A professor at Waterloo Engineering has a lot more material for his classes after winning one of the world’s wackiest academic prizes last week.
Dr. Zhao Pan and one of his students, Kaveeshan Thurairajah, were thrilled to accept the 2026 Ig Nobel Physics Prize in bright yellow raincoats in a sold-out, 1,500-seat theatre in Zurich, Switzerland with collaborators from two other universities.
The researchers were recognized for designing a urinal that is virtually splash-free, an undertaking that was more than a decade, on and off, in the making and culminated in a published academic paper in 2025.
Pan, a professor of mechanical and mechatronics engineering, uses the project to help teach numerous concepts, and have some silly fun, in two of his courses.
“Without physics and math, we cannot design a humble urinal, let alone anything more complex,” he says. “With a pinch of art and humour, our ordinary, everyday lives can be just a bit better.”
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