Prof. Shahal Ilani completed his BSc in mathematics and physics with honors at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in I992. While serving in the Israel Defense Forces’ RAFAEL research program until 2001, he went on to complete an MSc, also with honors, in physics at the Racah Institute of Physics at Hebrew University in 1997. He completed a PhD in physics at the Weizmann Institute of Science in 2003 and conducted postdoctoral work in the Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics at Cornell University. He joined the Weizmann Institute in 2008.
Prof. Ilani and his lab have developed innovative technologies that allow scientists to explore quantum electronics and create ultra-clean and highly-controllable carbon-based quantum devices. They build nanoscale electrical systems using nanotubes formed from a single graphene layer rolled into a tube, yielding a fiber that is one billionth of a meter, or one nanometer, in diameter, which conducts better than copper, and is stronger and lighter than steel. These form the wiring of a wide range of nanoscale electrical devices. Prof Ilani and his group use these nanoelectric devices to study the ultimate limits of physics in the nanoscale, and to decipher the rules governing quantum mechanics. For instance in 2016, they were the first to demonstrate excitonic attraction between electrons, a phenomenon first suggested in theory more than 50 years ago.
Prof. Ilani’s academic awards include the André Deloro Prize (2018), the Krill Prize for Excellence in Scientific Research and the Weizmann Institute’s Morris L. Levinson Prize in Physics (2014), an Alon Fellowship (2009-2011), a Rothschild Fellowship (2003-2004), the Chorafas Foundation Award for outstanding PhD from the Swiss Scientific Academies (2002), and a VATAT Scholarship from the Israel Ministry of Science (2001-2003).