Speakers

Prof. Gabriel I. Barbash

Director, Bench to Bedside (BtB) Program
Weizmann Institute of Science

Prof. Gabriel Barbash is a graduate of the Hadassah Medical School of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is board certified in Internal Medicine, Medical Management, and Occupational Medicine. He holds a master’s degree in public health (MPH) from Harvard’s School of Public Health. He was Israel’s national coordinator and principal investigator for numerous multi-center cardiology studies (1989-2000). From 1996-1999 he served as the Director General of the Ministry of Health where he introduced several programs that had critical and lasting impact upon the Israeli healthcare system. One program served to control tuberculosis after a surge of new cases occurred with the arrival of a large number of immigrants from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia. He orchestrated all four HMOs to cooperate in controlling the re-emergence of this disease. The second was the introduction of nationwide mammography screening for women over 50 years of age which is still ongoing.

Prof. Barbash served as the chairman of the Israeli National Transplant Center (1998-2000), and reorganized the system of organ harvesting in Israel, doubling the number of organ transplantations in Israel. In 2001, Prof. Barbash was appointed Professor of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine in the Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University. He was a Visiting Professor at Columbia University (2008-2012) and led a research project with the Agency of Health Quality Research Agency (AHRQ) of the US HHS department on the diffusion of medical technologies with specific focus on the diffusion of robot-assisted surgery in the US.

He served as the CEO of the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (1993-2015). During his tenure at Sourasky, Prof. Barbash was instrumental in enhancing the reputation of the Medical Center by recruiting top names in various fields of medicine, elevating the TASMC to the top of the list of medical centers in Israel. For the 11th year in a row, far more medical interns consider the TASMC as first choice for internship than any other teaching hospital in the country.

In addition to his work as a medical administrator, Prof. Barbash has published more than 80 original papers, mainly in the fields of diagnosis, risk assessment, and treatment of acute myocardial infarction; many of which were published in the prestigious peer reviewed medical journals Circulation, Journal of the American College of Cardiology and the New England Journal of Medicine.

Prof. Eran Bouchbinder

Department of Chemical Physics
Weizmann Institute of Science

Born in Kfar Saba, Prof. Eran Bouchbinder completed his BA in physics and philosophy at Tel Aviv University (1999). He earned his MSc (2002) and PhD (2007) in theoretical physics from the Weizmann Institute of Science under the guidance of Prof. Itamar Procaccia. After conducting postdoctoral research for two years in the Racah Institute of Physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he joined the faculty of the Weizmann Institute in 2009.

Prof. Bouchbinder is a theoretical physicist who is interested in various non-equilibrium problems in condensed-matter physics, materials physics, geophysics and biophysics. He aims at answering some everyday questions such as, "How do things break?", “How do things slide?”, "How do solids deform?" and “How do cells sense their environment?” He does this by using the tools of statistical and continuum physics and through interactions with experimental and computational groups. Examining the mechanics of macroscopic systems, he develops predictive theories, such as his theory of cracks, called the “Weakly Nonlinear Theory of Dynamic Fracture”.

His awards and honors include the Wolf Foundation’s Krill Prize for Excellence in Scientific Research (2014), the Weizmann Institue’s Scientific Council Prize (2013), the Alon Fellowship, the Council for Higher Education, Israel (2010),  the Weizmann Institute’s Sir Charles Clore Prize (2009), an appointment to the `International Achievement Summit at the Academy of Achievement, Washington D.C. (2007), and the Feinberg Graduate School’s John F. Kennedy Prize for Outstanding Achievement (2006). In 2015, he was elected as a member of the Israel Young Academy, where he currently serves as a steering committee member.
Prof. Bouchbinder is married to Michal and has four children. He is deeply interested in literature and education.

Prof. Alon Chen

Head, Department of Neurobiology
Weizmann Institute of Science

Born in Israel in 1970, Prof. Alon Chen received a BSc in biological studies from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in 1995, and a PhD from the Weizmann Institute of Science in the Department of Neurobiology, in 2001. Between 2001 and 2005, he served as a Research Associate in the Laboratories for Peptide Biology, at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California. In 2005, he joined the Weizmann Institute in the Department of Neurobiology. In 2013, he was nominated to head the Max Planck Society - Weizmann Institute of Science Laboratory for Experimental Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Neurogenetics.

Prof. Chen’s research focuses on the neurobiology of stress, particularly the mechanisms by which the brain regulates the response to stressful challenges, and how this response is linked to psychiatric disorders. His lab studies the role of diverse genes, proteins and brain circuits that are associated with the stress response. Prof. Chen and his team use a combination of state-of-the-art methodologies, including molecular, cellular, behavioral and physiological tools, to “dissect” the contribution of specific genes or brain circuits to the initiation, maintenance, and termination of the stress response. His lab has made discoveries linking the action of specific genes with anxiety, depression, obesity, diabetes, and even the preservation of memories. They use both mouse genetic models and human patients to ultimately create the scientific groundwork for therapeutic interventions to treat stress-related emotional disorders such as anxiety, post-traumatic stress, anorexia nervosa, and depression.

His honors include a postdoctoral Rothschild Fellowship, and a postdoctoral Fulbright Fellowship (2001-2002). He received the ‘Alon Fellowship’; the most prestigious Israeli fellowship for returning scientists, granted by the Israeli Council for Higher Education, 2007-2009, and the Novartis Prize in Neuroendocrinology in 2009 and the Hans Lindner Prize in 2011, both from the Israel Endocrine Society; as well as the Sieratzki-Korczyn Prize for Advances in Neuroscience in 2010. In 2011, he was awarded the Morris L. Levinson Prize in Biology by the Scientific Council of the Weizmann Institute and the Teva Research Prize granted by the Israel Science Foundation.

Prof. Chen is married with two children and has a keen interest in science education for youth.

Prof. Jonathan Dorfan

Co-Chair, Scientific and Academic Advisory Committee
Weizmann Institute of Science

Prof. Jonathan Dorfan is the President and CEO of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology. He was born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in physics and applied mathematics at the University of Cape Town in 1969 and his doctorate in experimental particle physics from the University of California-Irvine. Upon graduation in 1976, Dr. Dorfan joined the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) where he was promoted to associate professor in 1984, full professor in 1989 and Associate Director in 1994. In September 1999, Professor Dorfan became SLAC's third Director. During which time he was Dean of the SLAC School and served as a member of the Stanford University Executive Cabinet. Prof. Dorfan stepped down from the directorship in September 2007 and remains on at SLAC as Professor and Emeritus Director. From 1980-89, Prof. Dorfan was the spokesman for the MARK-II detector collaboration at the SLAC's PEP colliding beam facility and then at SLAC's Z0 factory, the SLC. Prof. Dorfan led the team that designed and built the SLAC B-Factory, which commenced operations in 1998.

Prof. Dorfan received a Doctor of Science, honoris causa, from the University of Cape Town in 2008 and from Technische Universitat Dresden in 2009. He is a Fellow of the American Association of Arts and Sciences and the American Physical Society. He currently serves on many advisory bodies, including the Board of the Weizmann Institute of Science, the Board of Directors of the Large Synoptic Space Telescope Corporation (Vice-Chair), the Advisory Board of the John Adams Institute for Accelerator Science at Oxford University, the Scientific Advisory Board of the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Munich and the Panel on Public Affairs of the American Physical Society (Vice-Chair). His past community service includes the International Committee for Future Accelerators (Chair from 2003-2005).

Dame Vivien Duffield, DBE

Chair, Clore Foundation
United Kingdom

Dame Vivien Duffield is the daughter of Sir Charles Clore, one of Britain’s most successful post-war businessmen and one of the most generous philanthropists of his day. Continuing this tradition, Dame Vivien grew up with a firm belief in supporting charitable endeavours. After Sir Charles’ death in 1979, she assumed the Chairmanship of the Clore Foundations in Israel and in the UK.
In Israel, Dame Vivien served as Deputy Chair of the Board of the Weizmann Institute of Science in 1995-2008, and currently serves as a Life Member of the Institute’s International board. She is an Honorary Fellow of the City of Jerusalem and winner of the Jerusalem Foundation’s Teddy Prize. Dame Vivien has also been awarded PhD honoris causa degrees from the Weizmann Institute of Science and from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
In the UK, Dame Vivien is closely associated with a number of charities and, since the early 1980s, has sat on various Appeal Committees and Development Boards for the NSPCC, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and the Royal Marsden and was a Trustee of Dulwich Picture Gallery from 1993 to 2002. She was a member of the Board of the Royal Opera House from 1990 to 2001 and is currently Chairman of the Royal Opera House Endowment Fund. Dame Vivien became a Director of the South Bank Centre board in 2002, is on the Board of the World Monuments Fund in Britain and is a Governor of the Royal Ballet and the Royal Ballet School. In addition to the Chairmanship of her Foundations, Dame Vivien is also Founder and Life Patron of Eureka!, the Museum for Children in Halifax. In 2007 she was appointed Chair of the Executive Committee for the Oxford University Development Campaign. Her charitable work in the UK was acknowledged with the award of a CBE in 1989 and DBE in 2000. In November 2008 HRH the Prince of Wales presented Dame Vivien one of the first five Medals for Arts Philanthropy. The medal celebrates individuals who support the arts and recognises the contribution of the most inspiring philanthropists in the UK.
Dame Vivien initiated the Jewish Community Centre in London - JW3 - and has been a major contributor to the building, which opened in September 2013.

Mario Fleck

President, Brazilian Friends of the Weizmann Institute of Science

Mario Fleck is Rio Bravo's CEO since January 2009, after working for four years as the managing partner heading of the Public Equities group. In that position, Mario helped launch Rio Bravo Fundamental, a value and activism fund.
Mario came to Rio Bravo after 28 years at Accenture, 14 of which as the Country Managing Partner for the Brazilian unit. He joined Accenture in 1975 and made partner in 1986.
Mario is currently a consulting board member of Levorin and GR Group. He has also served on the boards of Eternit, Direct Talk, Nossa Caixa, Ferbasa, Cremer, Bematech and Unipar.
Mario Fleck collaborates with several non-profit organizations, such as Parceiros da Educação, through which the private sector tries to improve the quality of public education. He has also served on the boards of the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra and The Committee for Democracy in Information Technology (CDI). Mario has presided over AME Campos, a community organization in the city of Campos do Jordão, and was president of the board of directors of the Fundação Getúlio Vargas's Business School. 
As an active member of the Jewish community, Mario is vice president of the Brazil-Israel Chamber of Commerce. He was also president of the Jewish Federation of the State of São Paulo from 2011 to 2015 where he was responsible for community security, political articulation and institutional relations as well as empowering and preserving the Jewish roots. At AJC (American Jewish Committee), Mario is the Chair of the Belfer Institute for Latinos and Latin America.
Mario Fleck is also a member of the Executive Board of the Weizmann Institute of Science, in Israel. He lends his leadership, expertise, and financial support to the Weizmann Institute and acts as an ambassador to promote the interest of the Institute throughout the globe.
Mario Fleck has a bachelor's degree in mechanical and industrial engineering from the Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro.

Prof. Daniella Goldfarb

President’s Advisor for Advancing Women in Science
Weizmann Institute of Science

Born in Paris, Prof. Daniella Goldfarb received a BSc in chemistry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1976), an MSc at the University of Rhode Island, and a PhD at the Weizmann Institute (1984). Following postdoctoral studies at the University of Houston, she joined the Weizmann Institute in 1987.  She is the incumbent of the Erich Klieger Professorial Chair in Chemical Physics. At the Weizmann Institute, she has chaired the Chemistry Board of Studies at the Feinberg Graduate School, and was Head of the Department of Chemical Physics. She has served as the Institute’s Chair of the Council of Professors, and in 2014 became the President’s Advisor for Advancing Women in Science and in 2016 also became Vice Chair of the Scientific Council.

Prof. Goldfarb is a recognized leader in the field of electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy, used to investigate the structure and properties of molecules in solids and liquids. EPR is similar to nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), except that it observes electron spins rather than nuclear spins. She has built the spectrometers in her lab to develop new EPR techniques and technology, and uses them to explore new challenges in biology and chemistry, such as observing structural characteristics of proteins in the cell, which can, in the future be used to observe protein response to drugs. By understanding how molecular machines work through their magnetic interactions, she may be able, in the future, to explore cell drug resistance and design better drugs.

Prof. Goldfarb has served as President of the European Federation of EPR Groups and is currently President of the International Magnetic Resonance Society. She was the chair of the editorial board of Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics from 2012 through 2014. Among her awards are the Silver Medal in Chemistry by the International EPR Society: the Bruker BioSpin Lectureship by the Royal Society of Chemistry, the International Zavoisky Award from the Zavoisky Physical Technical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Kolthoff Prize from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, the Israel Chemical Society Excellence prize and the Gold Medal of the International EPR Society. She was elected as President of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in 2015. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Prof. Goldfarb is married and has two daughters. She is also an amateur potter.

Shimshon Harel

Chair Designate, Executive Board
Chair, Israeli Friends Association of the Weizmann Institute of Science

Mr. Shimshon Harel serves on the Board of the Weizmann Institute of Science since 1999, as a Member of the International and the Executive Boards. He serves as a Member of the Management, Nominating, and Honors committees, and as a Member of the Board of the Davidson Institute of Science Education.
Shimshon was elected Chairman of the Israeli Friends Association of the Weizmann Institute in January 2006, and has been active within the framework of the Association and its management for over two decades.
In his professional life, Shimshon serves as the CEO of America Israel Investments Ltd., a company specializing in real estate investments in Israel and abroad, and serves as a member of the board of directors of several commercial companies: Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bashan Radiators Ltd., Studio C Ltd, and Mango Ltd. He has been a Director of Jerusalem Economy Ltd. since December 2015.
Shimshon is involved in various social causes. He is a Member of the Friends Association of Ilan, the Chairman of the Haifa Sami Ofer Stadium, Member of the Board of Directors of Haifa Economic Corporation, Member of the Board of Governors of the University of Haifa, and is the Honorary Consul of Sri Lanka in Israel.
Shimshon holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Master’s degree in Business Administration. He and his wife Orna reside in Haifa.

Prof. Herbert Jäckle

Co-Chair, Scientific and Academic Advisory Committee
Weizmann Institute of Science

Dr. Herbert Jäckle is Director at the Max-Planck-Institut für biophysikalische Chemie (Göttingen, Germany) and former Vice-President of the Max Planck Society (2002-2014). He studied Chemistry and Biology (Universität Freiburg) and spent his postdoc at the University of Texas at Austin (USA). He held positions as staff scientist at the EMBL (Heidelberg), as research group leader (Max-Planck-Institut für Entwicklungsbiologie, Tübingen) and as professor for genetics (Ludwig Maximilian Universität, München).

Dr. Jäckle is a member of EMBO, the Academia Europaea, and German Academies of Sciences (Leopoldina and Göttingen). He obtained several scientific awards (including the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, the Otto Bayer Prize and the Louis Jeantet Prize for Medicine), and serves on Advisory Boards both in academia and industry.

Using the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism, Dr. Jäckle's research is focussed on molecular mechanisms (biochemical pathways and regulatory networks) involved in embryonic pattern formation (segmental body organization, formation of organs). More recent work (“molecular physiology”) aims to understanding the genetic and molecular basis of cellular and organismal energy homeostasis. Dr. Herbert Jäckle is author of >200 scientific articles.

Prof. Avraham Levy

Dean, Faculty of Biochemistry
Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences
Weizmann Institute of Science

Born in Paris, Prof. Avraham Levy immigrated to Israel in 1976. He earned his BSc and MSc in field crops and plant breeding at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1987, he received a PhD in plant genetics from the Weizmann Institute. From 1987 to 1990, he conducted postdoctoral research at Stanford University and then, in 1991, at the Institut National de Recherche Agronomique in Versailles, France. In 1992, he joined the Weizmann Institute. He was head of the Department of Plant Sciences, until 2014, and the Chair of the Council of Professors until 2017. Today he serves as the Dean of Biochemistry, as well as the director of the Y. Leon Benoziyo Institute for Molecular Medicine and the Dr. Erhard, Emmi, and the Fred Loewinsohn Center for Pediatric Health. He is the incumbent of the Gilbert de Botton Professorial Chair of Plant Sciences.

Evolution has generated hundreds of thousands of plant species, compared to only a few thousand mammals. The questions Prof. Levy’s research addresses are: What are the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms that are responsible for biodiversity in the plant kingdom? This includes research on  hybridization, genome doubling, DNA recombination and genome stability.  He is interested in utilizing these mechanisms to improve food production, and to find alternative energy solutions. In particular, he harnesses genetic manipulation capabilities to engineer new plant features in a precise manner. 

Prof. Levy coordinates a Biofuel Consortium at the Institute, as well as the Israeli Center of Research Excellence (ICORE), in which 12 teams of Weizmann Institute scientists are working together on a number of basic science projects related to enhancing biofuels production.  He also coordinates a group of scientists working on precise genome editing in plants.  Prof. Levy was awarded the Landau Prize of Mifal Hapais (2016) and is also is the recipient of an ERC grant for targeted engineering of plant genomes and currently serves as chair of the Council of Professors. He previously served as president of the Genetic Society of Israel.

He is married and the father of four children.

Ellen Merlo

Chair, American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science

Ellen Merlo held the position of Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs, Philip Morris USA, from March 1995 until her retirement in March of 2003. During that time Ms. Merlo was responsible for directing internal and external communications, public affairs activities, corporate responsibility planning and programs, consumer affairs and community relations, including charitable grants on behalf of the company. She also served as the senior spokesperson for Philip Morris USA. In her over 40 years in corporate America, Ms. Merlo held a variety of positions for Philip Morris, as well as for several other companies before she joined Philip Morris in 1969. At Philip Morris most of her career was focused on marketing activities, including as Group Director of Brand Management and Vice President of Marketing Services. In those positions Ms. Merlo helped to create Event Marketing, Database Marketing and Continuity Promotions for the company. 
Prior to joining Philip Morris, Ms. Merlo was managing Editor of Motor Trend Magazine in Los Angeles from 1966 to 1969. In addition to her position at Motor Trend, she held several other positions with magazine publishing companies. 
Since her retirement Ms. Merlo has undertaken a more active role in the philanthropic community. She is currently the National Chair of ACWIS, after serving as Chair of the New York Region of ACWIS and as member of its executive committee. Ms. Merlo served as the Vice President of the Baron de Hirsch Fund, she is a member of Brand Israel Group, an organization working to maintain close ties between Americans and Israel, and heading up a charitable foundation of her own, The Pearl Welinsky Merlo Foundation. Ms. Merlo has long had a passion for the State of Israel and Jewish-related causes both here in the United States and in Israel. Ms. Merlo makes her home in Manhattan.

Prof. Michal Neeman

Vice President
Weizmann Institute of Science

Born in Rehovot, Prof. Michal Neeman received a BSc in chemistry and biology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and her MSc and PhD degrees in chemistry from the Weizmann Institute of Science.  She did her postdoctoral research in the Life Sciences Division of Los Alamos National Laboratory (New Mexico), where she conducted research utilizing nuclear magnetic resonance micro-imaging.  In 1991, she returned to the Weizmann Institute, where she joined the Department of Hormone Research (now the Department of Biological Regulation). From 2009 until the end of 2014 when she became Vice President of the Institute, Prof. Neeman served as the Dean of the Faculty of Biology and Director of the Clore Center for Biological Physics. She is currently the incumbent of the Helen and Morris Mauerberger Chair of Immunology.

Prof. Neeman’s research focuses on the mechanisms that regulate angiogenesis, using magnetic resonance and optical imaging.  She is particularly interested in ovarian cancer and has demonstrated that the hormonal changes that accompany menopause indirectly promote the growth of dormant tumors and the spread of ovarian cancer by inducing the growth of blood vessels that nourish the tumors. She pioneered a method for tracking blood and lymphatic vessels to help scientists better understand how to suppress vessel growth and prolong tumor dormancy, thereby increasing survival in individuals with ovarian cancer.

Prof. Neeman received the 1998 Morris L. Levinson Prize in Biology, the 1999 Lindner Prize of the Israel Endocrine Society, the Fellow Award from the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, and the Abisch-Frenkel Prize for Excellence in Life Sciences. She was elected to the Board of Trustees of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) in 2001 and as a Fellow of the European Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and Biology (ESMRMB) in 2013.

She and her spouse, Amit, live in the village of Mazkeret Batya, where they raise their three sons, two dogs, and a family vineyard.

Prof. Jehuda Reinharz

Chair Designate, International Board
Weizmann Institute of Science
United States/Israel

Jehuda Reinharz was born in Haifa, Israel, in 1944. He received his high school education in Germany and immigrated to the United States as a teenager in 1961.

Prof. Reinharz earned concurrent bachelor’s degrees from Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. He earned his master’s degree in medieval Jewish history from Harvard University in 1968 and his doctorate in modern Jewish history from Brandeis University in 1972.

Prof. Reinharz was the first professor of Jewish history at the University of Michigan from 1972 to 1982, where he established the program in Judaic Studies and became a full professor.

In 1982, he became the Richard Koret Professor of Modern Jewish History in the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University. Two years later, he was named Director of the Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry at Brandeis and eight years later founded the Jacob and Libby Goodman Institute for the Study of Zionism and Israel. From 1991 to 1994, Prof. Reinharz served as Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs. In 1994, he became the seventh President of Brandeis University. In January 2011, Prof. Reinharz assumed the presidency of the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation.

Prof. Reinharz is the author or co-author of more than one hundred articles and thirty-one books in various languages. His Jew in the Modern World (3rd edition 2011), co-edited with Paul Mendes-Flohr, is one of the most widely adopted college texts in modern Jewish history. His two-volume biography of Chaim Weizmann, the first President of Israel, has won many prizes in Israel and the United States and his book, co-authored with the late Ben Halpern, entitled Zionism and the Creation of a New Society, was published in 1998 and re-issued in a revised paperback edition in 2000. His three latest co-authored books (with Prof. Yaacov Shavit) are Darwin and His Kind (published in Hebrew in 2009); Glorious, Accursed Europe (published in 2010), which analyzes the relationship of Jews to Europe from the 18th century to the present; and The Scientific God, which deals with popular science in Eastern Europe in the second half of the 19th century (published in Hebrew in 2011). In 2013, Reinharz co-authored The Road to September 1939 (published in Hebrew) with Yaacov Shavit, as well as Die Sprache der Judenfeindschaft im 21.Jahrhundert, co-authored with Monika Schwarz-Friesel. He is now completing with Prof. Motti Golani of Tel Aviv University, the third and final volume of the biography of Chaim Weizmann.

Most recently, Prof. Reinharz co-wrote a book on the history of the donkey in literature (with Prof. Yaacov Shavit). The book, The Donkey: A Cultural History, was published in Hebrew (2014). On this subject, Prof. Reinharz has said: “No one has ever contemplated this history on a large scale… It’s probably the most ambitious topic Prof. Shavit and I have ever contemplated.”

Prof. Reinharz is the recipient of seven honorary doctorates, including one from the Weizmann Institute of Science. In 1992, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. In 1995, Prof. Reinharz was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 1999 he was elected a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. In addition, he serves on a number of boards and advisory committees.

Jehuda Reinharz is married to Shulamit Reinharz, emerita professor of sociology at Brandeis University. They have two daughters, Yael and Naomi.

Dr. Asya Rolls

Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine
The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology

Dr. Asya Rolls is an Assistant Prof. at the Rappaport Medical School, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology and an International Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)-Wellcome investigator. She obtained her PhD from the Weizmann Institute, Israel and completed her postdoctoral training at the Psychiatry Department at Stanford University, CA as a Fulbright Scholar.

Dr. Rolls studies the physiological mechanisms whereby emotions and thoughts affect physical health. Her laboratory uses chemogenetic, optical, and behavioral approaches to investigate how specific brain activity affects the immune response. By deciphering the neuronal pathways mediating brain-immune signals, her work aims to harness the brain’s therapeutic potential.

Dr. Rolls is an elected member of the FENS-KAVLI network of excellence (2015-2019). Her work has been recognized through number of awards including the NARSAD Young Investigator Award, Krill Prize (Wolf Foundation), the Adelis Brain Research Award and the ERC starting grant.

Prof. Irit Sagi

Department of Biological Regulation
Dean, Feinberg Graduate School
Weizmann Institute of Science

Prof. Irit Sagi received a BSc degree from American University in Washington DC (1988), and MSc and PhD degrees in biophysics/bioinorganics from Georgetown University (1993). After her studies, she returned to Israel, where she did postdoctoral research at the Weizmann Institute of Science in the group of Prof. Ada Yonath, laureate of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. She continued her postdoctoral studies at the Max-Planck Institute in Hamburg, Germany, and joined the faculty of the Weizmann Institute in 1998.   Between 2005-2006 she spent a sabbatical as a visiting professor at Harvard University and at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research. In 2011, she moved her group to the Department of Biological Regulation. She became the dean of the Feinberg Graduate School in 2014 and is the incumbent of the Maurizio Pontecorvo Professorial Chair.
Prof. Sagi is developing and applying a unique, multidisciplinary and biophysical approach to investigate tissue and extracellular remodeling molecular processes.  Merging real-time spectroscopic and molecular imaging approaches, she was the first to reveal the complex molecular nature of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), a group of human enzymes linked to cancer and autoimmune diseases. Insights derived from these studies led her to design a new class of inhibitory antibodies that thwart the negative action of these enzymes.  These prototype antibodies are currently being developed for clinical use in inflammatory and cancer disaeses. Prof. Sagi continues to develop novel integrated experimental tools tailored to decipher the extracellular matrix mocelular remodeling code at near-atomic resolution in healthy and diseased tissues. Her unique biophysical approach is used to decipher molecular mecahnsims of dysregulated tissue proteolysis/remodeling and to develop a new generation of safe and effective drugs.

In 2013 Prof. Sagi received the Juludan Prize award for outstanding research projects in the exact sciences and advanced medicinal technologies. In 2006, she was awarded the Inventor of the Year by YEDA, LTD.; in 2003, she was awarded the Weizmann Institute Scientific Council Prize for Chemistry; and in 2000, the Jakubskind-Cymerman Research Prize. Since 2009, she has been the president of the Israel Biophysical Society. She is the scientific coordinator of the Institute Pasteur-Weizmann Council. She has more than 75 publications in peer reviewed scientific journals and books.

She is married and has three children.

Prof. Michal Schwartz

Department of Neurobiology
Weizmann Institute of Science

Prof. Schwartz received a BSc (1971) in chemistry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a PhD in chemical immunology from the Weizmann Institute of Science (1977). In 1980, after completing her postdoctoral studies on the immunology of myasthenia gravis at the Weizmann Institute, and on nerve regeneration at the University of Michigan, she joined the Weizmann Institute’s Department of Neurobiology. She is the incumbent of the Maurice and Ilse Katz Chair of Neuroimmunology.

Prof. Schwartz pioneered the theory of “protective autoimmunity,” which attributes a revolutionary role to the immune system in supporting cognitive function, mental stability, stem cell renewal and repair, and in combating neurodegenerative diseases. Her recent studies have identified a specific compartment within the brain’s borders, the blood cerebrospinal fluid barrier, which permits the entry of immune cells into the brain when they are needed for repair following acute injury or neurodegenerative damage. She has recently made the game-changing discovery that with aging, this brain gateway loses some of its ability to support immune cell entry, and has demonstrated in mice that restoring the gateway’s activity by unleashing the immune system, partially reversed age-associated cognitive decline, increased the production of new neurons in the hippocampus, and alleviated neurodegenerative processes associated with Alzheimer’s disease. In other work, together with Prof. Ido Amit, she identified the mechanism by which a particular viral infection during pregnancy (cytomegalovirus) affects the developing baby’s brain, leading to increased risk either for autism or schizophrenia, depending on the timing of when the mother is infected.

She has received numerous awards, including being elected President of the International Society of Neuroimmunology for 2016-2018, and becoming an Honorary Member of the World Immunopathology Organization in 2014. Prof. Schwartz received the Blumberg Prize for Excellence in Biomedical Research in 2015, the Distinguished Investigator Award from NARSAD, the Mental Health Research Association in 2010, the Rina and Yosef Shaked Prize for Brain Research and an honorary doctorate from Ben Gurion University of the Negev in 2009. Other honors included the Post-Polio Syndrome Research Award from the Polio Connection of America (2002), the Friedenwald Award from the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, the G. Heiner Sell Memorial Lectureship for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Spinal Injury awarded by the American Spinal Injury Association, and the International Glaucoma Review Award.  In addition, she was the Career Woman of the Year in 2000.  

She is married and has four grown children.

Dr. Liran Shlush

Department of Immunology
Weizmann Institute of Science

Dr. Liran Shlush was born in Haifa. He completed his BSc in medical sciences with honors in 1996 and his MD in 2001 at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. Dr. Shlush served as the Deputy Director of the Israel Navy Medical Institute during his military service from 2002 to 2008. Returning to the Technion in 2006, he completed a PhD in population genetics in 2012. He also completed a three-year residency in internal medicine at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa from 2008 to 2011. He pursued his postdoctoral research from 2012-2014, and a clinical fellowship in the leukemia program beginning in 2014, both at the Princess Margaret Cancer Center at the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada. He joined the Department of Immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science in September 2015, and is the incumbent of the Ruth and Louis Leland Career Development Chair.

During his postdoctoral work, Dr. Shlush published a major insight into the biology of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). By tracking the “family history” of individual stem cells from the blood of AML patients, and using deep sequencing to identify alterations in genes commonly mutated in AML, he and his collaborators were able to identify “pre-leukemic” stem cells. These mutant stem cells go on to form cancerous cells. When AML patients are treated with chemo, the cancerous cells are killed, but these mutant stem cells remain and can cause recurrence. The finding holds significant promise for treatment, earlier diagnosis, and new screening for AML—and perhaps other cancers as well.

His academic and professional awards include: an American Society of Hematology Scholar Award in 2015, a five-year postdoctoral fellowship at the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine beginning in 2011, an Excellence in Teaching Award in 2010 from the Faculty of Medicine at the Technion, the 2008 Itai Sharon Atidim Award at the Rambam healthcare campus in Haifa, the IDF Excellence Award for First Response Military Medical Care in 2003, and an Excellence Award in the Internship program at the Rambam Healthcare Campus in 2001.

Dr. Shlush is married and has three children.

Dr. Ivo Spiegel

Department of Neurobiology
Weizmann Institute of Science

Dr. Ivo Spiegel received his BSc in biology with honors from Tel Aviv University, his MSc from the Weizmann Institute of Science in 2001, and his PhD from the Weizmann Institute in 2007 in the Department of Molecular Cell Biology. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School. He joined the Weizmann Institute in 2016.

Dr. Spiegel’s research addresses an age-old question in brain science that has vast implications for the understanding of the human brain: To what extent do experience and environment dictate brain function, and to what extent do our genes do so?  Specifically, he explores the tight control over the balance between the neurons responsible for excitation and inhibition response, known as the “E/I Balance”, in the face of changing sensory experiences, which is critically important for normal brain function. He is making key inroads on understanding its importance in brain function in health and in disease—specifically, to what extent genes and to what extent environmental factors affect the balance.

Dr. Spiegel was a Zuckerman Scholar as a newly recruited scientist at the Weizmann Institute, and his awards and honors include the Weizmann Institute’s Feinberg Graduate School’s prize for excellence, its Dean’s award, and its John F. Kennedy Prize. He received a certificate of excellence from the Israeli Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology during his PhD studies, a Long-Term Fellowship from the Human Frontiers Science Program, and a Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship from the European Research Council, an EMBO long-term fellowship, and a post-doctoral fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation.