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.
Mar 03, 2013...
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—March 3, 2013—In honor of International Women's Day, the city of Barcelona will present the 27th Maria Aurèlia Capmany award on March 4 to the Weizmann Institute of Science for its commitment to advancing young women in science. A representative of the Institute will accept the prize at the Barcelona city hall from members of the city council section for Women and Civil Rights.
The Weizmann Institute was chosen for its national program for advancing women in science, founded at the Institute in 2007 to address the need to increase the numbers of women who choose science as a career and the percentages of women in top academic faculty positions. The program is meant to help young women through the main bottleneck that prevents many of them from continuing on to academic science positions in Israel: the need to conduct postdoctoral research abroad in the world's leading labs. By the time they have completed their PhDs, many women have spouses and young children, and the expense of moving the entire family abroad for several years can be prohibitive. To combat this problem, each year the Weizmann Institute gives special awards to 10 outstanding young women who have completed their doctorates in the natural or exact sciences in one of Israel's academic institutions, and who have been accepted to postdoctoral positions abroad. These grants — $20,000 a year for two years — are given on top of the fellowships awarded by the host institutes or other sources, and are specifically intended to help the women bring their families along.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/nobel-for-antibiotics-tool/
Oct 08, 2009...
Trio win chemistry prize for work that has led to cures for diseases.
STOCKHOLM—Americans Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas Steitz and Israeli Ada Yonath on Wednesday won the 2009 Nobel Prize in chemistry for the atom-by-atom mapping of protein-making factories within cells.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said their work on ribosomes has been fundamental to the scientific understanding of life and has helped researchers develop antibiotic cures for various diseases.
Jan 28, 2013...
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—January 28, 2013—The European Commission has officially announced the selection of the Human Brain Project (HBP) as one of its two Future Emerging Technologies (FET) Flagship projects. The new project will federate European efforts to address one of the greatest challenges of modern science: understanding the human brain.
The goal of the Human Brain Project: Pull together all our existing knowledge about the human brain and reconstruct the brain, piece by piece, in supercomputer-based models and simulations. Such models offer the prospect of a new understanding of the human brain and the diseases that affect it, as well as advancing completely new computing and robotic technologies. The European Commission supported this vision, announcing that it has selected the HBP as one of two projects to be funded through the new FET Flagship Program, which supports highly innovative technology.
Feb 16, 2016...
Peter Gruber International Academy students in Israel
On Feb. 5, six Peter Gruber International Academy (PGIA) students embarked on a journey across the world to attend a three-day science program at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, just south of Tel Aviv. The Weizmann Institute of Science is one of the world’s leading multidisciplinary research institutions in the natural and exact sciences. The institute has a long history of investigation and discovery rooted in a mission of advancing science for the benefit of humanity.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/signs-of-success/
Aug 26, 2014...
Dr. Michal Rivlin
Seven years after the launch of the donor-backed National Postdoctoral Program for Advancing Women in Science, the program, established and operated by the Weizmann Institute of Science, is evidencing major signs of success in its aim to nurture the careers of Israeli women scientists and thereby advance academic science overall in Israel. More than 80 percent of the women who participated in the program have attained faculty positions in Israeli academia: 22 out of the 27 women who completed their postdoctoral studies abroad. Of the remainder, two have accepted faculty appointments abroad and two are working in the Israeli high-tech industry.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/20m-d-dan-and-betty-kahn-foundation-gift/
Oct 15, 2018...
Consider a future in which robots work alongside humans to search for disaster survivors and sensors monitor their response to bacterial infections in real time.
A $20 million gift from the D. Dan and Betty Kahn Foundation of Michigan will expand collaboration among researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science, the University of Michigan, and the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology to help enhance quality of life through advancements in robotics and precision health.
Feb 16, 2016...
(l-r) Yeda CEO Amir Naiberg, Vice President for Technology Transfer Prof. Mudi Sheves, Merck Deputy CEO and Vice Chairman of the Executive Board Stefan Oschmann, and Merck Executive Board Member and Healthcare CEO Belén Garijo
DARMSTADT, GERMANY, AND REHOVOT, ISRAEL—February 16, 2016—Merck, a leading science and technology company, has extended its partnership with the Weizmann Institute of Science by signing a new framework agreement, thus building on a successful innovation partnership of almost four decades.
Nov 07, 2014...
Artist's rendering of the SpaceIL Google Lunar XPrize spacecraft conducting its mission. Credit: SpaceIL
Eran Privman, CEO of SpaceIL, authored this article with contributions from mission scientist Oded Aharonson and SpaceIL science team investigator Avi Barliya. The authors contributed this article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.
With the goal of landing the first Israeli spacecraft on the moon, nonprofit SpaceIL is competing for the Google Lunar XPrize: a modern race to the moon. The competition promises a $20-million grand prize to the first nongovernmental team to soft-land an unmanned spacecraft on the moon, travel 500 meters (1640 feet) across the surface, and send high-resolution images and video back to Earth.
Dec 04, 2018...
Ellen Merlo receives her honorary doctorate from Weizmann Institute President Prof. Daniel Zajfman.
NEW YORK, NY—December 4, 2018—At its 70th annual International Board Meeting, the Weizmann Institute of Science conferred the degree of Doctor of Philosophy honoris causa upon longtime supporter and leader Ellen Merlo. The Weizmann Institute of Science, located in Rehovot, Israel, is one of the world’s leading centers of multidisciplinary scientific research.
Sep 02, 2010... On her first tour of her freshman dorm at the University of California, Davis in the fall of 1992, neurophysiologist and science journalist Kirsten Sanford met an engineering student who talked to her about signing up for an electronic mail account—a term she had never heard before. At the time, the Internet was little more than green text on a black screen, and hardly anyone she knew used it. But Sanford was intrigued. “The idea that I could send messages immediately to people without having to stamp a letter was fascinating.”