Professor Joshua Zak Named 2022 Israel Prize Winner

Israeli Minister of Education, Dr. Yifat Shasha-Biton announced the winner of the 2022 Israel Prize for Physics and Chemistry Research to be Professor emeritus Joshua Zak of the Department of Physics at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. 

Professor Joshua Zak will be awarded the 2022 Israel Prize in physics and chemistry research, Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton announced this week.

The Israel Prize committee selected Prof. Zak for his development of ‘Zak Transform’, an advanced and nuanced mathematical operation that more accurately studies quantum phenomena in crystalline solids, and his discovery of ‘Zak Phase’, a unique 1D crystal phase he described at length in an article in Physical Review Letters in 1989. Zak Transform is already being used in signal processing and Zak Phase has been widely cited and verified in numerous experiments. These tools pave the way to build and predict the capabilities of electronic devices using materials with the utmost unique properties.

The committee further emphasized that “his scientific contributions serve, and will continue to serve, in gaining an understanding of the chemistry and physics of material.”

“We are honored and exceptionally proud to congratulate Prof. Joshua Zak on being awarded the Israel Prize, and of this important recognition of his contribution to science,” Technion President Professor Uri Sivan said. “Prof. Zak’s research has led to breakthroughs in an understanding of fundamental phenomena that are presented at the forefront of research into quantum mechanics while contributing greatly to practical engineering applications. Prof. Zak is a member of the generation of giants that founded the Department of Physics at the Technion, laying the foundations for theoretical physics in Israel. This is the second Israel Prize awarded to Technion researchers within a week, and we are literally bursting with pride.”

This is the second Israel Prize awarded to a Technion researcher. In February, the Committee announced that the 2022 Israel Prize for entrepreneurship and technological innovation has been awarded to Novocure founder Professor emeritus Yoram Palti of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine for his groundbreaking cancer treatment, which is currently being applied in roughly 250 medical centers worldwide.