Dan Shechtman and Quasicrystals

Israeli materials scientist Dan Shechtman (b. 1941) received the 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for the discovery of quasicrystals,” a mosaic-like structure previously thought to be impossible. Although mocked, ridiculed, and insulted by colleagues (Two-time Nobel laureate Linus Pauling did not believe in his discovery) and exiled from his research group, the prize marks his ultimate vindication. His revolutionary discovery of April 8, 1982 that changed our ideas about matter and its atomic arrangement are discussed in detail in this article.