Dan Shechtman

Dan Shechtman
Holger Motzkau · CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
Name	Dan Shechtman
Birth date	January 24, 1941
Birth place	Tel Aviv, British Mandate for Palestine
Nationality	Israeli
Fields	Materials science, Physics
Institutions	Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Iowa State University

Dan Shechtman is a renowned Israeli Materials scientist who has made significant contributions to the field of Materials science, particularly in the discovery of Quasicrystals. Shechtman's work has been recognized globally, and he has received numerous awards, including the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2011, which he received from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden at the Stockholm Concert Hall. His research has been influenced by the work of Linus Pauling, Dmitri Mendeleev, and William Lawrence Bragg, and has been published in prestigious journals such as Nature (journal), Science (journal), and Physical Review Letters. Shechtman's discovery of Quasicrystals has also been recognized by the European Physical Society, the American Physical Society, and the National Academy of Sciences.

● Early Life and Education

Shechtman was born in Tel Aviv, British Mandate for Palestine, to a family of Jewish immigrants from Poland. He grew up in a family that valued Education, and his parents encouraged him to pursue his interests in Science and Mathematics. Shechtman attended the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, where he earned his Bachelor's degree in Mechanical engineering and later his Master's degree in Materials science. He then moved to the United States to pursue his Ph.D. in Materials science at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and later at the Aerospace Research Laboratories. During his time at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Shechtman was influenced by the work of Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, and Erwin Schrödinger, and he also interacted with other notable scientists such as Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, and Francis Crick.

● Career

Shechtman began his career as a Research scientist at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, where he worked on the development of Titanium alloys for Aerospace engineering applications. He later moved to the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, where he became a Professor of Materials science and established the Technion Center for Materials Science. Shechtman's research focused on the development of new Materials with unique properties, such as Superconductors, Nanomaterials, and Quasicrystals. He has collaborated with numerous researchers from institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). Shechtman has also worked with notable scientists such as Stephen Hawking, Kip Thorne, and Lisa Randall, and has been a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Israeli Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

● Discovery of Quasicrystals

In 1982, Shechtman discovered Quasicrystals, a new class of Materials that exhibit unique properties, such as Aperiodic crystal structures and Icosahedral symmetry. This discovery was met with skepticism by the scientific community, and Shechtman faced significant opposition from established researchers, including Linus Pauling and John Desmond Bernal. However, Shechtman's findings were later confirmed by other researchers, including Paul Steinhardt and Dov Levine, and the discovery of Quasicrystals has since been recognized as a major breakthrough in the field of Materials science. The discovery of Quasicrystals has also been influenced by the work of Buckminster Fuller, M.C. Escher, and Roger Penrose, and has been recognized by the Royal Society, the French Academy of Sciences, and the Russian Academy of Sciences.

● Awards and Honors

Shechtman's discovery of Quasicrystals has been recognized with numerous awards, including the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2011, the Wolf Prize in Physics in 1999, and the Aachen Engineering Award in 2014. He has also received honorary degrees from institutions such as the University of Oxford, Harvard University, and the California Institute of Technology. Shechtman has been elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Israeli Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and has been awarded the Gregori Aminoff Prize by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Shechtman has also been recognized by the European Union, the National Science Foundation, and the United States Department of Energy, and has received the Enrico Fermi Award from the United States Department of Energy.

● Personal Life

Shechtman is married to Tzipora Shechtman, and they have three children together. He is a Jewish Israeli and has been involved in various philanthropic activities, including the establishment of the Shechtman Foundation, which supports Education and Research initiatives in Israel and around the world. Shechtman has also been involved in various public outreach activities, including lectures and interviews with media outlets such as BBC News, The New York Times, and Science (journal). He has also interacted with other notable public figures such as Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Barack Obama, and has been a member of the World Economic Forum, the Trilateral Commission, and the Club of Rome. Category:Israeli scientists