Kongresshaus in Zurich, Switzerland: it is the first time outside the United States since the series began, in 1991.

The relocation was not explained on logistical grounds. According to the report by Chemical & Engineering News, founder Marc Abrahams indicated safety concerns for winners and international journalists traveling to the United States as the reason. It is a decision concerning the movement of scientists, not the scientific content of the prizes.

How it unfolded

The European edition was produced in collaboration with institutions of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Domain and with the University of Zurich, as indicated by the organizers of Improbable Research. 1,500 spectators were present in the hall; the theme of the evening was mushrooms. Ten prizes were awarded, presented according to tradition by genuine Nobel laureates: Esther Duflo, Abhijit Banerjee, Michel Mayor and Tim Hunt.

Among the awarded works are studies on cockroach milk proteins, on urinals designed to avoid splashing, and on buried underpants — the latter, a known method for measuring soil biological activity.

Two prizes worth reading twice

In the biology category the choice fell on a research group coordinated by João Miguel Alves-Nunes, of the University of São Paulo, author of experimental evidence on what happens when parts of venomous snakes are stepped on. Behind the comic title lies a practical issue: understanding under what conditions a snake bites those who step on it is the premise for estimating the risk of snakebite in agriculture and for guiding prevention.

In economics, Paul K. Piff, of the University of California, Irvine, and his co-authors were awarded for the work titled “Higher Social Class Predicts Increased Unethical Behavior.” The research belongs to experimental social psychology and links socioeconomic position with the propensity for improper behavior: here the award does not signal an oddity, but a result that has fueled debate within the discipline.

The list of winners and the details of the evening also appear on BioQuick News, which however draws on the press release from the Annals of Improbable Research: the same source as the Improbable Research page. The only independent account of the evening available to us is that of Chemical & Engineering News.

What we don’t know

We do not have the complete list of the ten award categories nor the bibliographic references for all the works: the available sources report only part of it. We do not know the publication date and journal of the cited studies, and therefore we do not discuss their methodological merits here.

Regarding the reason for the relocation, it should be noted that this is the explanation provided by the event’s founder, not a circumstance independently verified: no travel document, visa refusal or specific case is indicated in the available sources.

Finally, we do not know whether the Swiss venue is a permanent choice or limited to this edition: the organizers have not indicated where the thirty-seventh ceremony will be held.