Weizmann Wonder WanderScience news and culture

In 1949, on Dr. Chaim Weizmann’s 75th birthday, and with the blessing of the Sieff family, the Sieff Institute was renamed the Weizmann Institute of Science. The new Institute consisted of departments of mathematics, physics, chemistry and life sciences.

WEIZAC, one of the world’s earliest electronic computers was designed and built at the Weizmann Institute. On December 5, 2006, WEIZAC was recognized by the IEEE as a milestone in the history of electrical engineering and computing, and the team who built it was awarded the “WEIZAC Medal.”

The Feinberg Graduate School – the educational arm of the Weizmann Institute of Science – was founded in 1958. It awards MSc and PhD degrees and trains students for senior positions in academia, research, industry, education and administration.

PERACH (Hebrew for “Flower” as well as the acronym of "Tutoring Project"), currently administered by the Davidson Institute of Science Education, was initiated in 1972 by a handful of students from the Weizmann Institute of Science, who tutored children in need. Since then it has expanded enormously, both in scale and in the scope of its activities. Today, approximately 15% of all students in Israel's institutes of higher education and tens of thousands of children take part in the project each year. In 2008, on the occasion of Israel's 60th anniversary, PERACH was awarded the Israel Prize for its ongoing contribution to the state and to society.

A group of Weizmann Institute scientists participate in research proving the existence of gluons - the particles responsible for the strongest force in nature: the force which holds the nucleus of the atom together.

Profs Joel Sussman and Israel Silman discovered the molecular 3-D structure of the enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE), which breaks down acetylcholine, a substance involved in Alzheimer’s disease.

Weizmann Institute of Science’s Mathematician, the late Prof. Amir Pneuli, received the 1996 A.M. Turing Award - the world's most prestigious prize in computer science – for “seminal work introducing temporal logic into computing science and for outstanding contributions to program and system verification.” He is one of three members of the Weizmann Institute to receive the prestigious award; the others are Profs. Adi Shamir (2002) and Shafi Goldwasser (2013).

The Davidson Institute of Science Education – the educational arm of the Weizmann Institute of Science – was established in 1999. The Davidson Institute specializes in the field of mathematics, natural science and technology education, exploiting knowledge and experience gained from implementing a wide variety of programs in areas such as teachers’ training, science programs for school classes, unconventional programs for teens at risk and teens with low academic achievements and popular science programs for the general public.

3TP, a non-invasive, MRI-based diagnostic method developed by the Weizmann Institute’s Prof. Hadassa Degani, received FDA clearance for use in the detection of breast and prostate cancer.

A team of Weizmann scientists headed by Prof. Dan Tawfik succeeded in designing artificial enzymes that undergo “evolution” in a test tube, improving their reaction rates a million-fold.

A technique invented in 2009 by Prof. David Milstein and his group splits water into oxygen and hydrogen using light. In 2012, Milstein was awarded the Israel Prize for chemistry and physics for his work on catalysts that effect efficient, low-waste, green chemical reactions.

Prof. Shafi Goldwasser is awarded an A.M. Turing Award for “transformative work that laid the complexity-theoretic foundations for the science of cryptography.” She is the third member of the Weizmann Institute to receive the prestigious award; the others are the late Prof. Amir Pnueli (1996) and Prof. Adi Shamir (2002).