PhD HONOREES

Gary M. Abramson is a top real estate entrepreneur and a highly respected leader who has been a pillar of the Washington, D.C. Jewish community for decades. He began his professional career in 1969 at the Tower Companies, a three-generation family-owned real estate development business in the Washington, D.C. area. Founded by Gary’s father Albert Abramson in 1947, Tower is now the largest builder of LEED^®-certified green building properties in the D.C. metro area, and one of the pioneers of sustainable building practices in the United States. Over the years, Mr. Abramson has designed numerous office buildings, apartments, shopping centers, and mixed-use complexes, and has overseen multiple aspects of the company, including leasing, management, development, construction, architecture, design, and aesthetics. Today, he serves as a partner in the company.

Mr. Abramson received his BA (1968) in government and public administration from American University in Washington, D.C. He is Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Trustees of American University; Former Chairman of the Heifetz International Music Institute in Virginia; a member of the Washington Advisory Board of Truist Bank; and, for the past three decades, has been actively involved with the Weizmann Institute of Science and its American Committee (ACWIS).

Mr. Abramson was first elected to the Weizmann Institute’s Board of Governors in 1988 and has been a valued contributing member ever since. In November 2018, he was appointed a Life Member of the International Board. He and his wife Pennie share a deep dedication to advancing the future of science in Israel, and lead by example through committed service and leadership on the ACWIS Board of Directors and the Weizmann Institute Board.

The couple are generous supporters of multiple Weizmann endeavors. In 2009, they established the Abramson Family Center for Young Scientists, which has provided vital support to outstanding new recruits at the Institute, and have also contributed to brain research. Mr. and Mrs. Abramson are members of the President’s Circle of the Weizmann Institute.

Most recently, the Abramson family provided the naming gift to establish the Pennie and Gary Abramson Family International Residence, a state-of-the-art building that will serve as a dormitory complex and social hub for Weizmann international students and postdoctoral fellows.

Gary and Pennie Abramson have three children and four grandchildren.

Sandy Frankel is a practicing attorney with over 50 years of experience, the author of several books, and a trustee of The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust.

Mr. Frankel graduated from New York University (1964; Phi Beta Kappa) and Harvard Law School (1967). He began his legal career as a staff member of the White House Task Force on Crime, and then served as Temporary Counsel to the National Commission on Reform of Federal Criminal Laws and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Washington, D.C.

After leaving Washington, he established his own legal practice as a trial lawyer in New York City. In 1990, real estate magnate and hotelier Leona Helmsley became one of his clients, and for the next 18 years Mr. Frankel handled many of her legal matters, becoming one of her most trusted advisors. She later appointed Mr. Frankel as an executor of her estate and one of five trustees of the Helmsley Charitable Trust.

Since beginning active grant-making in 2008, the Helmsley Charitable Trust has committed more than $3 billion to a wide range of charitable causes to benefit humankind, focusing on health, medical research, and select place-based initiatives, including Israel. Under the visionary leadership of Mr. Frankel, the Trust's Israel program has been a pivotal benefactor of major endeavors in Israel, improving access to quality healthcare throughout the country, strengthening Israel's leadership in scientific, technological and medical research, and promoting global understanding and appreciation of Israel and its people.

The Helmsley Charitable Trust has funded numerous projects and initiatives at the Weizmann Institute of Science, including Crohn's disease research, the creation of experimental models to aid in inflammatory bowel disease therapeutics, the establishment of the Weizmann Quantum Nano-Physics Initiative and the Quantum Materials Devices Fabrication Lab, and major state-of-the-art research equipment for the study of stem cells, alternative energy, and magnetic resonance research. The Helmsley Charitable Trust was inducted into the Weizmann Institute's President's Circle in 2010.

Mr. Frankel has visited Israel frequently since his teenage years and is married to Ruthie, a native of Israel. One of his books, Beyond A Reasonable Doubt, received the Edgar Allan Poe Award.

Born in New York City in 1943, Professor Emerita Nancy Hopkins has made prodigious contributions in basic molecular biology, the genetics of cancer viruses, and the genetics of early vertebrate development, and is a pioneer in advancing the role of women in science. She completed a PhD in molecular biology and biochemistry at Harvard University, conducted postdoctoral research at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, and joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Cancer Research as an assistant professor in 1973. Currently, she is the Amgen Professor of Biology Emerita at MIT.

In her PhD research, Nancy Hopkins demonstrated that a protein coded for by a bacterial virus binds to specific DNA sequences to control gene expression – seminal experiments that left an indelible mark on scientists’ understanding of how genes are turned on and off. As a postdoctoral fellow, she changed fields to study animal cells and viruses. As a faculty member at MIT, she used genetics to map RNA tumor virus genes, identifying genes that determine host range, the type and severity of cancers mouse retroviruses cause, and the mechanisms by which they cause cancer. Later, Hopkins switched fields again and achieved unprecedented success in developing tools for zebrafish research, devising an efficient method for large-scale insertional mutagenesis and cloning hundreds of genes that play a role in creating a viable zebrafish embryo. These genes included known and novel genes that predispose zebrafish – a premier model system in vertebrate development and cancer biology – to cancer.

Prof. Hopkins has been at the forefront of an ongoing campaign to end discrimination against women in science – working to ensure that female scientists are able to advance in their careers, secure necessary resources, and receive acknowledgement for their achievements. Her tremendous efforts over the years have sparked a movement to address gender bias in science. She chaired the committee that authored the influential 1999 Study on the Status of Women Faculty in Science at MIT, and was appointed Co-Chair of the first Council on Faculty Diversity at MIT in 2000. She is also the co-founder of the MIT Future Founders Initiative, launched in 2020 to increase the number of female faculty members who start biotechnology companies.

Prof. Hopkins' numerous honors and awards include membership in the US National Academy of Sciences, the US National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Ellen Knell is a geneticist who specializes in cancer-risk assessment and genetic testing. She carried out her undergraduate studies in psychology and biological sciences at the University of California, Berkeley, and then went on to earn her MSc and PhD from UCLA. She worked at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, City of Hope, and has been a consultant and in private practice most of her career. 

Dr. Knell is a Board member of the Cancer Support Community in her hometown of Pasadena, California, and is active in Professional Child Development Associates, a nonprofit that provides services for children with autism spectrum disorder. She is also a past President of Southwest Chamber Music, an ensemble that won two Grammy Awards during her tenure.

Dr. Knell and her husband Harvey Knell, also a PhD honoris causa recipient, founded a philanthropic foundation, through which they have made numerous contributions in a wide range of areas, including education, arts, culture, research, and Jewish causes. The couple are also longtime members of the Weizmann family, through their dedicated service on the Institute's International Board, through generous support and advocacy, and through their visionary philanthropy as members of the President's Circle.

In 2013, they established the Knell Family Professorial Chair, whose current incumbent is Prof. Yardena Samuels in the Department of Molecular Cell Biology. They also provided funding for the development of the Weizmann UK Building for Biocomplexity Research. Most recently, they established the Knell Family Center for Microbiology, directed by Prof. Rotem Sorek, which supports a multidisciplinary group of researchers on a journey to harness the power of "good" microbial diversity to develop new medicines, understand trends in global ecology, and more.

The Knells have three sons and six grandchildren. They reside at the Blacker House in Pasadena, built in 1907 by renowned architects Greene and Greene and listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, which the Knells had completely restored while preserving the house's history and legacy.

Dr. Jessica Meir is a comparative physiologist, NASA Astronaut, and a role model for young women worldwide aspiring to become space explorers. She was born and raised in Caribou, Maine, to Israeli and Swedish immigrants to the United States, holding a passion for space exploration since childhood.  She obtained a BA in biology magna cum laude from Brown University in 1999, and later completed an MSc in space studies from the International Space University in France (2000) and a PhD in marine biology from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego (2009).

From 2000 to 2003, Dr. Meir worked for Lockheed Martin’s Human Research Facility, supporting physiology research on the space shuttle and International Space Station. During this time, she also participated in research flights on NASA's reduced gravity aircraft, and served as an aquanaut in an underwater habitat for NASA. For her PhD research (2003-2009), Dr. Meir studied the diving physiology of marine mammals and birds, focusing on oxygen depletion in diving emperor penguins (Antarctic field research) and elephant seals (northern California). She investigated the high‐flying bar-headed goose during her postdoctoral research at the University of British Columbia (2009-2012), training geese to fly in a wind tunnel while obtaining various physiological measurements in reduced oxygen conditions. In 2012, she accepted a position as assistant professor at the Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dr. Meir was selected in 2013 as one of eight members of the 21st NASA Astronaut Class, later serving as a flight engineer on the International Space Station for Expeditions 61 and 62. During these missions, which took place from September 2019 to April 2020, Dr. Meir spent a total of 205 days in space and contributed to hundreds of scientific and technological experiments.

On October 18, 2019, Dr. Meir and her fellow astronaut Christina Koch conducted maintenance outside the International Space Station – replacing an electric power controller. This event made history as it marked the first-ever all-female spacewalk, sparking a keen public debate concerning the role and visibility of women in space exploration, and inspiring a generation of young women to pursue their dream of becoming astronauts. In 2020, NASA selected Dr. Meir to participate in the Artemis Program, which will launch the first manned missions to the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972.

Among her many honors, Dr. Meir has received honorary degrees from Brown University, Bowdoin College, and the Luleå University of Technology in Sweden, in addition to professional awards from NASA and Lockheed Martin. She was also recognized as one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2020.

Raised in a Jewish household, Dr. Meir has expressed her deep connection to Israel, where most of her father's relatives live. She chose the Israeli flag as one of the few personal items that she was allowed to take with her to the International Space Station.