PRESIDENT’S REPORT 2015
Blogged from the Jerusalem Post
By JUDY SIEGEL
12/05/2011 05:52
Shechtman, 70, discovered in 1982 that atoms in rigid crystals can be packed together in unusual ways.
Dozens of European ambassadors to Israel met with Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate Prof. Dan Shechtman over the weekend to wish him luck before he leaves with his family for Stockholm on Monday to receive his prize. In addition to his delivery of lectures and attendance at symposia and receptions, the peak event will be the award ceremony and the gala ball on Saturday night.
Shechtman – a 70-year-old expert in materials science at Haifa’s Technion-Israel Institute of Technology – discovered in 1982 that atoms in rigid crystals can be packed together in unusual ways. This breakthrough led to the development of extremely strong materials from metal surgical tools and razor blades to diesel engines and as protective coatings and metal alloys. In addition, what have become known as quasiperiodic or quasicrystals, do not rust or become oxidized and have almost no surface friction.
The Tel Aviv-born scientist, who is also an associate of the US Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory and professor at Iowa State University, found that atoms in crystals could be structured in an unrepeatable pattern that looked like the Arab-style floor mosaics. In fact, the structure was described as “the fascinating mosaics of the Arabic world reproduced at the level of atoms.”