Dan Shechtman Quotations

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

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

I am a proud Zionist. I can tell you about every blossom that grows in this land. I know the history and the Bible.

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

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

I think the main lesson that I have learned is that a good scientist is a humble scientist who is open-minded to listen to other scientists when they discover something.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

When my grandchildren are older and my great-grandchildren start growing up, first of all, I want them to be in Israel. I don't want them to leave the country because they have no choice.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Science is the ultimate tool to reveal the laws of nature, and the one word written on its banner is Truth.

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.

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.

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.

Young people in Israel are encouraged to design, produce and sell their products from high school. Technical universities also matter. Teach and introduce entrepreneurship courses in technical universities.

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

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

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.

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.'

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

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

I know there is a stereotype that I am naive, but I know what I want, and I know what I'm doing to get there.

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.

I hope that I have had some effect on the fact that Israel is a start-up nation.

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

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.

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