Dr. Moshe Harats

​Department of Materials Engineering​
Faculty of Engineering Sciences

My life before BGU: 

I was born in Jerusalem. I completed all three of my degrees at the Hebrew University, where I focused on plasmonic interaction with light-emitting quantum dots. I did my postdoc in Berlin, where I worked on the optical characteristics of two-dimensional materials under elastic deformations.

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My research:

I study two-dimensional materials. These are materials that we can make so thin, that they have just one layer of atoms. Since they are just a few nanometers thick, they can be stretched more than other solid materials. This means that we can alter their physical properties by elastic deformations. I study the physical transformations caused by the stretching using optical devices. 

​Why BGU?

The Department of Materials Engineering here is very supportive, and this was already apparent during the job acceptance process. There is room to grow at BGU​.​

An insight from my research:

Good research doesn’t require the most powerful computer or the most expensive equipment: mostly it needs creativity.

A source of inspira​tion:

My inspiration is Andre Geim, laureate of the Nobel Prize in Physics. I believe he is the most creative person in science today. ​

If I were not a researcher, I w​ould…

I also did a BA in history and found it very interesting.

Something that do​esn’t appear on my CV:

I was a guide at Yad VaShem for seven years, mostly working with Taglit groups. I love skiing and am a fan of Hapoel Jerusalem in basketball.
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In brief​​​: 

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