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Israeli Nobel laureate: chemistry prize a celebration of science

Xinhua, October 6, 2011

• "It's a big day, a celebration shared by Israel, science and the entire world," Israeli researcher Daniel Shechtman, who won the 2011 Nobel Prize in chemistry, said here at a press conference at the Technion- Israel Institute of Technology.

  Shechtman, 70, has spent the past five decades at Technion. He is also an associate at the Ames Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy and has lectured at universities abroad.

  "Thousands of scientists are currently researching the subject I developed and I'm sure that all of them view the prize as their accomplishment too," he told Xinhua, adding that, "Science (in general) wouldn't be here and be as prosperous and intricate as it is if not for the work of thousands of others around the world."

  The Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences on Wednesday announced Shechtman as the winner of this year's Nobel chemistry prize for his cutting-edge research on quasicrystals, a type of atom form that for decades was considered impossible by the global scientific community.

  The award panel explained that Shechtman's work, launched in early 1980s, has revolutionized the perception of solid matter.

  His work forced crstyallographers to revamp their basic conception that atoms inside crystals only have repeating and symmetrical patterns.

  Shechtman is the 10th Israeli scientist to win the Nobel Prize and the fourth to win the prize in chemistry.

  Ada Yonat, a researcher at the Weizmann Institute near Tel Aviv, received the chemistry prize in 2009.

  The announcement from Stockholm captured headlines in Israel, drawing praise from the country's leadership, who said Shechtman's achievement is a testament to the Jewish state's stature as a technological powerhouse.

  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the winning of the Nobel Prize "expresses our people's intellect."

  "Every Israeli citizen is happy today and every Jew in the world is proud," a statement issued by Netanyahu's office quoted him as telling the scientist in a telephone call.

  Israeli President Shimon Peres, who is also a Nobel laureate, later called to congratulate Shechtman.

  "You demonstrate that a thinking person who is hardworking and brave can make groundbreaking scientific discoveries," he said.

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