A numerical perspective on Nature authors.

At Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Moti Segev runs a nonlinear optics group that puts light to work in novel ways. Segev gives each member of his team a well-defined project to lead. He provides guidance and advice every day, but team members present the results of their own projects at conferences and take lead authorship on publications. Segev's guiding principle is to nurture original ideas, because ideas that are extensions of known ideas will be pursued by other, larger, groups. This week, the group presents the first ever nonlinear photonic quasi-crystal. This system is noteworthy because light passing through the ten-fold symmetrical structure changes the crystal's properties, and these changes then affect the light refracting from the crystal (see page 1166).

185 citations have been made to the 2003 Nature paper written by Segev's group on solitons in photonic lattices.

13 researchers working in Israel have reviewed papers submitted to Nature since January 2006 (<1% of all reviewers).

157 submissions to Nature in the past year have been made from Israel (<12% of all submissions).

12% of submissions to Nature from Israel in the past year were made by researchers at the Technion.