The University of Western Australia's Nobel Prize winner, Professor Barry Marshall, is more popular than Albert Einstein, according to the Nobel Foundation.
Professor Marshall co-won the Nobel Prize for medicine in 2005 and is now ranked as the second most popular winner, with civil rights activist Martin Luther King Junior, who won the Peace Prize in 1964, topping the poll.
When Professor Marshall discovered he was considered more popular than Albert Einstein, who won the Physics Prize in 1921, he said he was a bit surprised.
"It made me smile," he said.
But Professor Marshall said there are certain factors that contributed to his recent rise in popularity and little that Albert Einstein could do to prevent his ascent.
"Well, he is not alive so that helps," Professor Marshall said.
Professor Marshall co-won the Nobel Prize for medicine in 2005 and is well remembered for the bizarre episode in which he acted as a human guinea pig and swallowed a concoction containing helicobacter pylori to support his research.
He survived ingesting the potentially dangerous bacteria but the experiment didn't go as he had hoped.
"I was hoping I was going to get an ulcer.
"I was hoping to boost my research career by developing a bleeding ulcer.
"But it did turn out to be one of the things that people remember," he said.
Hans Mehlin from Nobel Media said popularity was measured by data that showed the frequency of which online material produced by the prize winners was accessed.
"The list is based on the number of visits to documents about the Laureates on nobelprize.org.
"It is measured once a day in Google Analytics," he said.
Professor Marshall attributes his success to a recent international tour that allowed him to reach a wide and receptive audience.
"I travelled a lot this year and I always fly the West Australian flag.
"I try to put on a good show.
"It gets a lot of media," he said.
As a result of his collaboration with Emeritus Professor Robin Warren, co-winner of the 2005 prize, most ulcers can now be cured with antibiotics and the incidence of gastric cancer has been significantly reduced.
But it's all relative.
The top 10 most popular Laureates:
1. Martin Luther King Junior, Peace Prize 1964
2. Barry Marshall, Medicine Prize 2005
3. Albert Einstein, Physics Prize 1921
4. Malala Yousafzai, Peace Prize 2014
5. Patrick Modiano, Literature Prize 2014
6. Kailash Satyarthi, Peace Prize 2014
7. Marie Curie, Physics Prize 1903
8. Niels Bohr, Physics Prize 1922
9. Mother Teresa, Peace Prize 1979
10. John Steinbeck, Literature Prize 1962
