BOSTON: The annual Ig Nobels, a satirical award for scientific achievement, are shifting for the first time from the United States to Europe due to concerns about attendees getting visas, organizers announced Monday.
Organized by the Annals of Improbable Research, a digital magazine that highlights research that makes people laugh and then think, the 36th annual ceremony will be held in Zurich. It’s usually held in the US in September, a few weeks before the actual Nobel Prizes are announced.
“During the past year, it has become unsafe for our guests to visit the country,” Marc Abrahams, master of ceremonies and editor of the magazine, told The Associated Press in an email interview. “We cannot in good conscience ask the new winners, or the international journalists who cover the event, to travel to the USA this year.”
The move comes amid President Donald Trump’s sweeping crackdown on immigration, in which he has focused on deporting migrants illegally in the United States, as well as holders of student and visitor exchange visas.
Winners have for the past 35 years traveled to the United States to collect their prizes — and be showered with paper airplanes. Last year, winners included a team of researchers from Japan studying whether painting cows with zebralike stripes would prevent flies from biting them. Another group from Africa and Europe pondered the types of pizza that lizards preferred to eat.
