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Mr. Mandy Moross of London, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Weizmann Institute of Science, announced that the Institute's nominating committee has recommended to the Board of Governors that Prof. Daniel Zajfman be elected to the office of President of the Weizmann Institute.
The committee's recommendation comes at the end of a process that lasted a number of months. A presidential search committee, which included scientific and lay members of the Board of Governors in Israel and abroad, as well as additional faculty members from the Institute, unanimously selected Prof. Zajfman as its choice for president. Their recommendation was confirmed by the nominating committee of the Board of Governors headed by Mandy Moross. In accordance with the rules of the Institute, the election of the president will be approved by the full Board. Prof. Zajfman will serve as the tenth president of the Weizmann Institute, replacing the current president, Prof. Ilan Chet. Prof. Chet's term of office ends in December 2006.
Prof. Daniel Zajfman was born in Belgium in 1959 and moved to Israel in 1979. He received a B.Sc. in 1983 and a Ph.D. in 1989 from the Technion, in Haifa, in atomic physics. He then completed postdoctoral research at the Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago. In 1991, he returned to the Weizmann Institute as a senior scientist in the Particle Physics Department. In 1997, he was appointed associate professor and was promoted to full professor in 2003. Today, he serves as Head of the Physics Services Unit. Since 2001, he has been an external member of the Max Planck Institute of Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany, and in 2005 he was made a Director of this Max Planck Institute. In this capacity, he is currently overseeing a 4.5-million- euro project to construct an ion storage ring that will work at a temperature approaching absolute zero.
Prof. Zajfman's research focuses on the reaction dynamics of small molecules and how they influence the composition of the interstellar medium. He recreates the conditions of outer space in the lab using special devices called ion "traps" or "storage rings." In these devices, he is able to briefly store and measure the properties of small amounts of material, as little as a few hundred atoms or molecules worth, under the extreme conditions of interstellar space (especially very low temperatures and low densities). Some of his research has focused on the puzzle of how complex mole-cules are formed in outer space.
In addition to his research, Prof. Zajfman has invested much time and effort in community outreach - to the public in general and youth in particular. His goal is to broaden interest in and knowledge of the advances taking place on the scientific front.
Prof. Zajfman is married to Joelle, who has an M.Sc. in physics and works as a sculptor, and he is the father of Eyal (17) and Noga (15).
New Chairman for the Israeli Association of Friends
Shimshon Harel has recently been elected Chairman of the Board of the Association of Friends of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, after having been a member of that Board for the past 12 years. Former CEO of Bank Leumi Investments Co. Ltd. and deputy CEO of Africa-Israel Investments Co. Ltd., Harel is currently co-CEO of America-Israel Investments Co. Ltd., which specializes in real estate investments in Israel and abroad. He serves on the boards of governors of several industrial companies and is also a member of the Weizmann Institute's Board of Governors and of the Board's Audit Committee.
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