Andrei Geim, the Sochi-born physicist who was awarded a Nobel Prize this week, said he is not interested in working in the Skolkovo innovation hub, Russian News Service radio reported Wednesday.
“Are the people over there what, completely crazy?” he said in an interview. “They think if they shell out a bag of gold they can invite anyone?”
Geim, an ethnic German who is a Dutch citizen and works at the University of Manchester, shared the prize with a Russian-born colleague, Konstantin Novoselov, for developing the unique material graphene.
Alexei Sitnikov, head of the Skolkovo foundation’s international cooperation department, said Tuesday that he had hoped to lure Geim and Novoselov to Skolkovo even before they were awarded the Nobel Prize.
(MT)