ZURICH — Marc Abrahams founded the Ig Nobel Prizes in 1991. The decision to move the event abroad stems from safety concerns regarding U.S. immigration and visa protocols.

Abrahams described the environment facing international travelers. "They'd been seeing news reports of people being possibly sent right home when they arrived here, people being badgered about their personal lives in great detail, of people potentially being grabbed and put in prison or stuck on an airplane and sent to some other country, or who knows what else, he said."

The 2026 Ig Nobel Prize ceremony theme was fungi." Winners received a statuette consisting of a slab of blue cheese topped by a foot erupting with toadstools. They also received 10 trillion Zimbabwean dollars, a currency that is no longer in circulation and holds no monetary value."

The 2026 Physics Ig Nobel Prize was awarded to a research group for developing a theory and prototype for a splash-free urinal. Tadd Truscott, a fluid dynamicist at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, was a member of the team that won the Physics Ig Nobel Prize. The optimal stream angle to minimize splashback in a urinal is less than 30 degrees.

The 2026 Economics Ig Nobel Prize was awarded to a group for finding that individuals in higher social classes were more likely to take candy from a children's stash. The 2026 Medicine Ig Nobel Prize was awarded to a late researcher for a study on the aerodynamics of nose blowing.

The 2026 Biomechanics Ig Nobel Prize was awarded to a team for developing a rigorous definition of kissing. The winning definition of kissing is "a non-agonistic interaction involving directed, intraspecific, oral-oral contact with some movement of the lips/mouthparts and no food transfer." Matilda Brindle is an evolutionary biologist at the University of Oxford and part of the team that won the Biomechanics Ig Nobel Prize.

Researchers found that kissing occurs in most living large apes and likely occurred in Neanderthals. The 2026 Chemistry Ig Nobel Prize was awarded for research discovering that cockroach milk contains three times as much energy as cow's milk.

The 2026 Technology Ig Nobel Prize was awarded for using mosquito proboscises as 3D printing nozzles, a process described as "necroprinting." Changhong Cao is an associate professor in the department of mechanical engineering at McGill University and co-author of the necroprinting study.

Holden Thorp is the editor-in-chief of the Science family of journals. He commented on the broader implications of restricting scientific travel. "A principle by which the United States built its scientific excellence, which is that we welcome the best scientific talent from all over the world — that is no longer the case," Thorp said.

Kees Moeliker is the retired director of the Natural History Museum Rotterdam and a former Ig Nobel winner. He reflected on the relocation of the ceremony. "It's a sad decision to move from where it all started, but it's also opening new horizons for us and new audiences," Moeliker said.

Carly Anne York is an associate professor of biology at Lenoir-Rhyne University. She emphasized the value of unconventional inquiry. "While this research might sound frivolous at first, approximately half of all economic growth in the US can be traced back to discoveries made from basic research," York said.

Acceptance speeches at the Ig Nobel ceremony are limited to 60 seconds. The next Ig Nobel ceremony will be held in Antwerp, Flanders. The Ig Nobel ceremony will return to Zurich in 2028 and every even-numbered year thereafter.

What's New

Marc Abrahams stated that it has become unsafe for guests to visit the United States and that the organizers cannot in good conscience ask new winners or international journalists to travel to the U.S. The Ig Nobel ceremony will return to Zurich in 2028 and every even-numbered year thereafter.

"Nobody sets out planning to build a 3D printing nozzle from a mosquito. We got there by paying close attention to something that seems irrelevant, and staying open to where it leads," Changhong Cao said. Cao is an associate professor in the department of mechanical engineering at McGill University and co-author of the necroprinting study.

Research titled Watch this year’s Ig Nobel Prize ceremony live was published in 2017 in Science.

Why It Matters

This is the first time in the 35-year history of the Ig Nobel Prizes that the ceremony has been held outside the United States. The move shows concerns over U.S. immigration and visa safety, with Marc Abrahams stating that four of the ten winners from the previous year did not attend the ceremony due to these issues.

The event reflects the tension between scientific openness and border security policies. Holden Thorp noted that the principle of welcoming global talent is no longer the case in the United States. The ceremony continues to honor achievements that make people laugh and then think, with future events scheduled in Antwerp and returning to Zurich in 2028.