Dan Shechtman is a mechanical engineer and materials scientist by education a Distinguished Professor emeritus of the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, a distinguished Professor in Iowa State University and past professor in Johns Hopkins University and U. of Maryland, Baltimore County.
For his scientific discoveries he received many international awards, including the Wolf and the Nobel Prizes. He is member of several National Academies around the world as well as member and honorary member of scientific societies.
He envisioned and created several educational programs that inspired the world, from scientific kindergartens to technological entrepreneurship class at the Technion, a class that over the past 36 years had more than 10,000 graduates, 25% of them were involved in startups. He also created and presented on Israel National Educational Television a scientific program for children – “To Be a Scientist with Professor Dan”.
Currently he is dedicated to bringing the Metaverse technology into Israel education system and he is the active chair of the Wolf Foundation Council
In 2014 he ran for the Presidency of Israel (and lost).
Dan Shechtman is married to Professor emerita Zipora Shechtman of the Haifa University. They have four children and twelve grandchildren.