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.

Dan Shechtman

Categorized in : Think Good Humble I Have Learned

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

human development important people

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

go like royalty world

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.

field room alone april

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

waves will ocean people

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.

best childhood reading life

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

create better science world

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

continue scientist love science

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.

good women growth education

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-am you bible history

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

listen everyone me 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.

will good medicine way

A humble scientist is a good scientist.

good scientist humble

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

one-word nature truth science

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.

listen results community discovery

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

really some news made

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

large small effort science

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.

career will you effort

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.'

will good you want

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

open how teach students

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

i-am myself entrepreneur should