Tel Aviv native Shechtman won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2011 for his discovery of quasicrystals, which are crystals whose atoms are not organized in repeating patterns. A materials science professor at the Technion, his alma mater, he made the crucial discovery while doing research at Johns Hopkins University in 1982. He also has taught and researched at Iowa State University since 2004.
Photo: Amos Ben Gershom, Israeli Government Press Office