Paul DeFanti

Paul DeFanti is the fictional recipient of the 1991 Ig Nobel Prize in the area of Pedestrian Technology "for his invention of the Buckybonnet, a geodesic fashion structure that pedestrians wear to protect their heads and preserve their composure." This makes him one of only three fictional people to have won the award.^[1] DeFanti supposedly demonstrated his Buckminster Fulleresque invention at the awards ceremony. According to Bill Jackson at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology:

There was a "spontaneous" demonstration of the device's effectiveness when a rather attractive woman stormed into the room, accompanied by a police officer. The woman declared that DeFanti had fathered her child. She attempted to hit him, but the Buckybonnet protected him.^[2]

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