“Israel is a country of start-ups,” said Dan Shechtman, a famous Israeli scientist and laureate of Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of quasicrystals, who is visiting Ukraine these days. According to Shechtman, if it is to efficiently function, science must be profitable. Therefore, he always teaches his students to not only create projects, but also sell them correctly, so as to have resources for further research. Start-ups brought Israeli scientists 15 billion dollars past year. Scientists have invested much of this sum in new discoveries.
Shechtman notes that Israel has already passed the phase of development which Ukraine is only going through. Israel had only its citizens for a natural resource, but the country has been able to build a strong economy on this basis. “To create a technologically successful society, you need young people who want to become engineers and scientists,” Professor Shechtman believes. “Only then will new startups appear. For now, though, more young professionals aspire to become lawyers or economists. I have nothing against these professions, but such professionals will not build new things. To get young people wanting to go into science, we must involve them with it from an early age.”
Shechtman has developed two concepts of science teaching for children which are successfully employed in Israel. The ways the Nobel laureate implements his ideas include a TV science show about researcher’s life. There are also science kindergartens in Israel. According to Professor Shechtman, children can learn much faster than adults, and this should be used in education. The scientist observes: “The child says almost nothing at age one, is somewhat intelligible at two, and its verbal flow cannot be stopped at three. Effectively, the child fully masters an unknown language in two years. Likely, no adult can do this.”
In implementing his ideas, Professor Shechtman gets government support. The scientist is convinced that Israeli concepts may help technical progress in Ukraine as well.
