Prof. David Avnir is an Israeli Professor of chemistry at the Institute of Chemistry, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he also got all his education, and where he held the positions of Head of the School of Chemistry, Head of the Institute of Chemistry, and Head of the Graduate School of the Experimental Sciences. His current scientific activities include sol-gel materials, molecularly doped metals, chirality and symmetry in experiments and theory. Earlier interests included fractals in chemistry and far-from-equilibrium phenomena. He has co-authored authored more than 400 papers, many of which are highly cited. Co-founder of the International Sol-Gel Society and its first chairman of the board. He was awarded the Israel Chemical Society Prize in 2011.
Early life and family
David Avnir was born in 1947 in a Displaced Persons hospital at the Benedictine archabbey of St. Ottilien, Germany. In 1949 he immigrated to Israel and lived in Jerusalem for all of his childhood and later on for most of his adult life. Married to Dr. Yehudit Avnir of The Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. They have two children and 3 grandchildren.
Education
Prof. Avnir received his BSc., MSc, and PhD. in chemistry from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem during the years 1969–1977. His post-doctoral studies were with Prof. Paul de Mayo, in the University of Western Ontario, Canada, and with Prof. H. Morrison, at Purdue University, United States, during the years 1978–1979.
Avnir has more than 400 refereed publications that have been cited over 35,000 times, with an h-index of 80.
Sol-gel materials
The sol-gel methodology allows the preparation of glasses and ceramics at room temperature. Avnir’s conceptual idea has been to utilize this low-temperature polymerization process for the incorporation organic and bioorganic molecules within ceramic materials. Traditionally for glasses and ceramics, this has been impossible, because of the very high temperatures employed by these technologies. Following this general concept, the properties of ceramic materials could be altered to create a very wide range of previously unknown materials, by the ability to dope of glasses and ceramics with practically any of the ~40 million organic and bioorganic molecules known today. Many useful applications, including materials for optics, reactive materials, bioactive materials, catalysts and sensors.
Molecularly doped metals
The family of doped metals was unknown until first discovered and developed by Avnir in 2002. The methodology enables the incorporation and entrapment of small organic molecules, polymers, biomolecules, and nanoparticles within metals, rendering a metal acidic, obtaining luminescent metals inducing magnetism in and formation of bioactive metals.
Chirality and symmetry
The first focal point of this broad topic has been the formation of new chiral materials, that is, materials which can appear in both left- and right-handed forms. The second, related focal point has been the quantification of geometric symmetry and chirality: Traditionally these have been treated in terms of "either-or", but not as continuous structural properties that can evolve gradually from zero to fully-blown. The chirality/symmetry studies went also beyond chemistry, and have included computerized analysis of symmetry, studies of the bilateral symmetry of Lower Paleolithic hand axes, and chirality in architecture.
Fractals
An ongoing major challenge has been the quantitative treatment of complex and irregular geometries in the context of the chemistry of materials and surfaces. A comprehensive solution for that problem was proposed by Avnir and his colleague Peter Pfeifer, by adapting fractal geometry to this challenge. Avnir’s edited text-book The Fractal Approach to Heterogeneous Chemistry: Surfaces, Colloids, Polymers became a major source in this field and was reprinted several times.
Dissipative structures
This early work focused on the origin of patterns and structures which form as a result of reactions that solutions of chemicals undergo. dissipative structures – this is how such structures are called – were found for a wide array of different reactions.
Awards and recognitions
Kaye Award for Applied Research, The First Mehrotra Foundation Lecture, Award Lecture of the Div. of Colloid and Surface Chem. of the Chemical Society of Japan,, The Kolthoff Award of the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology,, The Benjamin H. Birstein Chair in Chemistry, Special issue of Journal of Sol-Gel Science and Technology, honoring Prof. Avnir, Member of the Academia Europaea, The Israel Chemical Society Prize, Life-time Achievement Award of the International Sol-Gel Society, A collection of articles themed on "Hybrid Materials" dedicated to D. Avnir: Nanoscale,, Fellow of the International Sol-Gel Society, Distinguished Scientist, The Chinese Academy of Sciences.
