Jacob Israelachvili facts for kids
Jacob Nissim Israelachvili (born August 19, 1944 – died September 20, 2018) was a brilliant scientist from Israel. He was a physicist and a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) in the United States. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Society, which is a big honor for scientists in the UK.
His Life Journey
Jacob Israelachvili was born in Tel Aviv, Israel. When he was just seven years old, he went to a boarding school in England. After finishing school, he returned to Israel to serve in the military.
Later, he went back to England to study at the famous University of Cambridge. He earned his PhD in Physics in 1972. After that, he worked as a researcher in Sweden for a few years.
From 1974 to 1986, he lived and worked in Australia at the Australian National University. In 1986, he moved to California and joined UCSB. He continued his important research there until he passed away in 2018.
What He Studied
Jacob Israelachvili spent his career studying how tiny particles and surfaces interact. Imagine how water sticks to glass, or how oil and water don't mix. These are examples of "interfacial forces" – the pushes and pulls between surfaces or molecules. His work helped us understand many things, from how paints are made to how our bodies work.
He especially focused on:
- Colloids: These are mixtures where tiny particles are spread throughout another substance, like milk or fog.
- Polymers: These are large molecules found in plastics, rubber, and even our DNA.
- Surfaces: He looked at how surfaces behave when they touch, including things like friction and how liquids spread on them.
The Surface Forces Apparatus
One of his biggest achievements was helping to create and improve a special tool called the Surface Forces Apparatus (SFA). This amazing machine lets scientists measure the tiny forces between two surfaces.
Here's how it works:
- It carefully brings two surfaces very close together, often in a liquid like water.
- It then measures how strongly they attract or push each other away.
- The SFA is incredibly precise. It can measure distances as small as 0.1 nanometer (that's one ten-billionth of a meter!) and forces as tiny as 10−8 Newtons. To give you an idea, a Newton is about the force you'd use to hold a small apple.
The SFA is different from other tools like the atomic force microscope (AFM) because it's designed to study how two surfaces interact over a longer distance. The information gathered from SFA experiments helps scientists understand how molecules behave and how materials stick together or slide past each other.
Jacob Israelachvili also wrote a very important textbook called "Intermolecular and Surface Forces." This book explains the basic ideas and equations behind how molecules and surfaces interact. He also started a company called SurForce, LLC, which focuses on surface force research and making SFA systems.
Awards and Honors
Jacob Israelachvili received many awards for his important contributions to science:
- Tribology Gold Medal (2013)
- ACS National Award in Colloid and Surface Chemistry (2009)
- Named one of the “One Hundred Chemical Engineers of the Modern Era” by AICHE (2008)
- Honorary Degree of Doctor of Engineering – University of South Florida (2007)
- Honorary Degree of Doctor sc. h.c. - ETH Zurich (2006)
- MRS Medal for work on adhesion and friction (2004)
- Elected to the US National Academy of Sciences (2004)
- Elected Fellow of the American Physical Society (2004)
- Adhesion Society Award for “excellence in adhesion science” (2003)
- Fellow of the Royal Society (1988)
- Matthew Flinders Medal and Lecture (1986)
- David Syme Research Prize (1983)
- Elected a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (1982)
- Pawsey Medal (1977)
