Weizmann Institute of Science
מכון ויצמן למדע (Hebrew) | |
Former name | Daniel Sieff Research Institute (1934–1949) |
---|---|
Type | Public research |
Established | 1934 |
Founder | Chaim Weizmann |
President | Alon Chen |
Academic staff | 952 |
Students | 1,082 |
Postgraduates | 356 |
700 | |
Location | , |
Campus | Urban |
Postdoctoral fellows | 380 |
Affiliations | Feinberg Graduate School[1] |
Website | www.weizmann.ac.il |
File:Weizmann Institute of Science logo.svg |
Academic rankings | |
---|---|
Global | |
ARWU[2] | 101-150 |
The Weizmann Institute of Science (Template:Lang-he Machon Vaitzman LeMada) is a public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, 14 years before the State of Israel. It differs from other Israeli universities in that it offers only postgraduate degrees in the natural and exact sciences.
It is a multidisciplinary research center, with around 3,800 scientists, postdoctoral fellows, Ph.D. and M.Sc. students, and scientific, technical, and administrative staff working at the institute.[3][4]
As of 2019, 6 Nobel laureates and 3 Turing Award winners have been associated with the Weizmann Institute of Science.
History
Founded in 1934 by Chaim Weizmann and his first team, among them Benjamin M. Bloch, as the Daniel Sieff Research Institute. Weizmann had offered the post of director to Nobel Prize laureate Fritz Haber, but took over the directorship himself after Haber's death en route to Palestine. Before he became President of the State of Israel in February 1949, Weizmann pursued his research in organic chemistry at its laboratories. The institute was renamed the Weizmann Institute of Science in his honor on November 2, 1949, in agreement with the Sieff family.
WEIZAC, one of the world's first electronic computers was locally built by the institute in 1954–1955 and was recognized by the IEEE in 2006 as a milestone achievement in the history of electrical and electronic engineering.[5]
In 1959, the institute set up a wholly owned subsidiary called Yeda Research and Development Company to commercialize inventions made at the institute.[6] Yeda has more marine genetic patents than any other research institute.[7] By 2013 the institute was earning between $50 and $100 million in royalties annually on marketed drugs including Copaxone, Rebif, and Erbitux.[8][9]
Graduate program
The Weizmann Institute presently has about 2,500 students, postdoctoral fellows, staff, and faculty, and awards M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in mathematics, computer science, physics, chemistry, biochemistry, and biology, as well as several interdisciplinary programs.[3] The symbol of the Weizmann Institute of Science is the multibranched Ficus tree.[10] Undergraduates and recent graduates must apply to M.Sc. programs, while those earning an M.Sc. or an MD can apply directly to Ph.D. programs. Full fellowships are given to all students.[11]
Youth programs
In addition to its academic programs, the Weizmann Institute runs programs for youth, including science clubs, camps, and competitions. The Bessie F. Lawrence International Summer Science Institute accepts high-school graduates from all over the world for a four-week, science-based summer camp. The Clore Garden of Science, which opened in 1999, is the world's first completely interactive outdoor science museum.[3][12]
Rankings
The Weizmann Institute of Science was ranked number 2, globally, for research quality by the Nature Index in 2019,[13] and in the top 25 research institutes/universities in the world in two main categories by U-Multirank, 2019: Top Cited Publications and Patents Awarded.[14] The institute was in 7th place in the European Research Council report in 2020 for its high rate of success in obtaining research grants.[15] In 2018 the institute was ranked 9th, globally, (1st in Israel) by the CWTS Leiden Ranking, which is based on the proportion of a university's scientific papers published between 2012 and 2015 that made the 10% most cited in their field.[16]
Presidents
- Chaim Weizmann (1934–1952)
- Meyer Weisgal (1952–1959 as acting director)
- Abba Eban (1959–1966)
- Meyer Weisgal (1966–1970)
- Albert Sabin (1970–1972)
- Israel Dostrovsky (1972–1975)
- Michael Sela (1975–1985)
- Aryeh Dvoretzky (1985–1988)
- Haim Harari (1988–2001)
- Ilan Chet (2001–2006)
- Daniel Zajfman (2006–2019)
- Alon Chen (2019–present)
The nonscientists Abba Eban and Meyer Weisgal were assisted by scientific directors, as was Weizmann himself owing to his duties as the first president of Israel. The following persons held the position of scientific director:
- Ernst David Bergmann (1949–1951)
- Amos de-Shalit (1960–1961 and 1966–1968)
- Shneior Lifson (1962–1966)
- Gerhard M. J. Schmidt (1969)
Faculty
- Uri Alon, systems biologist
- Ruth Arnon, immunologist
- Arkady Aronov, condensed matter physicist
- Mordechai Ben-Ari, computer scientist
- Ari Ben-Menahem, geophysicist
- Achi Brandt, mathematician
- Shikma Bressler, physicist
- Irun Cohen, immunologist
- David Danon, biologist
- Amos de-Shalit, physicist
- Irit Dinur, computer scientist and mathematician
- Israel Dostrovsky, physical chemist
- Yadin Dudai, neuroscientist
- Harry Dym, mathematician
- Marvin Edelman, biologist
- Benjamin Elazari Volcani discovered life in the Dead Sea and pioneered biological silicon research.
- Aviezri Fraenkel, mathematician
- Asher A. Friesem, physicist
- Stephen Gelbart, mathematician
- Joseph Gillis, mathematician
- Oded Goldreich, computer scientist
- Shafrira Goldwasser, computer scientist two-time winner of the Godel Prize (1993 and 2001), and the Turing Award (2012)
- Haim Harari, theoretical physicist
- David Harel (born 1950), computer scientist
- Yoseph Imry, theoretical physicist
- Aharon Katzir, chemist
- Ephraim Katzir, biophysicist, fourth President of the State of Israel
- Bruria Kaufman, theoretical physicist
- Jacob Klein, chemist
- Erez Lapid, mathematician
- Ulf Leonhardt, physicist
- Alexander Lerner, mathematician
- Michael Levitt, chemical physics, presently at Stanford University: Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2013)
- Moshe Levy, chemist
- Shneior Lifson, physicist
- Harry J. Lipkin, physicist
- Henry Markram (born 1962), neuroscientist
- Meir Lahav, chemist[17]
- Mordehai Milgrom, astrophysicist
- David Milstein, organic chemist
- Moni Naor, computer scientist
- Chaim L. Pekeris, geophysicist
- Amir Pnueli, computer scientist, Turing Award (1996)
- Ran Raz, computer scientist
- Amitai Regev, mathematician
- Omer Reingold, computer scientist
- Leo Sachs, molecular biologist
- Josip Schlessinger, biochemist and biophysician
- Michal Schwartz, neuroimmunologist
- David Samuel, 3rd Viscount Samuel, chemist
- Eran Segal, computational biologist
- Lee Segel, applied mathematician
- Michael Sela, immunologist
- Adi Shamir, cryptographer, Turing Award (2002)
- Ehud Shapiro, computer scientist and computational biologist
- Nathan Sharon, biochemist
- Amnon Shashua, computer scientist
- Franz Sondheimer, chemist
- Ady Stern, physicist
- Joel Sussman, crystallographer
- Igal Talmi, physicist
- David Tannor (born 1958), theoretical chemist
- Reshef Tenne, chemist
- Edward Trifonov, molecular biophysicist
- Shimon Ullman, computer scientist
- Gabriele Veneziano, theoretical physicist
- David Wallach, biochemist
- Arieh Warshel, chemical physics, presently at University of Southern California: Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2013)
- Chaim Weizmann, chemist, first President of the State of Israel
- Meir Wilchek, biochemist
- Ada Yonath, crystallographer, Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2009)
- Daniel Zajfman, physicist
Alumni
- Amikam Aharoni (1929–2002), physicist
- Dorit Aharonov (born 1970), computer scientist
- Joanna Aizenberg, professor of chemistry
- Uri Alon, systems biologist
- Ella Amitay Sadovsky (born 1964), artist
- Haim Aviv, molecular biologist
- Karen Avraham, geneticist
- Neta Bahcall, astrophysicist
- Eli Biham, cryptographer and cryptanalyst
- Ofer Biham, physicist
- Achi Brandt (born 1938), mathematician
- Joseph Buxbaum, geneticist and neuroscientist
- Alon Chen (born 1970), neuroscientist
- Nachum Dershowitz, computer scientist
- Danny Dolev, computer scientist
- Dov Dori, computer scientist
- Yadin Dudai, neuroscientist
- Amos Fiat, computer scientist
- Nir Friedman, computer scientist and biologist
- Ehud Gazit, biochemist and nanotechnologist
- Alexander Goldfarb, (born 1947), microbiologist, activist, and author
- Eliezer (Eli) Huberman, biologist
- Yoseph Imry, theoretical physicist
- Jonathan Kipnis, neuroscientist
- Bernard H. Lavenda, chemical physicist
- Anders Levermann, climate scientist
- Alexander Levitzki (born 1940), biochemist
- Yehuda Lindell, computer scientist
- Mario Livio (born 1945), astrophysicist
- Miron Livny, computer scientist
- Henry Markram (born 1962), neuroscientist
- Raphael Mechoulam, organic chemist
- David Peleg, computer scientist
- Amir Pnueli (1941–2009), computer scientist
- Omer Reingold, computer scientist
- Gideon Rodan, biochemist
- Barton Rubenstein, modernist sculptor
- Shmuel Safra, computer scientist
- Josip Schlessinger (born 1945), biochemist and biophysician
- Nathan Seiberg, physicist
- Adi Shamir (born 1952), cryptographer
- Amnon Shashua, computer scientist
- Andrey Sivachenko, computational biologist and computer scientist. Professor at Harvard University Extension School
- Nahum Sonenberg, biochemist
- Hermona Soreq, molecular neuroscientist
- Eli Upfal, computer scientist
- Lev Vaidman, physicist
- Moshe Vardi, computer scientist
- Inder Verma, cancer researcher and molecular biologist
- Arieh Warshel, chemist
- Meir Wilchek, biochemist
- Ada Yonath, crystallographer
- Doron Zeilberger, mathematician
- Eitan Zemel, applied mathematician
See also
References
- ^ https://www.weizmann.ac.il/feinberg/
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Rankings_ARWU
was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b c "Scientific Activities: The Yeda-Sela (YeS) Center for Basic Research". Retrieved 25 July 2015.
- ^ "Facts and Figures - Weizmann Institute of Science". Retrieved 25 July 2015.
- ^ "Milestones: WEIZAC Computer, 1955". IEEE. Retrieved 7 March 2018.
- ^ Borchardt, John (September 26, 2000). "Israeli biotech - a child with great promise". The Scientist.
- ^ Blasiak, Robert; Jouffray, Jean-Baptiste; Wabnitz, Colette C. C.; Sundström, Emma; Österblom, Henrik (June 6, 2018). "Corporate control and global governance of marine genetic resources". Science Advances. 4 (6): eaar5237. doi:10.1126/sciadv.aar5237. ISSN 2375-2548. PMC 5990308. PMID 29881777.
- ^ OECD Reviews of Innovation Policy OECD Reviews of Innovation Policy. OECD Publishing. 2006. p. 119. ISBN 9789264029750.
- ^ Weinreb, Gali (28 July 2013). "Yeda earns $50-100m annually". Globes (in Hebrew).
- ^ Institution resource development, Weizmann Institute of Science
- ^ "Fellowships & Aid". Weizmann Institute. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
- ^ "2BackToHomePage3". Retrieved 25 July 2015.
- ^ "Nature index - Weizmann Institute of Science". Retrieved 3 June 2020.
- ^ "U-Multirank Weizmann Institute of Science". Retrieved 3 June 2020.
- ^ "European Research Council - Annual report on the ERC activities and achievements in 2019". Retrieved 3 June 2020.
- ^ "CWTS Leiden Ranking". Leiden University. Retrieved 23 Jan 2018.
- ^ [1]
External links
- Weizmann Institute of Science Website (in English)