Dan Shechtman
Dan Shechtman
Dan Shechtman is the Philip Tobias Professor of Materials Science at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, an Associate of the US Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory, and Professor of Materials Science at Iowa State University. On April 8, 1982, while on sabbatical at the U.S. National Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C., Shechtman discovered the icosahedral phase, which opened the new field of quasiperiodic crystals. Shechtman was awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of...
NationalityIsraeli
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth24 January 1941
CountryIsrael
The good people look for challenges. When teaching becomes a prestigious profession, then you'll get good people.
The good news is world population growth rate decreases systematically and is expected to reach zero by 2050, thanks to urbanisation and women's education.
I told everyone who was ready to listen that I had material with pentagonal symmetry. People just laughed at me.
I think the main lesson that I have learned is that a good scientist is a humble scientist who is open-minded to listen to other scientists when they discover something.
Young people in Israel are encouraged to design, produce and sell their products from high school. Technical universities also matter. Teach and introduce entrepreneurship courses in technical universities.
A president should look for what binds the people together rather than what drives them apart. As soon as you are identified with one side of the political map, you are no longer everybody's president.
As far as innovation goes, I can tell you that Korean students are reluctant to step out of line. If I ask questions, nobody raises their hands - not because they don't know the answers, but because they don't want to step out of line.
I was a subject of ridicule and lectures about the basics of crystallography. The leader of the opposition to my findings was the two-time Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling, the idol of the American Chemical Society and one of the most famous scientists in the world.
Korean students are hard working, talented, and they do what they need to do. They succeed in exams. They are highly motivated to succeed in tests.
I always say that people are like peanut shells on the ocean: the waves will take them everywhere.
Sustainable development requires human ingenuity. People are the most important resource.
The message from the Technion when I was a student was: 'You will be so good that when you graduate, everyone will want to hire you.'
I hope that I have had some effect on the fact that Israel is a start-up nation.
On April 8, 1982, I was alone in the electron microscope room when I discovered the Icosahedral Phase that opened the field of quasi-periodic crystals.