Rafi Bistritzer (born 1974 in

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

) is an Israeli physicist, and manager of an algorithms group at

Applied Materials Applied Materials, Inc. is an American corporation that supplies equipment, services and software for the manufacture of semiconductor (integrated circuit) chips for electronics, flat panel displays for computers, smartphones, televisions, and ...

. He is the winner of the 2020

Wolf Prize The Wolf Prize is an international award granted in Israel, that has been presented most years since 1978 to living scientists and artists for ''"achievements in the interest of mankind and friendly relations among people ... irrespective of nati ...

Physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

, together with Pablo Jarillo-Herrero and Alan MacDonald, for “pioneering theoretical and experimental work on twisted bilayer graphene.”

Biography

Bistritzer received a bachelor's degree in physics from

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...

in 2000. He received an MSc in physics in 2003, and a PhD in physics in 2007, both from the

Weizmann Institute of Science The Weizmann Institute of Science ( he, מכון ויצמן למדע ''Machon Vaitzman LeMada'') is a public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, 14 years before the State of Israel. It differs from other Israeli unive ...

. He moved to the United States for a postdoctoral fellowship at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,07 ...

, under the supervision of Prof. Alan MacDonald, where he studied the theoretical physics of

bilayer graphene Bilayer graphene is a material consisting of two layers of graphene. One of the first reports of bilayer graphene was in the seminal 2004 '' Science (journal), Science'' paper by Geim and colleagues, in which they described devices "which containe ...

, and specifically twisted bilayer graphene. Their calculations predicted that two parallel graphene sheets twisted at an angle of 1.1 degrees relative to each other (an angle known as the "magic angle") would host flat moiré bands and thus possibly correlated states. MacDonald's and Bistritzer's work served as the basis for later experimental research by Pablo Jarillo-Herrero at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

, whose group validated the correctness of the calculations in 2018. The result was a breakthrough in the field of

twistronics Twistronics (from ''twist'' and ''electronics'') is the study of how the angle (the twist) between layers of two-dimensional materials can change their electrical properties. Materials such as bilayer graphene have been shown to have vastly differ ...

. For their work, Bistritzer, MacDonald, and Jarillo-Herrero were jointly awarded the 2020 Wolf Prize in physics. In March 2011 Bistritzer returned to Israel and joined Aspect Imaging, where he worked as a physicist and led a research and development

rheology Rheology (; ) is the study of the flow of matter, primarily in a fluid (liquid or gas) state, but also as "soft solids" or solids under conditions in which they respond with Plasticity (physics), plastic flow rather than deforming Elasticity (phy ...

team. In 2013 he moved to Medtronic as the manager of the physics group. Since December 2015, he has been working at

as the director of an algorithms group that focuses on computer vision and machine learning. In 2020 he was appointed as an associate professor in Tel Aviv University. Bistritzer currently lives in Petah Tikva, Israel.

References

External links

The Wolf 2020 Prize in Physics - Rafi Bistritzer.

Google scholar - Rafi Bistritzer.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bistritzer, Rafi 1974 births Israeli physicists Living people Wolf Prize in Physics laureates Tel Aviv University alumni Weizmann Institute of Science alumni University of Texas at Austin people People from Petah Tikva