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.
Jan 07, 2015...
Brian Berkowitz is a professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science and head of its Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. Photo courtesy of the Weizmann Institute
Ask Brian Berkowitz about the fruits of his research – say, an environmentally friendly way to remove pollutants from contaminated water – and he’ll stop you.
“OK. I have to go back a little bit,” he tells me. “I’m at the Weizmann Institute of Science, and the mandate is basic research, basic, curiosity-driven scientific research. So rather than try to solve a particular problem and directing research, we do the basics, understand basic phenomena and once you understand them, then we end up inevitably coming up with various solutions.”
Apr 21, 2013...
A Lite-Trac four-wheeled self-propelled crop sprayer spraying pesticide on a field. photo credit: Lite-Trac/Wikipedia Commons
The Green Revolution may have saved a billion people from starvation, according to common wisdom, but the expansion of agricultural technology came at a price: A sharp increase in the use of pesticides and chemicals. These technologies have made it possible for farmers to grow the food needed for an ever-growing population, but they have wreaked havoc on the environment, with chemicals seeping into the groundwater and entering the food chain — setting off who-knows-what consequences in the long-term.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/california-drought-what-would-israel-do/
May 14, 2015...
At Tze’elim reservoir in the Negev, Israeli startup Neotop tests new technology that reduces surface temperatures, algae and evaporation.
From a distance, the reservoir appears topped by a flotilla of rubber duckies.
On closer inspection, the water’s surface is packed with thousands of free-floating, 13-inch plastic balls, clustered to form an undulating cover.
Developed by the Israeli startup Neotop (formerly known as Top-It-Up), the mass of balls serves as a floating cooling tower, reducing surface temperatures, algae and evaporation up to 95 percent. It’s one of many potential water-saving solutions to come out of Israel’s high-tech dream factory.
Mar 10, 2013...
The commercial arm of the Weizmann Institute of Science has signed an agreement with an agrochemicals firm to commercialize a new technology that impedes the permeation of toxic pesticides into groundwater, the companies have announced.
As enormous amounts of pesticides continue to be used around the world in an effort to increase the global demand for food, the durable toxic chemicals can often seep into the soil and remain there for years, thereby contaminating the groundwater, the firms explained. Aiming to reduce the risks of such environmental contamination, Prof. Brian Berkowitz and Dr. Ishai Dror developed a system at the Rehovot school’s department of environmental sciences and energy research that is designed to safely eradicate the toxins.
May 17, 2017... Water, Water Everywhere: Prof. Brian Berkowitz on Protecting a Precious Resource
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/the-secret-of-seawater-spines/
Dec 07, 2016...
Soft corals and sea urchins crowd an outcrop off Inner Farne, England. New research revealed that sea urchins get the calcium they need to build hard shells and spines very differently from how scientists theorized in the past. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
Researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science have discovered how urchins get the calcium they need to build hard shells and spines, possibly altering the way scientists view the process of biomineralization.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/science-tips-june-2014/
Jun 13, 2014...
Convective clouds forming over the Amazon in a blanket of smoke. Photo credit: Prof. Ilan Koren, Weizmann Institute of Science.
Understanding how clouds affect the climate has been a difficult proposition. What controls the makeup of the low clouds that cool the atmosphere or the high ones that trap heat underneath? How does human activity change patterns of cloud formation? The research of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Prof. Ilan Koren suggests we may be nudging cloud formation in the direction of added area and height. He and his team have analyzed a unique type of cloud formation; their findings, which appeared recently in Science, indicate that in pre-industrial times, there was less cloud cover over areas of pristine ocean than today.
Aug 05, 2019...
JERUSALEM, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) – Researchers from Israel, China, the United States and Switzerland have found that water accumulated in an ancient aquifer in the south part of the Israel is 360,000 years old, the Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS), located in central Israel, reported on Sunday.
The findings, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), help expose global climate change processes.
Apr 12, 2011... Below the Earth’s surface, water—perhaps our most precious resource—is stored in geological formations called aquifers. “It’s important to know that more than 95 percent of the Earth’s accessible freshwater is in these underground reserves. That’s water we pump from the ground and drink and use for irrigation and for industry,” says hydrologist Prof. Brian Berkowitz, Head of the Department of Environmental Sciences and Energy Research at the Weizmann Institute of Science.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/using-science-to-save-our-oceans/
Jul 18, 2019...
It’s the height of summer – time to hit the beach, whether for an afternoon or a week or two. People love the ocean and have always been drawn to it, but as much as it affects us, we affect it, too.
The ocean's health is crucial to the planet’s health – and ours. That’s why the devastating impacts from climate change are so concerning: as the temperatures warm, glaciers melt, and seawater becomes more acidic, as fish and mammals are overfished, the oceans are dying.
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