Dan Shechtman Quotes

Israel, Physicist
January 24, 1941

Dan Shechtman (Hebrew: דן שכטמן; born January 24, 1941) 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 quasicrystals, making him one of six Israelis who have won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Also known as Chemist, Engineer, Educationalist, University Teacher

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.

Dan Shechtman
- World
- Good
- Women
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.

Dan Shechtman
- Working
- Students
- Succeed

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.

Dan Shechtman
- Alone
- Field
- April
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.

Dan Shechtman
- Time
- World
- American
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.'

Dan Shechtman
- Good
- Want
- Student
Crystallographers believed in X-ray results, which are of course very accurate. But the x-rays are limited, and electron microscopy filled the gap, and so the discovery of quasicrystals could have been discovered only by electron microscopy, and the community of crystallographers, for several years, was not willing to listen.

Dan Shechtman
I know there is a stereotype that I am naive, but I know what I want, and I know what I'm doing to get there.

Dan Shechtman
- Want
- Stereotype
- Naive
My childhood dream was to study mechanical engineering. After reading 'The Mysterious Island' - which I read 25 times as a boy - 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.

Dan Shechtman
- Life
- Book
- Dream

I think I can change things for the better in this country. I'm doing it now as well, in many areas, mostly in education, higher education and technological entrepreneurship. But I think I could do a lot more from a presidential position.

Dan Shechtman
- Country
- Education
- Change
Science is the ultimate tool to reveal the laws of nature, and the one word written on its banner is Truth.

Dan Shechtman
- Truth
- Nature
- Science
I see the root of the education crisis in the primary and secondary schools. Academia is doing a fairly good job. The root of the problem is the teachers. Some are great. But too many of them are not capable of being good role models. They can't control the classes. They lose too much time trying to create a learning environment.

Dan Shechtman
- Time
- Good
- Great
I told everyone who was ready to listen that I had material with pentagonal symmetry. People just laughed at me.

Dan Shechtman
- People
- Me
- Listen