Dan Shechtman(Hebrew:דן שכטמן; born January 24, 1941)is the Philip Tobias Professor of Materials Science at theTechnion – Israel Institute of Technology, an Associate of theUS Department of Energy'sAmes National Laboratory, and Professor of Materials Science atIowa State University. On April 8, 1982, while on sabbatical at theU.S. National Bureau of StandardsinWashington, D.C., Shechtman discovered theicosahedral phase, which opened the new field ofquasiperiodic crystals, also referred to as "quasicrystals."For this discovery, he was awarded the 2011Nobel Prize in Chemistry, making him one of six Israelis who have won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Fields: Materials science Education: Technion – Israel Institute of Technology