Professor Emeritus John Senders (MIE) is among a number of U of T professors who took home a 2011 Ig Nobel Prize for their “improbable research.”

The awards ceremony, which takes place at Harvard University, proves that research can be fun – and funny. Professor Senders won in the “public safety” category for “conducting a series of safety experiments in which a person drives an automobile on a major highway while a visor repeatedly flaps down over his face, blinding him,” as seen in this YouTube video from 1967. In it, he notes calmly that “the shorter the interval between looks, the more difficult that section of road is to drive,” as he speeds down a Boston highway with his view increasingly obscured.

For more information on Professor Sender’s research and other U of T winners, read the full article in Maclean’s.