Prof. Shalom says that he came to chemistry relatively late. "I would like to say that the periodic table was hanging over my bed and that I disassembled transistors as a child," he says with a smile, "but that was not the case." He grew up in south Tel Aviv and Holon, served additional years in the army, after which he traveled the world with the woman who later became his wife, and only then began his studies in chemistry.

 

"Because I focused on sciences in high school, I started studying computer science and chemistry at Bar-Ilan University," he says. "But already in the second year," he recalls, "I realized that chemistry is the main thing I wanted to focus on." He went on to pursue a master's degree and a doctorate at Bar-Ilan University, on "Understanding the Mechanisms in Quantum Dot Sensitized Solar Cell Towards Innovative Design, Synthesis and Fabrication of Efficient Quantum Dot (Q.D.) Based Solar Cells". He went on to do a postdoctoral fellowship at the Max Planck Institute in Potsdam, Germany. He then returned to Israel, to lead a research group at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. In his few years at the university, he has received research grants from the European Union's Research Foundation, and also won the Israel vacuum society (IVS) early career excellence award and the Israel Chemical Society prize for young scientists.

 

Last summer he was informed that he had won the Blavatnik Award. "It was very exciting and thrilling," he says, "especially because our whole family was in isolation after we all got sick with the coronavirus." He says that apart from the personal feeling of pride, he is also proud to be the first winner of the prestigious award at Ben-Gurion University. "But I hope there will be many others in the coming years,” he says. "It's a great feeling to receive the award. It gives a great boost to our research."

 

Prof. Shalom explains that the innovations that have taken place in his laboratory can be attributed to the fact that he started studying chemistry in the field of pharmaceuticals, moved on to the more physical side of chemistry in the field of solar cells, and from there went on to study advanced materials science in Germany. "I really like to combine different fields," he says, "and that's one of the most beautiful things in science, in my opinion. The thought of how to combine different areas gives you the ability to get better, move forward, and maybe reach real breakthroughs," he said.

 

When asked how he creates an atmosphere in a lab that would allow such creativity, he replies: "We try not to be fixed. I encourage my students to work with other people and different members of the staff. I tell them they are allowed to make mistakes and that mistakes are a necessary part of learning, but one should always be curious and creative.

 

"Sometimes when brainstorming a topic we encounter the question of whether something will work or not. In our field it usually does not take months to find out if a certain direction is leading forward or backward, so I tell them: 'Do not be afraid, try, the worst thing that can happen is that it will not work, but at least we will learn something new’. I believe many breakthroughs come from creative, outside of the box thinking.”