Israeli scientist Daniel Shechtman won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, announced Staffan Normark, Permanent Secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm on Wednesday.

Picture taken on Oct. 5, 2011 at the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences shows a television screen displaying Israeli scientist Daniel Shechtman, winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, for his discovery in material field. (Xinhua/Liu Yinan)

Shechtman discovered quasicrystals, a kind of matter, on April 8, 1982, an image counter to the laws of nature in his electron microscope.

"In all solid matter, atoms were believed to be packed inside crystals in symmetrical patterns that were repeated periodically over and over again. But Shechtman's image showed that the atoms in his crystal were packed in a pattern that could not be repeated," said the statement.

"Such a pattern was considered just as impossible as creating a football using only six-cornered polygons, when a sphere needs both five-and six-cornered polygons. His discovery was extremely controversial," the Nobel Committee explained in the statement.

"However, his battle eventually forced scientists to reconsider their conception of the very nature of matter," the statement added.

The Nobel Laureate had to fight a fierce battle against established science, yet his discovery has fundamentally altered how chemists conceive of solid matter, the Nobel Committee said.

He was also awarded for the inspiration for other scientists.

"Following Shechtman's discovery, scientists have produced other kinds of quasicrystals in the lab and discovered naturally occurring quasicrystals in mineral samples from a Russian river. A Swedish company has also found quasicrystals in a certain form of steel, where the crystals reinforce the material like armor," according to the statement.

Scientists are currently experimenting with using quasicrystals in different products such as frying pans and diesel engines.

Born in 1941 in Tel Aviv, Israel, Schechtman got his Ph.D. in 1972 from Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. He is Distinguished Professor and The Philip Tobias Chair at Technion - Israel Institute of Technology.

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).

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet