If media attention can be described as head-spinning, then Ramesh Balasubramaniam's head must have felt like the hula hoops he once studied.
Balasubramaniam's research on the “multi-segmented dynamics of hula-hooping” was chosen for a 2004 Ig Nobel prize. The prizes, created and awarded by the journal Annals of Improbable Research, are “intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative -- and spur people's interest in science, medicine, and technology,” according to organizer Marc Abrahams.
And while an award called ‘Ig Nobel’ might be considered a back-handed compliment, Balasubramaniam was excited enough by the honour to travel to Harvard to accept his prize in person. “I consider the highlight of my scientific career to see four Nobel laureates hula hoping on stage,” he told Bob McDonald, host of CBC Radio's Quirks and Quarks.
After the awards were handed out, the media attention started. Because the Ig Nobels balance chuckles at odd-sounding research with a genuine respect for the research, the media find it an irresistible pull, and Balasubramaniam quickly found his name not only in local media in Ottawa and Boston, but in dozens of newspapers, on CNN, and in prestigious journals including Science and Nature.
The good news was that the media coverage not only focused on the fact that the research may “sound goofy,” according to Balasubramaniam, but that his findings may lead to real-life improvements in fields as diverse as robotics and stroke rehabilitation.
A recent arrival at the university and principal investigator in the newly constructed Sensorimotor Neuroscience laboratory, what's Balasubramaniam's next challenge? “I may focus on cycling.”
