People behind the science The joy of exploring, the art of giving Bob and Renée Drake’s devotion to science is matched only by their passion for art. But there’s no competition here. In fact, their dual passions share important common threads. Date: May 8, 2022
Briefs Guardians of the logic gates Weizmann researchers develop Israel’s first quantum computer Date: May 7, 2022
Features The science of secrecy “Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.” Date: May 3, 2022
Students Summertime science What did you do last summer? Seems like a simple enough question. But for students from underrepresented sectors of Israeli society Date: May 1, 2022
Briefs Powerful predictions for material design Dr. Sivan Refaely-Abramson has been awarded the Krill Prize for Excellence in Scientific Research for her innovative work on new theoretical understandings of materials. Date: August 7, 2022
Briefs Adapting and unraveling life-inspired materials Dr. Ulyana Shimanovich of the Department of Molecular Chemistry and Materials Science was named one of nine winners of the FEBS Excellence Award for 2021 Date: August 7, 2022
Briefs Advancing the health of humankind Prof. Shalev Itzkovitz from the Department of Molecular Cell Biology has received the 2022 Rappaport Prize for Excellence in the Field of Biomedical Research. Date: August 7, 2022
Briefs Reshef Tenne elected to the European Academy Prof. Emeritus Reshef Tenne has been elected as a member of the esteemed European Academy of Sciences and Arts, for his outstanding research achievements and international distinction. Date: August 7, 2022
Briefs Blavatnik awards recognize Weizmann trailblazers Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists, an annual prize awarded by the Blavatnik Family Foundation, the New York Academy of Sciences, and the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Date: August 7, 2022
Briefs Adapting and unraveling life-inspired materials Dr. Ulyana Shimanovich of the Department of Molecular Chemistry and Materials Science was named one of nine winners of the FEBS Excellence Award for 2021 Date: August 7, 2022
Briefs Charting the career course The Weizmann Institute is launching a new national prize to advance women in science: the Women’s Postdoctoral Award for Science Career Development, which will support exceptional Israeli women scientists working at top-tier institutions abroad in the exact and natural sciences. Date: August 4, 2022
Briefs Israel Prize awarded to Oded Goldreich Prof. Oded Goldreich of the Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics has received the Israel Prize, the country’s highest honor, for his outstanding contributions to the fields of cryptography and complexity theory. Date: August 4, 2022
Briefs Postdoc fellowship honors Dr. Angela Merkel In a special ceremony held at the President’s Residence in October 2021 honoring Angela Merkel, former Chancellor of Germany, Israel’s President Isaac Herzog announced the Dr. Angela Merkel Postdoctoral Fellowship for Outstanding Women Scientists in Chemical Physics at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Date: August 4, 2022
Briefs Rafael Malach named EMET Prize winner Prof. Emeritus Rafael (Rafi) Malach of the Department of Brain Sciences was chosen as a 2022 recipient of the EMET Prize in Life Sciences Bio- Medicine Award—often referred to as ‘Israel’s Nobel Prize’—given by the A.M.N. Foundation for the Advancement of Science, Art and Culture in Israel. Date: August 4, 2022
Briefs Going out with a bang Some stars go out with a bang— in a supernova explosion that hurls stellar matter out into space. Date: July 28, 2022
Briefs Spiking the particle Prof. Yosef Shaul was a postdoc at the University of California, San Francisco in the 1980s when he read about the recently discovered genome of the hepatitis B virus (HBV). Already widely associated with liver cancer, the virus turned out to be a tiny DNA virus which uses RNA to replicate. Date: July 28, 2022
Briefs Two-way cellular radio Evolutionary biologists believe that mitochondria, membrane- bound organelles that convert cellular energy, may have evolved from a lonely bacterium that was suddenly swallowed up by another ancient life form. Date: July 28, 2022
Briefs Serendipity leads to sirloin The freedom to follow one’s own curiosity also means the freedom to stumble upon something you never expected to find. Prof. Eldad Tzahor and postdoc Dr. Tamar Eigler were not thinking of nutrition when they peered into a microscope examining cultured muscle stem cells. But then, they saw steak. Date: July 27, 2022
Briefs Putting the brakes on immune cells Immune cells zip through our body’s blood vessels at dizzying speeds, braking at critical checkpoints with the precision of a plane landing on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier. Date: July 27, 2022
Briefs Sugar baby solution For many, regular injections of synthetic insulin are the only way to push back against the long-term effects of diabetes, which can include devastating damage to the heart, blood vessels, eyes, kidneys, and nerves. Date: July 27, 2022
Briefs A ‘smoking gun’ for weight loss Smokers often hesitate to quit, as losing cigarettes usually means gaining weight. Date: July 24, 2022
Briefs Canary in the data mine For anyone who uses a computer—and that’s all of us—random numbers are important. Date: July 24, 2022
New scientists Dr. Mark Shusterman Dr. Mark Shusterman is working to prove one of the oldest and most famous unsolved problems in mathematics: the twin prime conjecture. Date: November 16, 2021
New scientists Dr. David Gokhman Dr. David Gokhman is searching for the adaptations that set humans apart, by comparing human genes to those of two close relatives—the extinct Neanderthal and Denisovan species, and the great apes. Date: November 16, 2021
