Dan Shechtman

About Dan Shechtman

Birth Day: January 24, 1941
Birth Place: Tel Aviv, Israel, Israeli
Alma mater: Technion
Known for: Quasicrystals
Spouse(s): Tzipora Shechtman
Awards: Israel Prize (1998) Wolf Prize in Physics (1999) Gregori Aminoff Prize (2000) Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2011)
Fields: Materials science
Institutions: Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Johns Hopkins University National Institute of Standards and Technology Iowa State University Technion

Dan Shechtman

Dan Shechtman was born on January 24, 1941 in Tel Aviv, Israel, Israeli. Dan Shechtman is an Israeli scientist, who was bestowed with the highly-esteemed Nobel Prize for his discovery of quasiperiodic crystals. Born in Tel Aviv, Israel, he did his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering and Material Engineering, respectively from Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and later on completed his Ph.D. in Materials Engineering from the same institute. It was at his alma mater that he commenced his career. In 1992, he took a sabbatical for two years and enrolled at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Maryland, America, where he studied the effect of the defect structure of CVD diamond on its growth and properties. It was while at NIST that he first discovered the icosahedral phase, which opened the new field of quasiperiodic crystals. Interestingly, Linus Pauling, two-times Nobel laureate and idol of American Chemical Society, opposed his discovery till the very end against quasi-periodicity in crystals. However, scientists finally approved his discovery, for which he was eventually conferred with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2011.
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Does Dan Shechtman Dead or Alive?

As per our current Database, Dan Shechtman is still alive (as per Wikipedia, Last update: May 10, 2020).

🎂 Dan Shechtman - Age, Bio, Faces and Birthday

Currently, Dan Shechtman is 83 years, 9 months and 11 days old. Dan Shechtman will celebrate 84rd birthday on a Friday 24th of January 2025. Below we countdown to Dan Shechtman upcoming birthday.

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Popular As Dan Shechtman
Occupation Scientists
Age 83 years old
Zodiac Sign Aquarius
Born January 24, 1941 (Tel Aviv, Israel, Israeli)
Birthday January 24
Town/City Tel Aviv, Israel, Israeli
Nationality Israeli

🌙 Zodiac

Dan Shechtman’s zodiac sign is Aquarius. According to astrologers, the presence of Aries always marks the beginning of something energetic and turbulent. They are continuously looking for dynamic, speed and competition, always being the first in everything - from work to social gatherings. Thanks to its ruling planet Mars and the fact it belongs to the element of Fire (just like Leo and Sagittarius), Aries is one of the most active zodiac signs. It is in their nature to take action, sometimes before they think about it well.

🌙 Chinese Zodiac Signs

Dan Shechtman was born in the Year of the Snake. Those born under the Chinese Zodiac sign of the Snake are seductive, gregarious, introverted, generous, charming, good with money, analytical, insecure, jealous, slightly dangerous, smart, they rely on gut feelings, are hard-working and intelligent. Compatible with Rooster or Ox.

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Biography/Timeline

1941

Dan Shechtman was born in 1941 in Tel Aviv, in what was then Mandatory Palestine; the city became part of the new state of Israel in 1948. He grew up in Petah Tikva and Ramat Gan. Shechtman is married to Prof. Tzipora Shechtman, Head of the Department of Counseling and Human Development at Haifa University, and author of two books on psychotherapy. They have a son Yoav Shechtman (a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of W. E. Moerner) and three daughters: Tamar Finkelstein (an organizational Psychologist at the Israeli police leadership center), Ella Shechtman-Cory (a PhD in clinical psychology), and Ruth Dougoud-Nevo (also a PhD in clinical psychology). He is an atheist.

1972

After receiving his Ph.D. in Materials Engineering from the Technion in 1972, where he also obtained his B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering in 1966 and M.Sc. in Materials Engineering in 1968, Prof. Shechtman was an NRC fellow at the Aerospace Research Laboratories at Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio, where he studied for three years the microstructure and physical metallurgy of titanium aluminides. In 1975, he joined the department of materials engineering at Technion. In 1981–1983 he was on sabbatical at Johns Hopkins University, where he studied rapidly solidified aluminum transition metal alloys, in a joint program with NBS. During this study he discovered the Icosahedral Phase which opened the new field of quasiperiodic crystals.

1981

Linus Pauling is noted saying "There is no such thing as quasicrystals, only quasi-scientists." Pauling was apparently unaware of a paper in 1981 by H. Kleinert and K. Maki which had pointed out the possibility of a non-periodic Icosahedral Phase in quasicrystals (see the historical 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." Shechtman felt dejected. On publication of his paper, other Scientists began to confirm and accept empirical findings of the existence of quasicrystals.

1984

From the day Shechtman published his findings on quasicrystals in 1984 to the day Linus Pauling died (1994), Shechtman experienced hostility from him toward the non-periodic interpretation. "For a long time it was me against the world," he said. "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. 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."

1992

In 1992–1994 he was on sabbatical at National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), where he studied the effect of the defect structure of CVD 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.

2004

Shechtman joined the Iowa State faculty in 2004. He currently spends about five months a year in Ames on a part-time appointment.

2013

A quasiperiodic crystal, or, in short, quasicrystal, is a structure that is ordered but not periodic. A quasicrystalline pattern can continuously fill all available space, but it lacks translational symmetry. "Aperiodic mosaics, such as those found in the medieval Islamic mosaics of the Alhambra palace in Spain and the Darb-i Imam shrine in Iran, have helped Scientists understand what quasicrystals look like at the atomic level. In those mosaics, as in quasicrystals, the patterns are regular -- they follow mathematical rules -- but they never repeat themselves.""An intriguing feature of such patterns, [which are] also found in Arab mosaics, is that the mathematical constant known as the Greek letter tau [sic], or the "golden ratio", occurs over and over again. Underlying it is a sequence worked out by Fibonacci in the 13th century, where each number is the sum of the preceding two."

2014

On January 17, 2014, in an interview with Israel's Channel One, Shechtman announced his candidacy for President of Israel. Shechtman received the endorsement of the ten Members of Knesset required to run. In the elections, held on 10 June 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.

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