Dan Shechtman Quotes

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.

Colleges will try to get the good students. That’s the way to go. When I chaired my department of Materials Engineering at the Technion in 1990, we started a program for which we set the bar very high. It was the highest at the Technion, above electrical engineering and medicine.

I fell in love with science and decided to continue for my Ph.D., and from there on, I was a scientist.

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.

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.

As far as innovation goes, I can tell you that Korean students are reluctant to step out of line. If I ask questions, nobody raises their hands – not because they don’t know the answers, but because they don’t want to step out of line.

Sustainable development requires human ingenuity. People are the most important resource.

The frontiers of science, on the very small scale and very large scale, require large investments and international effort.

I always say that people are like peanut shells on the ocean: the waves will take them everywhere.

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.’

Me as president would not be like anybody else as president. Everyone does the job differently.

Let us advance science to create a better world for all.

I told everyone who was ready to listen that I had material with pentagonal symmetry. People just laughed at me.

A president should look for what binds the people together rather than what drives them apart. As soon as you are identified with one side of the political map, you are no longer everybody’s president.

Select a subject that interests you and make an effort to become an expert in that field. I promise you, if you make the effort, and you become an expert, you will have a wonderful career.

I can unite the people of Israel, so I won’t speak about controversial issues, which divide the people.

In the forefront of science, there is not much difference between religion and science. People harbor beliefs. That’s what happens when people believe something religiously.

A humble scientist is a good scientist.

In most cases, the news is not really news. But in some cases, discoveries are made and should be listened to.