Dov I. Levine (Hebrew: דב לוין; born July 19, 1958) is an American-Israeli physicist, known for his research on quasicrystals,[1] soft condensed matter physics (including granular materials, emulsions, and foams), and statistical mechanics out of equilibrium.
The idea, motivated by their study of Penrose tilings,[5] was to consider atomic arrangements that are quasiperiodic rather than periodic.
Independently, in April 1982, while studying an aluminum-manganese alloy, A6Mn, Dan Shechtman made a scientific observation, published in 1984, of "a metallic solid which diffracts electrons like a single crystal but has a point group symmetry (icosahedral) that is inconsistent with lattice translations.
"[6] When Levine and Steinhardt were shown a preprint, they recognized the diffraction pattern as matching their prediction for an icosahedral quasicrystal and, hence, published their theory and proposed that explanation.
[8]Levine was from 1986 to 1988 a postdoctoral member of UCSB's ITP (now known as KIPT) and from 1988 to 1989 a visiting scientist at the Weizmann Institute.