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Professor HD Wagner

Prof. H. Daniel Wagner obtained his PhD at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, under the supervision of Prof. Gad Marom (1982). He was a postdoctoral associate and Lecturer at Cornell University (1982-1985) with Prof Leigh Phoenix. Prof. Wagner then joined the Weizmann Institute’s Department of Materials Research (now the Department of Molecular Chemistry and Materials Science), where he holds the Livio Norzi Professorial Chair in Materials Science. He is the author of about 300 papers (26,000 citations, h-index: 75. Source: Google Scholar) and several book chapters.

Scientific Interests

Micromechanics of novel man-made materials, including carbon nanotubes, graphene, and nanocomposites, and the mechanics of biological composite materials such as bone, dentin, sponge silica spicules, turtle carapaces, scorpion cuticles, as well as cell adhesion.
Applications for synthetic composites range from re-entry heat shields for spacecraft, new aircraft designs (such as the Airbus 380 and Boeing 787), fishing rods, tennis racquets, bicycle frames and racing car bodies, solar panel substrates, and orbital telescopes.

Distinctions

  • Elected Chairman of the 2000 Gordon Research Conference on Composites (Ventura, California)
  • Gutwirth Prize (Israel, 2010)
  • Christoffel Plantin Award in Science (Belgium, 2014)
  • Landau Prize in Arts and Science (Israel, 2014)
  • Medal of Excellence in Composites (USA, 2016)
  • American Society for Composites DEStech Award (USA, 2017)
  • Israel Vacuum Society Award (2019)
  • Elected Member of the Academia Europaea (2020)

Selected Recent Publications