The Weizmann Institute of Science (Hebrew: מכון ויצמן למדע Machon Weizmann LeMada) is a public research university in Rehovot, Israel, south of Tel Aviv established in 1934, 14 years before the State of Israel. It differs from other Israeli universities in that it offers only graduate and postgraduate degrees in the natural and exact sciences.
It is a multidisciplinary research center, with around 2,500 scientists, postdoctoral fellows, Ph.D. and M.Sc. students, and scientific, technical, and administrative staff working at the Institute.
Three Nobel laureates and three Turing Award laureates have been associated with the Weizmann Institute of Science.
Founded in 1934 by Chaim Weizmann and his first team, among them Benjamin M. Bloch, as the Daniel Sieff Research Institute. Weizmann had offered the post of director to Nobel Prize laureate Fritz Haber, but took over the directorship himself after Haber's death en route to Palestine. Before he became President of the State of Israel in February 1949, Weizmann pursued his research in organic chemistry at its laboratories. The institute was renamed the Weizmann Institute of Science in his honor on November 2, 1949, in agreement with the Sieff family.
The Weizmann Institute presently has about 2,500 students, postdoctoral fellows, staff, and faculty, and awards M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in mathematics, computer science, physics, chemistry, biochemistry, and biology, as well as several interdisciplinary programs. The symbol of the Weizmann Institute of Science is the multibranched Ficus tree.
Undergraduates and recent graduates must apply to M.Sc. programs, while those earning an M.Sc. or an MD can apply directly to Ph.D. programs. Full fellowships are given to all students and outside employment is not allowed.
In addition to its academic programs, the Weizmann Institute runs programs for youth, including science clubs, camps, and competitions. The Bessie F. Lawrence International Summer Science Institute accepts high-school graduates from all over the world for a four-week, science-based summer camp. The Clore Garden of Science, which opened in 1999, is the world’s first completely interactive outdoor science museum.
In 2015, the Weizmann Institute made the Academic Ranking of World Universities at an unspecified place between 101 and 150 and the U.S. News' Best Global Universities list in 126th place. However, it made neither the QS World University Rankings nor the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. In the 2015 CWTS Leiden Ranking, which is based on the proportion of a university's scientific papers published between 2010 and 2013 that made the 10% most cited in their field, it was ranked 10th in the world and first in Israel.
Chaim Weizmann (1934–1952)
Meyer Weisgal (1952-1959 as acting director)
Abba Eban (1959–1966)
Meyer Weisgal (1966–1970)
Albert Sabin (1970–1972)
Israel Dostrovsky (1972–1975)
Michael Sela (1975–1985)
Aryeh Dvoretzky (1985–1988)
Haim Harari (1988–2001)
Ilan Chet (2001–2006)
Daniel Zajfman (2006–present)
The nonscientists Abba Eban and Meyer Weisgal were assisted by Scientific Directors, as was Weizmann himself owing to his duties as the first President of Israel. The following persons held the position of Scientific Director:
Ernst David Bergmann (1949-1951)
Amos de-Shalit (1960-1961 and 1966-1968)
Shneior Lifson (1962-1966)
Gerhard M. J. Schmidt (1969)
Uri Alon, systems biologist
Ruth Arnon, immunologist
Arkady Aronov, condensed matter physicist
Mordechai Ben-Ari, computer scientist
Ari Ben-Menahem, geophysicist
Achi Brandt, mathematician
Irun Cohen, immunologist
David Danon, biologist
Amos de-Shalit, physicist
Irit Dinur, computer scientist and mathematician
Israel Dostrovsky, physical chemist
Yadin Dudai, neuroscientist
Harry Dym, mathematician
Benjamin Elazari Volcani discovered life in the Dead Sea and pioneered biological silicon research.
Aviezri Fraenkel, mathematician
Asher A. Friesem, physicist
Stephen Gelbart, mathematician
Joseph Gillis, mathematician
Oded Goldreich, computer scientist
Shafrira Goldwasser, computer scientist two time winner of the Godel Prize (1993 and 2001), and the Turing Award (2012)
Jacob H. Hanna, stem cell biologist
Haim Harari, theoretical physicist
David Harel (born 1950), computer scientist
Yoseph Imry, theoretical physicist
Aharon Katzir, chemist
Ephraim Katzir, biophysicist, fourth President of the State of Israel
Bruria Kaufman, theoretical physicist
Jacob Klein, chemist
Ulf Leonhardt, physicist
Alexander Lerner, mathematician
Michael Levitt, chemical physics, presently at Stanford University: Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2013)
Moshe Levy, chemist
Shneior Lifson, physicist
Harry J. Lipkin, physicist
Henry Markram (born 1962), neuroscientist
Meir Lahav, chemist
Mordehai Milgrom, astrophysicist
David Milstein, organic chemist
Moni Naor, computer scientist
Chaim L. Pekeris, geophysicist
Amir Pnueli, computer scientist, Turing Award (1996)
Ran Raz, computer scientist
Amitai Regev, mathematician
Omer Reingold, computer scientist
Leo Sachs, molecular biologist
Josip Schlessinger, biochemist and biophysician
David Samuel, 3rd Viscount Samuel, chemist
Eran Segal, computational biologist
Lee Segel, applied mathematician
Michael Sela, immunologist
Adi Shamir, cryptographer, Turing Award (2002)
Ehud Shapiro, computer scientist and computational biologist
Nathan Sharon, biochemist
Amnon Shashua, computer scientist
Franz Sondheimer, chemist
Ady Stern, physicist
Joel Sussman, crystallographer
Igal Talmi, physicist
Reshef Tenne, chemist
Edward Trifonov, molecular biophysicist
Shimon Ullman, computer scientist
Gabriele Veneziano, theoretical physicist
David Wallach, biochemist
Arieh Warshel, chemical physics, presently at University of Southern California: Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2013)
Chaim Weizmann, chemist, first President of the State of Israel
Meir Wilchek, biochemist
Ada Yonath, crystallographer, Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2009)
Daniel Zajfman, physicist
Amikam Aharoni (1929–2002), physicist
Dorit Aharonov (born 1970), computer scientist
Joanna Aizenberg, professor of chemistry
Uri Alon, systems biologist
Haim Aviv, molecular biologist
Karen Avraham, geneticist
Neta Bahcall, astrophysicist
Eli Biham, cryptographer and cryptanalyst
Ofer Biham, physicist
Achi Brandt (born 1938), mathematician
Joseph Buxbaum, geneticist and neuroscientist
Nachum Dershowitz, computer scientist
Danny Dolev, computer scientist
Dov Dori, computer scientist
Yadin Dudai, neuroscientist
Amos Fiat, computer scientist
Nir Friedman, computer scientist and biologist
Ehud Gazit, biochemist and nanotechnologist
Alexander Goldfarb, (born 1947), microbiologist, activist, and author
Valerie Halyo, experimental physicist
Eliezer (Eli) Huberman, biologist
Yoseph Imry, theoretical physicist
Bernard H. Lavenda, chemical physicist
Anders Levermann, climate scientist
Alexander Levitzki (born 1940), biochemist
Yehuda Lindell, computer scientist
Mario Livio (born 1945), astrophysicist
Miron Livny, computer scientist
Henry Markram (born 1962), neuroscientist
Raphael Mechoulam, organic chemist
David Peleg, computer scientist
Amir Pnueli (1941–2009), computer scientist
Omer Reingold, computer scientist
Gideon Rodan, biochemist
Barton Rubenstein, modernist sculptor
Shmuel Safra, computer scientist
Josip Schlessinger (born 1945), biochemist and biophysician
Nathan Seiberg, physicist
Adi Shamir (born 1952), cryptographer
Amnon Shashua, computer scientist
Nahum Sonenberg, biochemist
Hermona Soreq, molecular neuroscientist
Eli Upfal, computer scientist
Lev Vaidman, physicist
Moshe Vardi, computer scientist
Inder Verma, cancer researcher and molecular biologist
Ada Yonath, crystallographer
Arieh Warshel, chemist
Meir Wilchek, biochemist
Doron Zeilberger, mathematician
Eitan Zemel, applied mathematician
From downtown Tel-Aviv, take a train from either the University, Savidor Center, HaShalom, or HaHagana stations headed to the Rehovot Railway Station or to the Ashkelon Railway Station via Lod. Disembark at Rehovot station which is located nearby the campus. Travel time will be about 25 minutes from Tel Aviv HaHagana. To the main gate, it will be an additional 5-minute walk.
From Ben Gurion Airport, take any Tel Aviv bound train from Ben Gurion Airport Railway Station, located at the lower level of Terminal 3 to Tel Aviv HaHagana Railway Station. Change to a train bound for Rehovot or Ashkelon via Lod and follow the instruction above. Total travel time will be about 50 minutes, depending on train connection/transfer.
