Facts and Figures

The Institute is governed by an international Board of Governors headed by an elected Chair, and by an Executive Council, also headed by an elected Chair. The Board of Governors elects the President of the Weizmann Institute, who appoints the Vice President, and the Vice Presidents for Resource Development, for Technology Transfer, and for Administration and Finance. These work alongside the Deans, the Scientific Council (which includes all the Institute’s scientists) and the Council of Professors (which decides on the admission of new scientists to the Institute and their promotion).

Five faculties, 17 departments, a graduate school and 50 multidisciplinary centers

The Institute has five faculties – Mathematics and Computer Science, Physics, Chemistry, Biochemistry and Biology – and the faculties in turn are divided into 17 scientific departments. In addition, the Feinberg Graduate School, the Institute’s university arm, trains research students pursuing graduate degrees.

The Weizmann Institute serves as a meeting place for scientists from different disciplines, setting the stage for multidisciplinary collaborations and the emergence of new research fields. To encourage this creative activity, the Institute has created some 50 multidisciplinary research institutes and centers, most of which provide an intellectual rather than physical framework for joint projects. These institutes and centers stimulate activity in a multiplicity of fields, including brain research, cancer research, nanotechnology, renewable energy sources, experimental physics, biological physics, environmental studies, the study of autoimmune diseases, plant sciences, photosynthesis, genetics and others.

The human factor

In its early days, the Daniel Sieff Research Institute had a scientific staff of no more than a dozen, working under the guidance of Dr. Weizmann. There are around 2,700 people working at the Institute. Of these, 250 are professors and heads of research teams (of whom approximately 100 were born in Israel; the rest have come to Israel and to the Institute from 28 countries: Afghanistan, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Germany, France, Hungary, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, South Africa, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States and Uruguay). Another 1,000 have doctoral degrees, or are members of the engineering or technical staff. Around 1,100 are graduate students and 400 are administrative staff.

Each year, around 500 scientists from dozens of countries around the globe visit the Weizmann Institute or come to work on its campus. And each year, approximately 25 international scientific conferences take place at the Institute.

Budget

The Weizmann Institute’s annual operating budget stands at approximately NIS 1 billion. An allocation from the government of Israel covers about one-quarter of the budget; the rest is provided by research grants, donations and royalties.

Technology transfer

Yeda Research and Development Company Ltd., which promotes the industrial applications stemming from Weizmann Institute inventions, was founded in

1959. Since then, it has been involved in registering some 1,400 families of patents. Since 1973, Yeda has signed 169 agreements with Israeli companies on the use of various Institute patents and established 42 companies (21 of them since 2000).

The campus

The Weizmann Institute is located in the town of Rehovot, 22 kilometers south of Tel Aviv and 42 kilometers west of Jerusalem.

The Institute campus, covering an area of some 1.1 sq km (280 acres), includes more than 100 buildings with a total area of 155,000 sq m (38 acres), as well as some 100 housing units for scientists. Approximately 120 research students live in dormitories on campus.