December 2017 – Join us in congratulating our students on winning prestigious scholarships:
Achiya – for receiving the Sherman Prize!
Stas – for getting an extra scholarship for Excellence in Research!
Yael – for getting the prestigious Jacobs Scholarship!
This is the way to go! We are proud of You!
December 2017 – We are happy to share with you our recent findings that have been published in the December 8 issue of Science. Click here for FREE download.
Our group in collaboration with University of Trento, University of Wisconsin and Charité University uncovered the unique protective mechanism of highly resistant lenses located on the arms of Ophiocoma wendtii, a coral reef-dwelling brittle starfish. On the arms of this creature are hundreds of focal lenses that hold clues to making tough ceramics.
“Ophiocoma wendtii lenses are created in the open sea, not in a laboratory, and in effect we have discovered a strategy for making brittle material much more tough and durable under natural conditions,” said Prof. Pokroy. “It is ‘crystal engineering’ and tempering without heating and quenching – a process that could be very useful in materials science and engineering.”
“Just as nature exhibits creativity in improving an organism’s abilities in various contexts such as strength, sensing, and self-defense, we see very high efficiency by the brittle star’s use of existing raw materials under natural conditions to create hardy and precise transparent lenses,” says Prof. Pokroy.
June 2017- Congratulations to Yael Etinger for her new paper in CHEMISTRY OF MATERIALS & for getting Faculty excellence award for spring semester
at the Dead Sea, November 2016
at the Dead sea, November 2016
Farewell Lunch to Quentin Micard, July 2016
Farewell Lunch to Eva, Rotem and Sasha, August 2015
Group FUN DAY at Zefat February, 2016
Group FUN DAY at Zefat February, 2016
This is a fascinating glimpse into the ESRF’s work and life activities published on Nature. Walking around the ring with all different types of beam lines running 24/7, you have a unique opportunity to visit and follow the exciting and challenging times at the powder diffraction beam line ID22, a “second home” for our group on the way to scientific results and inventions.
