PRESIDENT’S REPORT 2015
On the way to Stockholm
~Following daily events of Israel’s 2011 Nobel Prize Laureate~
October 9th, 2011Global Press Conference. Jerusalem.
Q: Jewish telegraphic Agency. Why are Israelis so successful in winning Nobel Prizes in Science?
The universities are excellent. Technion is a very good school for engineering and science.
We have not only good education but the system here encourages originality. We are free thinkers. This si the Israeli spirit. Sometimes this leads to chaos but free thinking encourages successful scientists. But also we are living here in a free society. Many of us do not follow the rules, and this is part of the national character of a free-thinking people.
Q: Fati – from Turkish TV. What did you feel when you heard the announcement?
I’m never aware of when the prizes are announced, the date etc. Usually, friends tell me about the Nobel Prize in Physics. I told my wife. It felt great. I’m not the type to feel elated and jump up and down. Then, everyone arrived and started celebrating in my little office. I’m happy to talk to you; It’s for science, for Technion, and for Israel. I’m the spearhead. Behind me there are thousands of scientists and I represent them all.
Q: Norwegian Daily Newspaper. Can you explain what is this science?
It was difficult to discover non-periodic crystals by x-ray. The first quasicrystals were discovered by me. Grain size is 1 micron – which is not a problem for the electron microscope. You need a single crystal. You couldn’t discover this by x-ray, so long as the size is so small. The trusted tool of choice was x-ray diffraction. It is very precise BUT you cannot discover quasicrystals there. So the international community of quasicrystallographers didn’t accept my results.
In 1987, colleagues managed to create a large-enough crystal [to be viewed by] for x-ray. In 1983 I returned to Technion. The first person willing to help me decipher what I had found was Prof. Ilan Blech. We joined forces. He proposed a model.
In 1984, the first paper was rejected. Then with John Cahn and Denis Gratias, the 4 of us composed a short paper to Physical Review Letters and published it November 1984. Then all hell broke loose. It was easy to repeat my experiment, I gave instructions, and all over the world people started doing it.
Q: Berlin correspondent. What is the practical, applied use?
In 1987, colleagues managed to create a large-enough crystal [to be viewed by] for x-ray. In 1983 I returned to Technion. The first person willing to help me decipher what I had found was Prof. Ilan Blech. We joined forces. He proposed a model.
In 1984, the first paper was rejected. Then with John Cahn and Denis Gratias, the 4 of us composed a short paper to Physical Review Letters and published it November 1984. Then all hell broke loose. It was easy to repeat my experiment, I gave instructions, and all over the world people started doing it.
Q: Berlin correspondent. What is the practical, applied use?
As opposed to the greatness of the scientific achievement, the applications are few and far between Quasi materials have certain unique properties. Hardness, electrical, optical, and non-stick. For example, if you cook on a quasi pan, your omelette will not stick. Like Teflon. But unlike Teflon, if you use a knife, it will ruin the knife, not the Teflon. There is a French company producing the frying pans. They have a low coefficient of friction. If you embed the powder of these materials in plastic, then make gears, they will not erode. For example, in ventilators and fans.
To have an application for a material is not trivial. Most metals do not have. There is a steel made in Sweden, precipitation hardened stainless steel. It does not corrode. It is used in razor blades, surgical tools. The steel is strengthened by tiny quasicrystalline particles.
Q: Tell us about your confidence
I tell students: First be an expert on something. Great discoveries come by serendipity. Usually, you stumble upon it. In many cases, it weill be an artifact but in other cases it will be something new. Then study it thoroughly. Here is a real test: if you believe in yourself, listen to others but don’t let them discourage you unless you are convinced they are right and you are wrong. In my case, I knew I was right from Day One.
Q: What will you do with the money?
It will all be dedicated to education – mainly of my grandchildren.
Q: How do you relate to Judaism as a scientist and to science as a Jew?
I am a Jew because I was born to a Jewish family. My father’s grandfather was a religious Jew in Russia. He was a religious leader (not a rabbi). My grandfather and father were not religious. My grandfather was a socialist. Most of my family is not religious. I feel that I am as good a Jew as anybody else. I cherish Jewish heritage and tradition and I respect the Jewish religion.
How do I relate to science as a Jew? I don’t see why there is a difference. In our community of scientists, the question of ethnic origin or religion NEVER comes up.
I have excellent relations with countries that don’t always have relations with Israel. Science continues.
How do I relate to science as a Jew? I don’t see why there is a difference. In our community of scientists, the question of ethnic origin or religion NEVER comes up.
I have excellent relations with countries that don’t always have relations with Israel. Science continues.
Q: AP. To follow up on education. You are the 10th Israeli Nobel laureate. Israel has the second-highest rate of Nobel laureates.
I’m talking about science. The universities do a great job and will continue to do so. But candidates to the universities must be with motivation and know how to behave in civilization, with a knowledge of the Arts, music. This depends on education, which is a broader term than teaching. Teachers must encourage and support. I will never forget my physics teacher who told me “Dan knows Physics.” He will have forgotten it straight after, but I carry it with me to this day.
Q: Israel21c Abigail Leifmann: Is there anything specifically Israeli which helped you to persevere when you could have given up?
Definitely. We have learned in school, and at a leftist Youth Movement. We were educated to become physically and mentally independent. One such task was to walk in the dark through orchards. We all had paramilitary education in high school. Everybody did it. Like running in a field with barbed wire… I was a sharpshooter when I was young. One of the best in the country. There was a competition in Jerusalem and I was one of 5 in the team representing the Petach-Tikva school. I had to shoot 5 bullets into one point. We learned to be independent – if you threw us on a Desert Island we would survive. That’s the Israeli character.
October 6th, 2011 |
| Israel PM Netanyahu dons the now famous quasicrystal tie. |
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| Photo by: Amos Ben-Gershom / GPO |
Morning: Visit of the Swedish Ambassador Elinor Hammarskjöld to Technion to meet with Prof. Shechtman
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| Shechtman with Swedish Ambassador to Israel Elinor Hammarskjöld |
“Technion is one of the Israeli academic institutions that is well known in Sweden, it is an institute with great international repute. Sweden cooperates with many scientists from Israel some from the Technion and Prof. Shechtman talked about his previous visits to Sweden, so it’s been an honor to congratulate him today and I look forward to working more with the Technion in the future.”
“One of our focus areas is cooperation with universities. I look forward to visiting Technion again in the future and learning more about the institute.”
“This is very exciting for me, I’ve been in my position here for only one year, in my previous posts I never had the pleasure of congratulating a Nobel laureate.”
“It’s not easy being a celebrity, it could impede future research. The Nobel ceremony itself is nothing to be anxious about…the problem is surviving all the events that follow,”
Technion Nobel Laureate 2004 (Chemistry) Avraham Hershko.
October 5th, 2011The 2011 Nobel Prize for Chemistry is announced
From Stockholm, and through the Technion LIVE:
News Spreads fast through the social media. The Technion is swamped with phone-calls. Technion President Peretz Lavie rushes to the senate. “Does anyone know where Danny is?” he asks.
Emergency Press Conference at Technion
An emergency Press Conference is called. Danny is found. The room is swamped with reporters.
Technion staff remember a stock of ties produced by our genius graphic designer Guy Nawy some time earlier (just because he loves Shectmanite). The ties are rapidly donned by Technion President Peretz Lavie, New Nobel Laureate Prof. Danny Shechtman and dean of the Department of Materials Engineering Wayne Kaplan.
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| MEET THE PRESS! (Get used to it Danny!) |
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| President Peretz Lavie & Prof. Dan Shechtman sport the legendary quasicrystal ties. |
Prime Minister Netanyahu adds his congratulations to the millions of others flooding through all communication channels:
“I would like to congratulate you, on behalf of the citizens of Israel, for your award, which expresses the intellect of our people. Every Israeli is happy today and every Jew in the world is proud. I also congratulated your institution, the Technion, on the centenary of its founding.”