Rafi Bistritzer (; born 1974 in

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

) 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 natio ...

Physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, 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 whi ...

, together with

Pablo Jarillo-Herrero Pablo Jarillo-Herrero (born June 11, 1976) is a Spanish physicist and current Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Biography Jarillo-Herrero was born in Valencia, Spain. In 1999 he received ...

and

Allan MacDonald Allan Macdonald (November 21, 1794 White Plains, Westchester County, New York – January 1862) was an American politician from New York. Life He was the son of Dr. Archibald Macdonald (d. 1813), a native of Scotland. Allan Macdonald was Postm ...

, for "pioneering theoretical and experimental work on twisted bilayer graphene."

Education

Bistritzer received a bachelor's degree in physics from

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) is a Public university, public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Located in northwest Tel Aviv, the university is the center of teaching and ...

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 ( ''Machon Weizmann LeMada'') is a Public university, public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, fourteen years before the State of Israel was founded. Unlike other List of Israeli uni ...

. 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 university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

, under the supervision of Alan H. 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'' paper by Geim and colleagues, in which they described devices "which contained just one, two, or ...

, 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.

Career

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 research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

, 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 diff ...

. 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 plastic flow rather than deforming elastically in response to an applie ...

team. In 2013 he moved to

Medtronic Medtronic plc is an American-Irish medical device company. The company's legal and executive headquarters are in Republic of Ireland, Ireland, while its operational headquarters are in Minneapolis, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Medtronic rebased to I ...

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 Petah Tikva (, ), also spelt Petah Tiqwa and known informally as Em HaMoshavot (), is a city in the Central District (Israel), Central District of Israel, east of Tel Aviv. It was founded in 1878, mainly by Haredi Judaism, Haredi Jews of the Old Y ...

, Israel.

References

External links

The Wolf 2020 Prize in Physics - Rafi Bistritzer.

Google scholar - Rafi Bistritzer.
{{Authority control 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