Stand-up scientist uses comedy to popularise physics

Heard the one about the stand-up scientist? Or the physicist who uses comedy to bring nanoscience to the masses?

Dr Jessamyn Fairfield is not only seriously smart but seriously funny — an innovator who has literally gone to the ends of the earth to help fellow academics use comedy to promote their work.

As a result, the NUI Galway nanoscience physicist has been awarded the Mary Somerville Medal by the Institute of Physics for what it deemed her “stellar work as a public speaker and writer on physics for a popular audience, and for having organised and hosted many innovative events bringing physics to the Irish public”.