IOWA CITY, Iowa — Scientist Daniel Shechtman on Wednesday became the first Iowa State University faculty member to win a Nobel Prize, giving the school reason to celebrate and a strong recruiting draw for students and researchers.
Shechtman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his 1982 discovery of quasicrystals, which changed the way scientists think about matter. His discovery turned the accepted thinking of the scientific community on its head, drawing him criticism for years before gaining broad acceptance.
Shechtman is a professor in the department of materials science and engineering, a researcher in the Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory run by ISU and a professor at Technion Institute of Technology in Israel, where he learned the news Wednesday.
Shechtman joined the ISU faculty in 2004 and spends about four months a year in Ames. He teaches a class to graduate students on electron microscopy, which was a research tool he was using when he made his discovery. And he continues his research on the basic properties of metals, searching for materials that are lighter and stronger and could be used to build aircraft and other technologies.
A university spokesman confirmed Shechtman was the first Nobel Prize winner at the school, where his colleagues expressed pride and happiness for the man they know as "Danny."
Just last month in Ames, he gave a department seminar describing how he discovered quasicrystals and weathered the firestorm of criticism that followed in the years afterward. Many scientists, including one top chemist, spent years trying to debunk his findings and suggesting other explanations could be at work.
"His comment to our grad students was all about this idea of perseverance and the courage of your convictions. He carried the day on that one," said Richard LeSar, chair of Iowa State's materials science and engineering department. "It's a wonderful human story of perseverance in light of this highly skeptical scientific community. He had supporters and they slowly grew over time. But it was tough on him. It's one of those remarkable stories I like to tell people."
LeSar said the award was "a major deal" for his department and the university but that he was most happy for Shechtman, who he described as a thoughtful scientist and well-deserving of the award.
Another ISU colleague said Shechtman is a logical thinker, independent-minded and unafraid to take unpopular positions.
"These are all characteristics that undoubtedly lent him the strengths to be the lightning rod that he was during the initial controversy regarding quasicrystals," said chemistry professor Pat Thiel, a close friend who also studies quasicrystals at the Ames Laboratory. "A lesser person, a more conciliatory person like myself, would have undoubtedly said, 'I'm probably wrong, please stop picking on me.'"
She said his discovery led a scientific revolution that has prompted a greater understanding of matter even though it has led to few practical applications.
Thiel said she had wanted Shechtman to win in recent years after his name showed up on a Nobel Prize watch list but had abandoned her hope after he was repeatedly passed over.
"I spent the morning screaming and slamming the walls and waking people up to tell them," she said. "To be at an institution which is sharing in the Nobel prize in chemistry is marvelous.
"We can now tell students, 'you can take a class on electron microscopy from Danny Shechtman, who won the Nobel Prize'. It's a great recruiting tool for students, for faculty, for staff."