Quotes from Dan Shechtman

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

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

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

The Technion didn't teach students how to open a start-up.

The good people look for challenges. When teaching becomes a prestigious profession, then you'll get good people.

I told myself, 'I am teaching entrepreneurship, so I should be an entrepreneur myself.'

Wherever I go in the world, I'm treated like royalty.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

I'm proud of my family, very proud - I have ten grandchildren, four children, and one wife.

Israel, in general, should learn from other nations. We have a tendency to teach the world. In many cases, we should learn from the world, because they make advances.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.