The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2011 to Israeli scientist Daniel Shechtman of the Technion. Shechtman is the tenth Israeli scientists to win a Nobel Prize and the third to be awarded the prize for chemistry. Both Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres congratulated Shechtman on winning the prize. He was awarded the prize for his discovery of patterns in atoms called quasicrystals, a chemical structure that researchers previously thought impossible. His discovery opened the door for experiments in the use of quasicrystals in everything from diesel engines to frying pans.
