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.
Jun 22, 2020... In 2018 it was discovered that two layers of graphene twisted one with respect to the other by a “magic” angle show a variety of interesting quantum phases, including superconductivity, magnetism and insulating behaviours. Now a team of researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science led by Prof. Shahal Ilani of the Condensed Matter Physics Department, in collaboration with Prof. Pablo Jarillo-Herrero’s group at MIT, have discovered that these quantum phases descend from a previously unknown high-energy “parent state,” with an unusual breaking of symmetry.
Oct 20, 2020...
No sooner had the radical equations of quantum mechanics been discovered than physicists identified one of the strangest phenomena the theory allows.
“Quantum tunneling” shows how profoundly particles such as electrons differ from bigger things. Throw a ball at the wall and it bounces backward; let it roll to the bottom of a valley and it stays there. But a particle will occasionally hop through the wall. It has a chance of “slipping through the mountain and escaping from the valley,” as two physicists wrote in Nature in 1928, in one of the earliest descriptions of tunneling.
Jan 12, 2021... In this special session, Prof. Avishay Gal-Yam, Weizmann’s supernova hunter, takes us to the Frontiers of the Universe: one of the Institute’s new flagship projects. From studying the tiniest subatomic particles to the far reaches of the galaxy, this initiative aims to put the Institute at the very forefront of advanced physics research – and even into space.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/video-gallery/wis-talks-prof-roee-ozeri-it-s-about-time/
Jan 19, 2021... We have been measuring time for millennia. Prof. Roee Ozeri of the Department of Physics of Complex Systems and Institute Vice President, provides an engaging history of these efforts, their inspiration, and their efficacy, from the sundial to the pendulum to modern atomic clocks.
Dec 29, 2020... Quantum mechanics, the theory that describes the physics of the universe at very small scales, is notorious for defying common sense. Consider, for instance, the way that standard interpretations of the theory suggest change occurs in the quantum turf: shifts from one state to another supposedly happen unpredictably and instantaneously. Put another way, if events in our familiar world unfolded similarly to those within atoms, we would expect to routinely see batter becoming a fully baked cake without passing through any intermediate steps. Everyday experience, of course, tells us this is not the case, but for the less accessible microscopic realm, the true nature of such “quantum jumps” has been a major unsolved problem in physics.
Jan 28, 2021... This webinar introduces Weizmann’s flagship Frontiers of the Universe initiative. Frontiers of the Universe will advance the Institute’s pioneering efforts to understand the nature of space, time, and life itself—from the tiniest subatomic particles to the largest galaxies.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/going-out-with-a-bang/
Jan 12, 2022...
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—January 12, 2021—In the not-so-distant past, the discovery of a supernova—or exploding star—was considered a rare occasion.
When Prof. Avishay Gal-Yam of the Weizmann Institute’s Particle Physics and Astrophysics Department was a doctoral student, he only located seven supernovas over the course of four years. But today, advanced measuring instruments and analytical methods make it possible to detect fifty such explosions daily. While these improved means may have made these celestial events somewhat less notable over the years, the greater number of observations has also increased the probability that researchers will spot rarer types of explosions that have so far existed only as theoretical constructs. Gal-Yam and his colleagues recently discovered a rare-type supernova that has never been observed before. Their findings are being published today in Nature.
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