Dan Shechtman was born in 1941 inTel Aviv, in what was thenMandatory Palestine; the city became part of the new state ofIsrael in 1948. He grew up inPetah Tikva andRamat Gan in aJewish family.[5] His grandparents had immigrated to Palestine during theSecond Aliyah (1904–1914) and founded a printing house. As a child, Shechtman was fascinated by Jules Verne'sThe Mysterious Island (1874), which he read many times. His childhood dream was to become an engineer like the main protagonist,Cyrus Smith.
I thought that was the best thing a person could do. The engineer in the book knows mechanics and physics, and he creates a whole way of life on the island out of nothing. I wanted to be like that.
Shechtman is married to Prof. Tzipora Shechtman, Head of the Department of Counseling and Human Development atHaifa University, and author of two books onpsychotherapy.[7][8] They have a sonYoav Shechtman (a postdoctoral researcher in the lab ofW. E. Moerner) and three daughters: Tamar Finkelstein (an organizational psychologist at the Israeli police leadership center), Ella Shechtman-Cory (a PhD inclinical psychology), and Ruth Dougoud-Nevo (also a PhD in clinical psychology).[9]
In 1992–1994 he was on sabbatical atNational Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), where he studied the effect of the defect structure ofCVD diamond on its growth and properties. Shechtman's Technion research is conducted in the Louis Edelstein Center, and in the Wolfson Centre which is headed by him. He served on several Technion Senate Committees and headed one of them.
Shechtman joined the Iowa State faculty in 2004. He currently spends about five months a year inAmes on a part-time appointment.[3][10]
Shechtman's Nobel Prize–winning work was in the area ofquasicrystals, ordered crystalline materials lacking repeating structures, such as this Al-Pd-Mn alloy.[12]Interview with Dan Shechtman after his Nobel lecture
The Nobel Committee at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said that "his discovery was extremely controversial," but that his work "eventually forced scientists to reconsider their conception of the very nature of matter."[14] Through Shechtman's discovery, several other groups were able to form similar quasicrystals by 1987, finding these materials to have lowthermal andelectrical conductivity, while possessing high structural stability.[15][16][17] Quasicrystals have also been found naturally.[18][19]
From the day Shechtman published his findings on quasicrystals in 1984 to the dayLinus Pauling died in 1994, Shechtman experienced hostility from Pauling toward the non-periodic interpretation. "For a long time it was me against the world," Shechtman said. "I was a subject of ridicule and lectures about the basics ofcrystallography. The leader of the opposition to my findings was the two-time Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling, the idol of theAmerican Chemical Society and one of the most famous scientists in the world. For years, 'til his last day, he fought against quasi-periodicity in crystals. He was wrong, and after a while, I enjoyed every moment of this scientific battle, knowing that he was wrong."[20] Pauling is noted saying "There is no such thing as quasicrystals, only quasi-scientists."[14] Pauling was apparently unaware of a paper in 1981 byH. Kleinert and K. Maki which had pointed out the possibility of a non-periodicIcosahedral Phase inquasicrystals[21] (see thehistorical notes). The head of Shechtman's research group told him to "go back and read the textbook" and a couple of days later "asked him to leave for 'bringing disgrace' on the team."[22] Shechtman felt rejected.[14] On publication of his paper, other scientists began to confirm and accept empirical findings of the existence of quasicrystals.[23][24]
Quasicrystalline materials could be[needs update] used in a large number of applications, including the formation of durable steel used for fine instrumentation, and non-stick insulation for electrical wires and cooking equipment.,[25][26] but presently have no technological applications.
The Nobel prize was 10 millionSwedish krona (approximatelyUS$1.5 million).[14]
On January 17, 2014, in an interview with Israel'sChannel One, Shechtman announced his candidacy forPresident of Israel.[27] Shechtman received the endorsement of the ten Members ofKnesset required to run. In theelections, held on June 10, 2014, he was awarded only one vote. This led Israeli press and Israeli humorists to qualify Shechtman as "quasi-president" in reference to the "quasi-scientist" quote.
D. P. DiVincenzo and P. J. Steinhardt, eds. 1991.Quasicrystals: The State of the Art. Directions in Condensed Matter Physics, Vol 11.ISBN981-02-0522-8.
T. Janssen. 2007.Quasicrystals: Comparative dynamics.Nature Materials, Vol 6., 925–926.
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