About Us
Founded in 1944, the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science develops philanthropic support for the Weizmann Institute in Israel, and advances its mission of science for the benefit of humanity.
The Midwest Region’s annual Gala Dinner took place at The Geraghty in Chicago with over 600 guests in attendance. Local civic and community leaders came together to honor Michael Polsky, Founder and CEO of Invenergy. A dedicated philanthropist and energy industry pioneer, Mr. Polsky received the Weizmann Leadership Award. The evening’s program, emceed by ABC 7 reporter Janet Davies, also consisted of presentations by University of Chicago President Robert Zimmer and Prof. Avigdor Scherz, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, who discussed his cutting-edge cancer research. Chaired by Janet and Steven Anixter and JoAnn Anixter Silva, the highly successful gala raised over $1.3 million in support of the Weizmann Institute.
In the second episode of Weizmann in Focus, CEO Dave Doneson discusses how the Institute’s plant scientists are tackling the challenge of global food security. These innovative researchers are figuring out how plants can better resist drought, provide higher-quality nutrition, and more. Dave spotlights a breakthrough by Prof. Jonathan Gressel, who discovered a method of killing a parasitic weed that was destroying corn crops in sub-Saharan Africa.
Catch a glimpse of one day in the life of the Weizmann Institute, where scientists and graduate students collaborate in a unique culture of curiosity. Meet some of the passionate researchers on campus who question, explore, and discover.
We invite you to watch Weizmann in Focus, a new video series featuring American Committee CEO Dave Doneson. In this inaugural episode, Dave introduces one of the Weizmann Institute’s newest initiatives: the Artificial Intelligence Center for Scientific Exploration. He then explains how Prof. Yaron Lipman’s recent AI breakthrough is improving health care for heart patients.
Four of the Institute’s newest recruits—Drs. Amir Abboud, Yaron Antebi, Noam Tal Hod, and Sergey Semenov—kick off this review of the Weizmann Institute’s phenomenal progress in 2018. They lead us into the David Lopatie Conference Centre, where we’re introduced to other new faculty members who came aboard this year: Drs. Moran Shalev-Benami, Naama Kanarek, Filipe Natalio, Serge Rosenblum, Sivan Refaely Abramson, Giora Alexandron, and Yael Kiro.
The Sparks of Science Program in Memory of Moshe Pergament offers talented Israeli-Ethiopian youth the guidance they need to pursue higher education in science and technology. An initiative of Weizmann’s Davidson Institute of Science Education since 2001, Sparks of Science provides students in grades 9-12 with extracurricular classes, a mentoring program, and courses in math and English. In this video, Weizmann MSc student and mentor Tzahi Gabzi and participant Mayan Desta give a behind-the-scenes look at this innovative program.
Each year since 1969, the Dr. Bessie F. Lawrence International Summer Science Institute (ISSI) has welcomed about 80 talented high school graduates from around the world to spend a month on the Weizmann Institute campus. Students conduct research alongside renowned Weizmann scientists, experience life in Israel, and form close bonds with one another. Here, participants discuss how the program has nurtured their passion for science. Alumna Prof. Yardena Samuels credits ISSI with solidifying her desire to become a scientist and to establish her own lab at the Weizmann Institute.
The Weizmann Institute’s Prof. Adi Shamir, along with Ron Rivest (the S and R in “RSA”) and an international panel of cryptographers, discuss the state of cryptography today.
April 18, 2018
The Davidson Institute of Science Education’s International Physics Tournament challenges teams of high school students from around the world to design impenetrable safes. Each spring, the teams travel to the Weizmann campus in Israel, where they compete to unlock one another’s safes by solving the underlying physics riddles. On March 20-21, 2018, six teams—hailing from the Atlanta Jewish Academy in Atlanta, GA; Bruriah High School in Elizabeth, NJ; Green Valley High School in Henderson, NV; the Gregory School in Tucson, AZ; the Emery/Weiner School in Houston, TX; and Rancho High School in Las Vegas, NV—represented the United States at the 23rd annual competition. The American students joined other teams from countries such as England, Argentina, Romania, Canada, and Angola.
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