As Israel marks its 50th year, Institute Prof. Israel Dostrovsky will be celebrating his 80th birthday. His multifaceted career, which earned him the 1995 Israel Prize, in many ways parallels the history of the nation and of the Weizmann Institute. Along the way, he has chalked up a lifetime of achievements, contributing to the creation of Israel's scientific infrastructure and national growth, while addressing some of the country's most urgent needs.
Dostrovsky represents a generation of pioneering Weizmann Institute scientists who put Israeli science on the world map. These pathfinders took the lead, serving the budding State's goals and keeping Israel at the forefront of academic research.
"The complete freedom we were afforded set the tone for the Institute's development: that readiness to accept and take risks, to get involved in things that were new, were what I think typified the Institute during its formative years," Dostrovsky recalls.
"Everything was open then, we were young, this was a pioneering country, and we were challenged to use to the fullest whatever gifts we had."
The Founding Generation
Among those who took up the challenge were Chaim Pekeris, who headed the team that created Israel's first computer -- one of the first anywhere -- in the early 1950s; Ephraim Katzir, who founded the Biophysics Department and served as Israel's fourth President; his brother, Aharon, a world renowned biophysicist who was gunned down by terrorists at the national airport in 1972; Isaac Berenblum, who established Israel's first cancer research department; Gerhard Schmidt, who brought Israel the most up-to-date capabilities in X-ray crystallography; Joseph Jaffe, who introduced the latest techniques in spectroscopy and created a market for spectrographic instruments that formed the basis for Israel's first hi-tech industries; and Joseph Gillis, a mathematician and cryptologist who had helped Britain break the Enigma code during World War II and aided Israel in the War of Independence.
"The mere fact that people worked here on relevant problems put us on the scientific map abroad and contributed to the State," Dostrovsky says. "We made a swift transition from an insignificant new country to a developed state."
A Helpful Familiarity
Dostrovsky's involvement with the fate of the nation started early. As a 13-year-old upstart science whiz, he volunteered as a signaler for the Haganah, the corps that was later to become the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), clambering up mountains to send military messages across the country with light-reflecting mirrors (a harbinger of his later interest in solar mirrors). Soon he and a group of fellow high-school students from the Jerusalem Gymnasia engineered a home-made wireless transmitter network that he ran out of his Jerusalem home.
"That's how we first got to know all those who later became leaders of the IDF and of the country," says Dostrovsky, who thus met David Ben-Gurion, Moshe Sharett, Ezer Weizman, Shimon Peres, and many other figures prominent in Israel's development. That familiarity was helpful after the establishment of the new State.
"You could pick up a telephone and call the Prime Minister to discuss problems," he says. "It was all on a first-name basis. They would call us too and say: "We have a problem. Can you do something about it? "
From Kibbutznik to Scientist
Dostrovsky also belonged to a pioneering youth movement which prepared and trained its members for life in a kibbutz. His particular group was assigned to establish Kibbutz Maoz Haim in the Beit Shean valley. "However, it was obvious to my friends that I was really a scientist and would be more useful to the country as such, so they said, "It's better for all of us if you go to study, " he recalls.
So the would-be kibbutznik went off to study in London, where he earned a Ph.D. in physical chemistry at University College, and then lectured in chemistry in North Wales. In April, 1948, he returned to Israel, to Rehovot, to found the Isotope Research Department on campus, and was immediately called up to put his abilities to use as an officer in the army's Science Corps.
Dostrovsky was put in command of a collection of scientists from various disciplines and a supporting staff suitable for both field and laboratory work. Their mission was to determine the mineral potential of the Negev, at that time a rather unknown territory, particularly with respect to strategic materials. The field operations consisted mainly of mapping, physical sampling, and on-site measurements. Sometimes it was necessary to set up exploration bases for many months in the desert. All this was backed up by extensive laboratory work at the Weizmann Institute, including various experiments aimed at determining the feasibility of extracting the materials of interest from the different ores. Among their discoveries were the substantial phosphate deposits which today are the basis of one of Israel's largest industries.
Isotope Experts
Meanwhile, under Dostrovsky's direction, scientists in the fledgling Isotope Research Department were applying their talents to studying methods for separating isotopes, varieties of an element that differ from it only in the weight of their atoms. Separated isotopes are of interest as markers to trace the paths of reactions in medicine, industry and research. The researchers soon developed techniques for the separation of isotopes of hydrogen and of oxygen.
In the late '40s, a plant was established on campus for isotope separation, and the Department's oxygen-17 and oxygen-18 enriched isotopes became export items which earned the Weizmann Institute several million dollars and supplied a large portion of world demand for many years. In fact, the Yeda Research and Development Co. Ltd. was established at the Institute in 1959 to market these unique products, and later went on to deal with the commercialization of numerous other Weizmann Institute projects.
Under Dostrovsky, the Isotope Research Department became a world leader in its field. Several of his students from that period followed in his pioneering footsteps, establishing new research areas at the Institute. Brain research, energy and environmental research, magnetic resonance imaging and scientific archeology are indirect outgrowths of Dostrovsky's initial work with isotopes.
The Hopes For Nuclear Energy
Isotope separation is also of major importance in the field of nuclear energy. The Isotope Research Department's expertise in this area earned it an international reputation and gained Israel entry into the nuclear energy community. When the Israel Atomic Energy Commission was established in 1953, the Department?s experience and results were put at its disposal, and Dostrovsky became a member of this body and its first director of research.
In the late '50s, high hopes were pinned on nuclear power as a prime source of energy, and as the main alternative to fossil fuels when they run out. Many international conferences were held in this field, some under the title "Atoms for Peace," and Dostrovsky participated in all of them as a representative of Israel. He closely followed developments in nuclear energy through his position as Director General of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission (1963-1971) and through his membership in the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Israel Atomic Energy Association (1973-1981).
Parallel to his wide-ranging scientific interests, Dostrovsky also served in a different sphere. In 1971 he was appointed Vice President of the Weizmann Institute, and shortly after the 1973 Yom Kippur War, he was named President.
Providing Desalination Know-How
With national needs ever paramount, Dostrovsky now turned his attention to the subject of water, crucial to Israel and the region. Technologies for desalinating sea water were being successfully developed in Israel and other countries. The key to their economic viability was a cheap source of energy. Naturally, therefore, nuclear energy was considered early on for this application. A special committee was established to study and guide research and development in desalination and Dostrovsky was appointed its chairman.
"Perhaps the most ambitious plan we had in the '60s was a joint project with the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission to establish a dual-purpose (i.e. electricity plus desalination) plant of some 300-megawatt capacity in Israel," he recalls. "We were to provide the desalination know-how and the Americans the nuclear part."
This cooperative project proceeded well and a demonstration desalination unit powered by a conventional energy source was built at the Ashdod power station. But in the meantime the retreat from nuclear energy had begun, and so in the early 1970s the project was scrapped.
Turning to Solar Energy
The global disillusionment with nuclear energy spurred Dostrovsky on to new avenues of endeavor. "Until then it was assumed that the widespread introduction of nuclear energy to replace fossil sources was just a matter of economic and administrative decisions," he explains. "After much thought and study I came to the conclusion that on the time scale relevant to Israel, solar energy is almost the only 'immediately' available alternative. Certainly for us here, but under certain conditions also on a global scale."
Once again Dostrovsky took the lead, developing solar research capabilities at the Weizmann Institute and "preaching" solar energy's merits."
The Institute's research into the use of highly concentrated solar radiation dictated the establishment of facilities that enable us to advance in this particular area," he says.
In the 1980's he convinced the Weizmann Institute to invest in a multimillion dollar solar research installation, the Canadian Institute for the Energies and Applied Research, one of only three such facilities in the world. These days Dostrovsky is promoting the creation of a 50-megawatt solar energy plant, which Weizmann researchers are developing in tandem with private industry.
Back to Basics
Through the years, Dostrovsky maintained his interest in some basic aspects of nuclear reactions, in particular those involved with the origin of the sun's energy and that of all other stars.
A younger Israel Dostrovsky
"This is a very basic problem. Classify it as knowledge for knowledge's sake," he comments. In 1976, he joined first an American team, and then an international one, dedicated to testing one of the basic hypotheses of stellar energy production by nuclear fusion.
The experiment, named GALLEX, involves a very difficult measurement of the flux of neutrinos, fundamental particles of all matter that reach the earth from the core of the sun. The actual detector is located underground in a special laboratory in Italy's Gran Sasso region. The GALLEX cooperation involves Germany, France, Italy, the United States and Israel, represented by Dostrovsky and his team.
As he enters his ninth decade, Dostrovsky's irrepressible curiosity has spurred him to explore yet another avenue for providing safe, renewable energy. He has enlisted the experience and talents of a veteran colleague to delve into new ways of unleashing hydrogen as an energy source, using the Weizmann Institute's solar collectors.
"Specialization isn't good," he concludes, looking back at a lifetime of accomplishments. "The rate of change in science is so great that you have to be educated and have the nature to move with the times."
Prof. Dostrovsky holds the Agnes Spencer Chair of Physical Chemistry.
A longtime member of the Institute's Board of Governors, recipient of a Weizmann Institute honorary Ph.D. and a member of the Institute's Executive Council as well as its Executive Committee and Budget and Finance Committee, Yehuda Assia also plays a major role behind the scenes. In fact, the Iraqi-born banker and businessman, who celebrates his eightieth birthday this year, has single-handedly raised over $10 million for the Institute, bringing several major donors on board in addition to making contributions of his own.
Q: You arrived in Israel by a very circuitous route, didn't you?
Yehuda Assia: Yes, I guess you could say that. I was born in Baghdad, where my father was a textile importer. I worked with him until 1938, then decided to strike out on my own in the Far East. I first opened a trading company in Japan, then another trading business in Bangkok, where I lived during World War II. After the war, I moved to the United States. When the State of Israel was established in 1948, I decided the time had come to move here with my family.
Q: What did you do when you first came here?
Yehuda Assia: I had long thought of opening a bank, and in Israel I was able to realize my wish. We established the Geneva-based Swiss-Israel Trade Bank, through a 50-50 partnership between the Israeli government and a group I headed. During the 1950s and '60s, the bank was very involved in building Israel's economy. We lent hundreds of millions of dollars to some of the most important emerging enterprises and institutions -- among them the Citrus Marketing Board, Zim shipping lines, El Al, Mekorot [the water company -- Ed.], the Jewish Agency, Solel Boneh, the Defense Ministry and the Weizmann Institute, to name just a few. Later I became a partner in the Africa-Israel Corporation, and one of the founders of Clal [One of Israel's major holding companies -- Ed.].
Yehuda Assia. Honorary Ph.D.
Q: How did you become involved with the Weizmann Institute?
Yehuda Assia: In 1954, I was introduced to Meyer Weisgal [Chaim Weizmann's close associate and the driving force behind the Weizmann Institute's early development -- Ed.]. I liked him and I fell in love with the Weizmann Institute. Ever since, the Institute has been a hobby of mine. I have helped negotiate bank loans for it when necessary. I also helped mobilize the funds to publish 12,000 of Chaim Weizmann's letters and papers. They were collected in 23 volumes and published by Oxford University Press.
Q: We understand you helped prevent a brain drain in the late 1960s. What was your role?
Yehuda Assia: Yes, salaries were very low in the academic sector at the time. I told the Finance Minister, Pinhas Sapir, "We have to do something, or we will lose these scientists." In 1967, I headed a committee appointed to study the issue of salaries, housing, pensions and so on. We proposed a program of non-linked low-interest loans to help the professors purchase homes or make investments to supplement their income, and this proposal was approved by the Finance Minister and the tax authorities. These measures helped solve the problem.
Q: In all your public activities, education and culture seem to have been your overriding concerns.
Yehuda Assia: Yes, I'm very proud of the Iraqi Jews Scholarship Fund, which I co-founded in 1951. We have given some 18,000 scholarships over the years, and we provide after-school tutoring and have built six computer centers for youngsters in distressed neighborhoods. My proudest moments are when I see things develop. One day at one of the computer centers, I was watching a 10-year-old boy. You should have seen his face when he got the correct answer and the screen said "Yofi!" [beautiful! -- Ed.]. I asked him, "Are you happy?" and he said, "If not for you, we would have been on the streets." This is what gives me the greatest satisfaction. In this connection, I've long admired the Weizmann Institute for its leading role in raising the level of science education in Israel. I've always felt that since we have no raw materials in Israel, the only way to survive is through our brains.
The newest bead in a "magnificent string of pearls" is how former Max Planck Society President Prof. Hans Zacher described the Gerhard M.J. Schmidt Minerva Center for Supramolecular Architectures at its inauguration during the Weizmann Institute Board of Governors meeting last November.
The new Center, headed by Prof. Meir Lahav of the Materials and Interfaces Department, will promote the study of new materials at Weizmann and enhance contacts with Max Planck Institutes in Mainz and Teltow and with the University of Mainz. Its establishment represents the latest milestone in the ongoing cooperation between Germany's research establishment and the Weizmann Institute.
This collaboration, which originated in the late 1950s, led to the historic 1964 agreement whereby the Minerva Foundation for Research, a subsidiary of the Max Planck Society, channeled funds provided by the German government to Weizmann Institute research projects, thus fostering a wide range of scientific exchanges between the Institute and the Max Planck Society. These ties helped lay the foundation not only for German-Israeli scientific cooperation, but also for the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries one year later.
"The attempt to bridge the gap resulting from the most dreadful chapter in German-Jewish history and to re-establish the extremely fruitful cooperation in science as it existed before 1933 was the initial impetus for Minerva's undertakings," says Dr. Dietmar Nickel, Minerva Foundation co-Director General, who last year opened an office in Israel, where he is now based. "This effort, based on good-will on both sides, has been surprisingly successful."
The Foundation's activities have constantly grown in scope and now encompass diverse academic institutions throughout Israel. At the Weizmann Institute, it has supported numerous research projects and helped establish eight research centers.
Some 1,000 German scientists have visited the Institute since the late 1950s, while close to the same number of Weizmann researchers have spent time at German institutes. Many of these visits have taken place within the framework of the annual Gentner Symposia, which honor the memory of Prof. Wolfgang Gentner, the outstanding physicist who set the program in motion.
While Minerva remains the bedrock of the cooperation, other bodies have played a major role in promoting collaborative studies. These include the German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development (GIF), which annually funds some 40 Weizmann-German projects, and the German Ministry of Science, which funds around 20 such projects each year. In many cases, such as with Minerva Center endowments and GIF grants, matching funding is provided by the Israeli government or the Weizmann Institute. Private German foundations, notably the Minna James Heineman, Volkswagenwerk, Thyssen and Schilling foundations, also support Weizmann studies, as do German industrial concerns such as Bosch and Bayer.
The combination of ideas and talents stemming from this collaboration has led to a remarkable assortment of achievements across the spectrum of modern science.
New scientists, standing (l-r): Drs. Ari Elson and Doron Ginsberg; sitting (l-r) Drs. Avi Karni, Gideon Grafi, Prof. Alexander Girshovich and Dr. Irit Sagi
Dr. Ari Elson Molecular Genetics Department
Major Research Area: The role of a class of enzymes known as tyrosine phosphatases in transforming benign cells into cancerous ones.
A graduate of the Institute's Feinberg Graduate School, Elson did his postdoctoral training at Harvard University before returning to the Weizmann Institute.
Dr. Doron Ginsberg Molecular Cell Biology Department
Major Research Area: The role of a gene-decoding protein, which he discovered, in regulating gene expression, cell cycle progression and cancer development.
Following studies at the Institute's Feinberg Graduate School, Ginsberg did research at the Harvard Medical School and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
Prof. Alexander Girshovich Biochemistry Department
Major Research Area: Molecular "chaperones," a special group of proteins that help other proteins fold up into forms that are biologically active.
A graduate of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in Moscow, Girshovich worked at the Academy's Institute of Protein Research for 20 years -- including an 11-year stint as Professor and Laboratory Head -- until his appointment to a professorship at the Weizmann Institute.
Dr. Gideon Grafi Plant Genetics Department
Major Research Area: Molecular mechanisms that regulate the life cycle of plant cells, and molecular similarities between plant diseases and human diseases.
Grafi completed his doctoral studies in the Agriculture Faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He went on to do postdoctoral work at the Weizmann Institute and the University of Arizona before joining the Weizmann Institute.
Dr. Avi Karni Neurobiology Department
Major Research Area: Changes that occur in the brains of adults during processes underlying learning and memory.
Karni received an M.D. from Tel Aviv University and was trained in neurology at the Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv before setting out on a career in neurobiological research. He did his doctoralwork at the Weizmann Institute, and his postdoctoral research at the National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland.
Dr. Jan M.L. (Gershom) Martin Organic Chemistry Department
Major Research Area: Computational chemistry: prediction of chemical properties of molecules by computer simulation, with applications to industrial organic chemistry.
Born and raised in Belgium, Martin did his graduate studies at the University of Antwerp. He was a postdoctoral fellow and then a senior research associate at the National Science Foundation of
Belgium before taking up his Weizmann Institute position.
Dr. Irit Sagi Structural Biology Department
Major Research Area: Dynamic structural changes in proteins and the interaction of proteins with the genetic material of cells -- studies performed by means of X-ray spectroscopy.
Born in Israel, Sagi acquired her academic education in the United States, receiving her graduate degrees from Georgetown University. Her return to Israel as a postdoctoral fellow at the Weizmann Institute was followed by a stint at the Max Planck Institute in Hamburg, after which she joined the Weizmann staff.
A host of Nobel prize winners from around the world gathered in Israel in May to celebrate the 80th birthday of Institute Professor Ephraim Katzir, a pillar of the Weizmann Institute of Science and a former President of Israel.
The Nobel laureates included Prof. Paul Berg, U.S. (winner of the 1980 prize in chemistry), Prof. Manfred Eigen, Germany (1967, Chemistry), Prof. Edmond Fischer, U.S. (1992, Medicine), Prof. Arthur Kornberg, U.S. (1959, Medicine), and Prof. Max Perutz, U.K. (1962, Chemistry).
They attended a four-day conference on molecular biology and biotechnology in honor of Katzir, who founded the Institute's Biophysics Department and whose seminal work on synthetic protein models increased today's understanding of biology, chemistry and physics, and revolutionized several industries and branches of medical research.
"He was an incredible teacher: friendly, inspiring, patient, thorough and always stimulating," recalled his former student and long-time colleague, past Institute President Prof. Michael Sela, in his speech opening the conference.
"Looking back with the perspective of 45 years, I realize that the difference in our ages was not really tremendous, but I was always the pupil; he will be for me forever the mentor."
Ephraim Katchalski (he changed his name to Katzir when he became President in 1973) was born in Kiev on May 16, 1916, and was six when his family moved to British-ruled Palestine. Like his hero Dr. Chaim Weizmann -- the distinguished chemist who founded the Institute in 1934 and became Israel's first President in 1948 -- he combined a love of science with a strong desire to contribute to his country.
He and his scientist brother, Aharon, joined the Institute in 1948 at Dr. Weizmann's invitation. Ephraim founded and headed the Biophysics Department, while Aharon headed the Polymer Research Department until his tragic death at the hands of terrorists in 1972.
Katzir's pioneering work on polyamino acids has won him international recognition, including election to the American National Academy of Sciences and the British Royal Society (of which he is the only living Israeli member) and, in 1985, the prestigious Japan Prize. The synthesis of polyamino acids had a major impact, leading to a greater understanding of the structure of proteins, to the cracking of the genetic code, to the production of synthetic antigens and to clarification of the various steps of immune responses.
Another major success was in immobilizing enzymes. Katzir's findings have gone on to revolutionize several industries, including food (where immobilized enzymes are used to produce fructose-enriched corn syrup) and pharmaceuticals (where they are used to produce penicillins).
Katzir became Israel's fourth President at the urging of then Prime Minister Golda Meir. While it was a decision he has never regretted, when the five-year term ended he was happy to return to the Weizmann Institute, where he still lives and, at 80, pursues research actively, even launching into new fields. Katzir continues to focus on protein molecules, with particular emphasis on biological specificity -- the process by which substances such as hormones act only on their specific targets and not on other parts of the body. He is also active in the Biotechnology Department he founded at Tel Aviv University, and in science and technology education, spending hours with students.
Earlier this year, Katzir led a team of Institute scientists which won an international contest to determine how two large, complex protein molecules would fit together in nature -- a task akin to solving a three-dimensional puzzle blindfolded. Out of six research groups offering 50 predictions, Katzir's team came closest to the actual structure.
"I have had the opportunity to devote much of my life to science," Katzir said in the magazine Annual Reviews recently. "Yet my participation over the years in activities outside science has taught me there is life beyond the laboratory. I have come to understand that if we hope to build a better world, we must be guided by the universal human values that emphasize the kinship of the human race: the sanctity of human life and freedom, peace between nations, honesty and truthfulness, regard for the rights of others, and love of one's fellows."
Moroccan physicists Prof. Mohammed Saber (left) and Prof. El Hassane Saidi at the Weizmann Institute's K.B. Weissmann Institute of Physical Sciences
Weizmann Institute experts in tumor and molecular genetics - Profs. Yoram Groner, David Yaffe and Doron Lancet and Dr. Orly Reiner - recently visited the Moroccan town of Essaouira (Mogador), where they participated in a conference on genetic diseases that marked the dedication of the Ibn Maimon International Institute of Science. (Ibn Maimon is the Arabic name of Maimonides, the Jewish philosopher and physician who wrote several medical books, including an important work on hygiene.) Also taking part in the meeting were scientists and public figures from Cyprus, France, Morocco, Tunisia and the United States.
Heading in the opposite direction were two Moroccan physicists, Prof. El Hassane Saidi of the Mohammed V University in Rabat and Prof. Mohammed Saber of the Moulay Ismail University in Meknes. Among the first Moroccan scientists to visit Israel, they came to the Institute at the invitation of Weizmann physicists whom they met at a scientific meeting in Dahab, Egypt. "I wish more people in the Arab world knew what Israel is really like," commented Saber. "I'm sure that would benefit relations between our countries."
Earlier this decade, when waves of immigrants from the former Soviet Union, many of them skilled professionals, began flooding Israel, the Weizmann Institute quickly tapped into this gold mine of talent. It now employs 60 recent arrivals, including seven professors.
The new arrivals have made their mark in a wide variety of areas. For instance, Prof. Victor Katsnelson has solved several major problems in the mathematical field known as approximation theory; Prof. Mark Safro has determined the three-dimensional structure of an enzyme that plays a crucial role in protein biosynthesis; Prof. Michael Solomyak has made a significant contribution to the spectral theory of differential operators, a branch of mathematics closely related to physics; and Prof. Vladimir Usov has provided valuable insights into the origin of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays.
In some cases, joining the Institute has been a family affair. Prominent physicist Prof. Alexander Finkelstein, who has made important contributions to the physics of submicron systems, is now a member of the Condensed Matter Physics Department, where his eldest son Gleb is studying for his Ph.D. And Dr. Gregory Falkovich, from the Nuclear Physics Institute in Novosibirsk, has been a member of the Physics of Complex Systems Department since 1990, while his wife Alla graduated from the Feinberg Graduate School in 1993 and now works as a biochemist in a pharmaceutical company.
"We were extremely fortunate to wind up here, because the Institute made it possible for us to concentrate purely on science and not worry about the kinds of problems new immigrants ordinarily face," Falkovich said.
The Institute has also been instrumental in facilitating the absorption of immigrant scientists elsewhere in Israel. Several dozen recently arrived Soviet mathematicians have passed a course given by the Institute's Youth Activities Section, in which they were trained to teach their subject in Israeli schools. The section has also set up Russian language computer courses for teenage immigrants.
Some 80 percent of the scientists at the Kiryat Weizmann Incubator for Technological Entrepreneurship, adjacent to the Weizmann Institute and established with its help, are new immigrants. Some of them have already developed prizewinning products and processes, including brothers Drs. Roman and Simon Feldberg, who won an Industry and Trade Ministry Prize for designing a device to detect bacteria in pasteurized milk, and Dr. Klara Vinokur, who received the 1995 Excellence Award given to an outstanding Incubator project, for producing improved liquid crystals.
"Weizmann has been contributing to the vital process of absorbing immigrants while simultaneously enriching its own human resources," said Prof. Ruth Arnon, the Institute's Vice President of Institute Scientific Relations. "Israel, the Institute and the immigrants themselves have all come out ahead."
Home-grown talent. Ramat Gan-born Haim Tsubery (M. Sc. in Organic Chemistry) with his wife, Merav and son, Nadav. Tsubery is one of this year's 169 Feinberg Graduate School degree recipients
More doctoral degrees than ever before were conferred by the Institute's Feinberg Graduate School this year. Eighty-seven Ph.D.'s were awarded -- the highest number since the graduate school was founded in 1958 -- as well as a large number of M.Sc. degrees. Seventeen of the M.Sc.'s and 13 of the Ph.D.'s went to graduates from the former Soveit Union, a result of the school's recent expansion to accomodate promising immigrant students. Reflecting the School's international ethos (nearly 15 percent of the student body hail from abroad), this year's degree recipients included graduates from Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Korea, People's Republic of China, Poland, Romania, South Africa, Taiwan, United Kingdom and the United States.
In a recent interview, Prof. Samuel Safran, Dean of the Feinberg Graduate School, commented: "The presence of foreign students is highly beneficial for the Israelis on campus. Students are an excellent medium for international collaborative projects, and they bring with them fresh viewpoints and research methods particular to their countries.
New Scientists: Drs. Doron Ginsberg (left) and Ari Elson;
Interface introduces it readers to some of the newest additions to the Institute staff.
Dr. Ari Elson Molecular Genetics Department Major Research Area: The role of a class of enzymes known as tyrosine phosphatases in transforming benign cells into cancerous ones. A graduate of the Institute's Feinberg Graduate School, Elson did his postdoctoral training at Harvard University before returning to the Weizmann Institute.
Dr. Doron Ginsberg Molecular Cell Biology Department Major Research Area: The role of a gene-decoding protein, which he discovered, in regulating gene expression, cell cycle progression and cancer development. Following studies at the Institute's Feinberg Graduate School, Ginsberg did research at the Harvard Medical School and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
Prof. Alexander Girshovich Biochemistry Department Major Research Area: Molecular "chaperones," a special group of proteins that help other proteins fold up into forms that are biologically active. A graduate of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in Moscow, Girshovich worked at the Academy's Institute of Protein Research for 20 years ? including an 11-year stint as Professor and Laboratory Head ? until his appointment to a professorship at the Weizmann Institute.
Dr. Gideon Grafi Plant Genetics Department Major Research Area: Molecular mechanisms that regulate the life cycle of plant cells, and molecular similarities between plant diseases and human diseases. Grafi completed his doctoral studies in the Agriculture Faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He went on to do postdoctoral work at the Weizmann Institute and the University of Arizona before joining the Weizmann Institute.
Dr. Avi Karni Neurobiology Department Major Research Area: Changes that occur in the brains of adults during processes underlying learning and memory. Karni received an M.D. from Tel Aviv University and was trained in neurology at the Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv before setting out on a career in neurobiological research. He did his doctoral work at the Weizmann Institute, and his postdoctoral research at the National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland.
Dr. Jan M.L. (Gershom) Martin Organic Chemistry Department Major Research Area: Computational chemistry: prediction of chemical properties of molecules by computer simulation, with applications to industrial organic chemistry.
Born and raised in Belgium, Martin did his graduate studies at the University of Antwerp. He was a postdoctoral fellow and then a senior research associate at the National Science Foundation of Belgium before taking up his Weizmann Institute position.
Dr. Irit Sagi Structural Biology Department Major Research Area: Dynamic structural changes in proteins and the interaction of proteins with the genetic material of cells ? studies performed by means of X-ray spectroscopy.
Born in Israel, Sagi acquired her academic education in the United States, receiving her graduate degrees from Georgetown University. Her return to Israel as a postdoctoral fellow at the Weizmann Institute was followed by a stint at the Max Planck Institute in Hamburg, after which she joined the Weizmann staff.
When Dr. Klara Vinokur came to Israel four years ago, after leaving her post as a physicist with the Georgian Academy of Sciences, people told her she'd never make it in an all-male field where thousands of immigrant scientists were competing for a handful of jobs. Today she has every reason to thumb her nose at the skeptics -- thanks to the Kiryat Weizmann Incubator for Technological Entrepreneurship, established on the initiative of the Weizmann Institute and Africa Israel Investments Ltd.
Vinokur is the senior researcher at Fabia Engineering Ltd., a company created in the Incubator to develop her idea for making innovative liquid crystals -- important components of watches, computers and other electronic devices -- that are 1,000 times faster than existing ones and are unique in possessing a memory.
Recently, Vinokur's success was crowned at a ceremony in the Jerusalem residence of President Ezer Weizman, where she received the 1995 Excellence Award for an outstanding incubator project. The occasion marked the fourth anniversary of the technological incubators program, an idea first conceived at the Weizmann Institute with the help of Africa Israel Investments Ltd. The nationwide program is run by the Chief Scientist's Office of the Israel Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Today the non-profit incubator program, of which Vinokur's enterprise is but one example, is a success story in its own right, meeting its goal of helping immigrant and Israeli entrepreneurs bring their ideas from lab to life. Of the 149 projects "hatched" by the country's 28 incubators up to May 1995, 70 percent are functioning independently, thanks to private investments or profits from sales. In contrast, only 20 percent of high-tech start-ups worldwide generally survive the two-year milestone.
While major funding for the Kiryat Weizmann Incubator is provided by the Chief Scientist's Office, the Incubator is also supported by the Weizmann Institute (via Yeda Research and Development Company, which deals with commercialization of Institute research), by Africa Israel Investments Ltd., and, more recently by the Discount Investment Corporation Ltd, and PEC Israel Economic Corporation, both members of the IDB Group.
The Incubator's Board of Directors is headed by Weizmann Institute Vice President for International Scientific Relations Prof. Ruth Arnon, who holds the Paul Ehrlich Chair of Immunology.
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Moving With the Times
Prof. Israel Dostrovsky
As Israel marks its 50th year, Institute Prof. Israel Dostrovsky will be celebrating his 80th birthday. His multifaceted career, which earned him the 1995 Israel Prize, in many ways parallels the history of the nation and of the Weizmann Institute. Along the way, he has chalked up a lifetime of achievements, contributing to the creation of Israel's scientific infrastructure and national growth, while addressing some of the country's most urgent needs.
"The complete freedom we were afforded set the tone for the Institute's development: that readiness to accept and take risks, to get involved in things that were new, were what I think typified the Institute during its formative years," Dostrovsky recalls.
"Everything was open then, we were young, this was a pioneering country, and we were challenged to use to the fullest whatever gifts we had."
The Founding Generation
Among those who took up the challenge were Chaim Pekeris, who headed the team that created Israel's first computer -- one of the first anywhere -- in the early 1950s; Ephraim Katzir, who founded the Biophysics Department and served as Israel's fourth President; his brother, Aharon, a world renowned biophysicist who was gunned down by terrorists at the national airport in 1972; Isaac Berenblum, who established Israel's first cancer research department; Gerhard Schmidt, who brought Israel the most up-to-date capabilities in X-ray crystallography; Joseph Jaffe, who introduced the latest techniques in spectroscopy and created a market for spectrographic instruments that formed the basis for Israel's first hi-tech industries; and Joseph Gillis, a mathematician and cryptologist who had helped Britain break the Enigma code during World War II and aided Israel in the War of Independence.
"The mere fact that people worked here on relevant problems put us on the scientific map abroad and contributed to the State," Dostrovsky says. "We made a swift transition from an insignificant new country to a developed state."
"That's how we first got to know all those who later became leaders of the IDF and of the country," says Dostrovsky, who thus met David Ben-Gurion, Moshe Sharett, Ezer Weizman, Shimon Peres, and many other figures prominent in Israel's development. That familiarity was helpful after the establishment of the new State.
"You could pick up a telephone and call the Prime Minister to discuss problems," he says. "It was all on a first-name basis. They would call us too and say: "We have a problem. Can you do something about it? "
From Kibbutznik to Scientist
Dostrovsky also belonged to a pioneering youth movement which prepared and trained its members for life in a kibbutz. His particular group was assigned to establish Kibbutz Maoz Haim in the Beit Shean valley. "However, it was obvious to my friends that I was really a scientist and would be more useful to the country as such, so they said, "It's better for all of us if you go to study, " he recalls.
So the would-be kibbutznik went off to study in London, where he earned a Ph.D. in physical chemistry at University College, and then lectured in chemistry in North Wales. In April, 1948, he returned to Israel, to Rehovot, to found the Isotope Research Department on campus, and was immediately called up to put his abilities to use as an officer in the army's Science Corps.
Dostrovsky was put in command of a collection of scientists from various disciplines and a supporting staff suitable for both field and laboratory work. Their mission was to determine the mineral potential of the Negev, at that time a rather unknown territory, particularly with respect to strategic materials. The field operations consisted mainly of mapping, physical sampling, and on-site measurements. Sometimes it was necessary to set up exploration bases for many months in the desert. All this was backed up by extensive laboratory work at the Weizmann Institute, including various experiments aimed at determining the feasibility of extracting the materials of interest from the different ores. Among their discoveries were the substantial phosphate deposits which today are the basis of one of Israel's largest industries.
Isotope Experts
Meanwhile, under Dostrovsky's direction, scientists in the fledgling Isotope Research Department were applying their talents to studying methods for separating isotopes, varieties of an element that differ from it only in the weight of their atoms. Separated isotopes are of interest as markers to trace the paths of reactions in medicine, industry and research. The researchers soon developed techniques for the separation of isotopes of hydrogen and of oxygen.
In the late '40s, a plant was established on campus for isotope separation, and the Department's oxygen-17 and oxygen-18 enriched isotopes became export items which earned the Weizmann Institute several million dollars and supplied a large portion of world demand for many years. In fact, the Yeda Research and Development Co. Ltd. was established at the Institute in 1959 to market these unique products, and later went on to deal with the commercialization of numerous other Weizmann Institute projects.
Under Dostrovsky, the Isotope Research Department became a world leader in its field. Several of his students from that period followed in his pioneering footsteps, establishing new research areas at the Institute. Brain research, energy and environmental research, magnetic resonance imaging and scientific archeology are indirect outgrowths of Dostrovsky's initial work with isotopes.
The Hopes For Nuclear Energy
Isotope separation is also of major importance in the field of nuclear energy. The Isotope Research Department's expertise in this area earned it an international reputation and gained Israel entry into the nuclear energy community. When the Israel Atomic Energy Commission was established in 1953, the Department?s experience and results were put at its disposal, and Dostrovsky became a member of this body and its first director of research.
In the late '50s, high hopes were pinned on nuclear power as a prime source of energy, and as the main alternative to fossil fuels when they run out. Many international conferences were held in this field, some under the title "Atoms for Peace," and Dostrovsky participated in all of them as a representative of Israel. He closely followed developments in nuclear energy through his position as Director General of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission (1963-1971) and through his membership in the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Israel Atomic Energy Association (1973-1981).
Parallel to his wide-ranging scientific interests, Dostrovsky also served in a different sphere. In 1971 he was appointed Vice President of the Weizmann Institute, and shortly after the 1973 Yom Kippur War, he was named President.
Providing Desalination Know-How
With national needs ever paramount, Dostrovsky now turned his attention to the subject of water, crucial to Israel and the region. Technologies for desalinating sea water were being successfully developed in Israel and other countries. The key to their economic viability was a cheap source of energy. Naturally, therefore, nuclear energy was considered early on for this application. A special committee was established to study and guide research and development in desalination and Dostrovsky was appointed its chairman.
"Perhaps the most ambitious plan we had in the '60s was a joint project with the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission to establish a dual-purpose (i.e. electricity plus desalination) plant of some 300-megawatt capacity in Israel," he recalls. "We were to provide the desalination know-how and the Americans the nuclear part."
This cooperative project proceeded well and a demonstration desalination unit powered by a conventional energy source was built at the Ashdod power station. But in the meantime the retreat from nuclear energy had begun, and so in the early 1970s the project was scrapped.
Turning to Solar Energy
The global disillusionment with nuclear energy spurred Dostrovsky on to new avenues of endeavor. "Until then it was assumed that the widespread introduction of nuclear energy to replace fossil sources was just a matter of economic and administrative decisions," he explains. "After much thought and study I came to the conclusion that on the time scale relevant to Israel, solar energy is almost the only 'immediately' available alternative. Certainly for us here, but under certain conditions also on a global scale."
Once again Dostrovsky took the lead, developing solar research capabilities at the Weizmann Institute and "preaching" solar energy's merits."
The Institute's research into the use of highly concentrated solar radiation dictated the establishment of facilities that enable us to advance in this particular area," he says.
In the 1980's he convinced the Weizmann Institute to invest in a multimillion dollar solar research installation, the Canadian Institute for the Energies and Applied Research, one of only three such facilities in the world.
These days Dostrovsky is promoting the creation of a 50-megawatt solar energy plant, which Weizmann researchers are developing in tandem with private industry.
Back to Basics
Through the years, Dostrovsky maintained his interest in some basic aspects of nuclear reactions, in particular those involved with the origin of the sun's energy and that of all other stars.
The experiment, named GALLEX, involves a very difficult measurement of the flux of neutrinos, fundamental particles of all matter that reach the earth from the core of the sun. The actual detector is located underground in a special laboratory in Italy's Gran Sasso region. The GALLEX cooperation involves Germany, France, Italy, the United States and Israel, represented by Dostrovsky and his team.
As he enters his ninth decade, Dostrovsky's irrepressible curiosity has spurred him to explore yet another avenue for providing safe, renewable energy. He has enlisted the experience and talents of a veteran colleague to delve into new ways of unleashing hydrogen as an energy source, using the Weizmann Institute's solar collectors.
"Specialization isn't good," he concludes, looking back at a lifetime of accomplishments. "The rate of change in science is so great that you have to be educated and have the nature to move with the times."
Prof. Dostrovsky holds the Agnes Spencer Chair of Physical Chemistry.