2011 Nobel Prize for Chemistry awarded to Israeli scientist

STOCKHOLM (RIA Novosti) - The Nobel Prize for Chemistry 2011 has been awarded to Israeli scientist Daniel Shechtman for the discovery of quasicrystals, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said on Wednesday.

"Contrary to the previous belief that atoms were packed inside crystals in symmetrical patterns, Shechtman showed that the atoms in a crystal could be packed in a pattern that could not be repeated," the academy said.

Shechtman is a professor at Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa.

Last year the prize was awarded to Richard Heck, Akira Suzuki and Ei-Ichi Negishi for developing tools to synthesize carbon-based molecules found in nature, which paved the way for new medicines and plastics.

The prize in each nomination is worth 10 million Swedish kronas (1 million euros). The award ceremony is to be held in Stockholm on December 10, the day of founder Alfred Nobel's death (1833-1896).