Rafi Bistritzer

Rafi Bistritzer (born 1974, Israel) is an Israeli physicist and head of an algorithm research group at Applied Materials.

 Biography 

Bistritzer studied physics at Tel Aviv University, where he received his bachelor's degree in 2000. He earned his master's degree in 2003 and his PhD in 2007 from the Weizmann Institute of Science.

After completing his studies, he moved to the United States for a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Texas at Austin, working with Professor Allan H. MacDonald. There, he studied the theory of twisted bilayer graphene. He and MacDonald predicted that two layers of graphene twisted at a “magic angle” of 1.1 degrees could become superconductors.

Their theoretical work inspired later experiments by Pablo Jarillo-Herrero at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 2018, Jarillo-Herrero’s team confirmed Bistritzer and MacDonald’s predictions. This research led to the creation of a new field called twistronics (a term first used by Jarillo-Herrero and colleagues).

In 2020, Bistritzer, MacDonald, and Jarillo-Herrero were jointly awarded the Wolf Prize in Physics for their "pioneering theoretical and experimental work on twisted bilayer graphene." 

In March 2011, Bistritzer returned to Israel and joined Aspect Imaging as a physicist, where he led a research and development team working on rheology. In 2013, he joined Medtronic as head of the physics group. Since December 2015, he has worked at Applied Materials, leading a research team focused on computer vision and machine learning.

As of 2020, Bistritzer lives in Petah Tikva, Israel.

 References 

Category:1974 births
Category:Living people
Category:Tel Aviv University alumni
Category:Israeli physicists