Israeli scientist wins 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Israeli scientist Daniel Shechtman won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, announced Staffan Normark, Permanent Secretary of Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm on Wednesday. "The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2011 to Daniel Shechtman from Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel for the discovery of quasicrystals," said Normark. This was the third of this year's crop of Nobel prizes, which are handed out annually for achievements in science, literature, economics and peace. All but one of the prizes were established in the will of 19th century dynamite millionaire Alfred Nobel. The economics award was established by Sweden's central bank in 1968. On Tuesday, the Nobel Prize in Physics went to Saul Perlmutter, Brian Schmidt and Adam Riess, all American citizens while Schmidt is also an Australian citizen. Nobel died childless and dedicated his vast fortune to create "prizes for those, who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind." The Nobel Prizes have been awarded annually since 1901 to those who " conferred the greatest benefit on mankind during the preceding year." Each prize consists of a medal, a personal diploma and a cash award of 10 million Swedish kronor (1.46 million U.S. dollars).