- Person
- Dan Shechtman
- Lived
- b. 1941
- Field
- Materials science
- From
- Israeli
The story
Dan Shechtman, born in Tel Aviv in 1941 to a Jewish family whose grandparents had settled in the land during the Second Aliyah, is best known for discovering quasicrystals. But for decades he has also devoted himself to a different mission: teaching young engineers how to build businesses from their ideas.
When he became a full professor at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, in 1986, he decided to use his new freedom to start something new. He coined the name Technological Entrepreneurship and launched the course the following year. On the first day, around 800 students turned up for a lecture hall approved for 600, the largest class the Technion had seen.
The course brings in a steady stream of guest speakers: founders of successful companies, entrepreneurs whose firms are struggling, lawyers, accountants and patent experts. Students learn the realities of building a technology business, including that of every ten new start-ups roughly one succeeds, two struggle and seven fail. Shechtman’s message is that failure is part of the process: if you fail, start again. He says that more than 10,000 engineers and scientists have taken the course, and many of them have gone on to found companies. He has also argued that good ideas inside large companies often die as they pass up the chain of command, and that junior staff need direct access to top management.
Shechtman has said he does not claim to be the father of Israel’s start-up nation, but that he contributed to it. He argues that a country’s most important and most sustainable resource is human ingenuity, and that governments can help by creating economic conditions that encourage new ventures.
His teaching has not stopped at universities. In 2012 he began a programme in Haifa to train kindergarten teachers in science, helped launch science kindergartens in Israel, and presented a television series in which he does experiments with six-year-olds. He describes himself as a missionary for education, science and technological entrepreneurship.
Why it matters
Shechtman’s course has helped thousands of engineers create technology companies, and his early-science programmes aim to give young children a head start in science.
About Dan Shechtman
Israeli materials scientist who discovered quasicrystals against fierce ridicule, rewrote the definition of a crystal, and taught entrepreneurship to some 10,000 engineers. Nobel Prize 2011.
More about Dan Shechtman
Sources
- Committed to teaching science and entrepreneurship: Dan Shechtman Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings
- Known for chemistry, Israeli Nobel laureate also champions tech entrepreneurship The Algemeiner (JNS)
- Dan Shechtman Wikipedia
Another act of tikkun olam. This is part of tikkun olam, the Jewish idea of repairing the world, and every one of us can add to it.