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November 30, 1984 - Image 50

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1984-11-30

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

A National asset

6

THIS AFTERNOON, a ceremony
of much meaning in Israel and
beyond its borders takes place on the
campus of the Weizmann Institute of
Science as this invaluable national
asset . celebrates its 50th
Annive rsary.
That which came into being in
1934 when Dr. Chaim Weizmann
opened the pioneering Daniel Sieff
Research Institute, from which the
Weizmann Institute eventually
grew, was and still is, a unique
scientific community, unique in its

I first went to MandatedPalestine
in 1929 when there were only two
institutions of higher learning, the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem and
the Haifa Technion. Today there are
many – several with international
reputations for the quality of their
teaching and work.
I know the Weizmann Institute
well, having been closely associated
with it from its beginnings as the
Daniel Sieff Research Institute.
My brother, Daniel, who was set
on a scientific career, died in 1933.
Hitler was coming to power.
Already in the '30s, Dr. Weizmann
said: "There will be no place for a
single Jew in Germany, no matter
how great his contribution to his
country." Many disbelieved him,
but, tragically, he was proven right.
Mother and Father discussed with
Dr. Weizmann a memorial to
Daniel. Dr. Weizmann proposed
that the family set up a scientific
institute for research into organic
chemistry and agriculture in Pales-
tine, because the country, so poorly
endowed with natural resources,
would need high-level scientific re-
search and technology, and because

THE Weizmann Institute of Scien-
ce, located on 250 acres of lawns
and gardens in Rehovot, is a centre
of scientific research and graduate
study on Israel's coastal plain. Its
scientific staff now numbers some
1,800 – researchers, engineers and
technicians among them 500
scientists-in-training pursuing M.Sc.
and Ph.D. programmes at its Fein-
berg Graduate School.
Today's campus of 35 buildings –
including research, administration
and auxiliary facilities – grew out of
the modest Daniel Sieff Research
Institute founded in 1934 by Dr.
Chaim Weizmann in the then small
agricultural community of Rehovot.
The Sieff Institute was established in
memory of Daniel Sieff by his pa-
rents, Israel and Rebecca Sieff, close
friends of the Weizmann family.
Weizmann, who was later to be-
come the first President of Israel and
the first President of the Weizmann
Institute, organized his fledgling In-
stitute as a unique experiment in
scientific pioneering. It would sub-
ject itself to the disciplines of practic-
al problems arising from the Yishuv
and its economy while not neglecting
science for its own sake — pure
science. And as for its standards of
performance it would emulate those
of the best institutions in the world.
With a staff of 10 accomplished
scientists, Weizmann — who by then
had already made significant con-
tributions to organic chemistry and
industrial fermentation — started
work on projects related to the citrus
industry, dairy farming, silk and
tobacco, and to the production of
chemical products of medical value.
To honour Weizmann on his 70th
birthday in 1944, a group of his
friends, led by his close associate
Meyer Weisgal, late President and
Chancellor of the Weizmann Insti-
t ute, set up a committee to plan a
radical expansion of the Sieff Insti-
tute into a wide-ranging research

vitality and its free-flowing interdis-
ciplinary collaboration. It sets out to
contribute simultaneously to the in-
ternational pool of basic knowledge
and to the development of this coun-
try. It is, in fact, largely thanks to
those precepts of Weizmann's, rein-
forced by those who followed him as

presidents of the Institute, that the
scientific approach to problems be-
came integral to Israel – in contrast
to many, if not most, other emerging
states.
It is, in no way, coincidental that
the Israeli version of the computer
revolution, its first industrial-science

There can be no question that
Israel would have been a different, a
far more disadvantaged land, were it
not for this gifted scientific popula-
tion, permanently and totally corn-
park (Kiryat Weizmann), its bid for mitted to the maintenance of high
high-tech supremacy in general, and standards of excellence and untram-
rising concern for effective science meled inquiry.
teaching all originated at the Weiz-
The Institute's jubilee is therefore
mann Institute. Nor, by the same
token, was it happenstance that two an occasion not only for the remem-
of Israel's six presidents have been berance of things past, but also for
particularly distinguished members wholehearted celebration.

`Science

it might become a haven in whic
refugee German scientists coul
continue their work. So it began a
Rehovot on the northern edge of th
Negev desert.
The Daniel Sieff Institute wa
opened in 1934. Those of you w
know today's Weizmann Institute
which grew out of the Daniel Sie
Institute, and who did not know th
site in 1934, would not believe wha
it was like 50 years ago – two smal
buildings, half a dozen scientists an
supporting staff, surrounded by de
sert – no grass, no flowers, no trees
the jackals howled at night. This wa
the forerunner of today's fine Weiz
mann Institute with its magnificen
laboratories, fine buildings an
beautiful campus where hundred
of people work.
The Institute will continue to ,
an international bridge to peace, foi
science knows no barriers when i
comes to research for the benefit o f
mankind. When peace conies at las e
to the Middle East, the Institute wil
help greatly to cement it.
Lord Sieff of Brimpto
Reprinted from the 50th Anniversa r
issue of Rehovot.

SIM

A message from
the Chairman of the
Board of Governors.

Fi

years of achievement

Today, the Weizmann Institute is carrying out some 640
research projects in 21 different units.

facility bearing Weizmann's name.
On November 2, 1949, when the

of the faculty of the institute.

Weizmann Institute of Science was eight main buildings and some 60
formally dedicated, it comprised laboratories.

Today, 32 years after Weizmann'
death, the Institute in which h
worked and lived and on whos
grounds he is buried, is carrying o
some 640 basic and applied researc
projects in its 21 units, groupe
administratively into five faculties
each headed by a dean.
The Faculty of Biology is activel .
tackling the problem of cancer, thi
functioning of the immune syste
the basis of hormone operation an
aging,. as well as research into p1 '
genetics and metabolism. Scientist
in the Faculty of Biophysic '
Biochemistry are examining the d
tails of how cells manufacture th
substances they need to live, fun
tion and develop. Nerve tissue, mu
Iles, cell membranes, algae and ba
teria are among the materials unde
study.
Aspects of inorganic, organic
physical and polymer chemistry ar
all being investigated in the Facult
of Chemistry. Various materials
commercial value and processe
hearing on water resource expansi
have resulted from this research. Th
Faculty of Mathematics in engaged i
both theoretical and applie i
mathematics. Computer technolog
and methodology, as well as theor
tical geophysics, are among the i
terests of Institute mathematician
In the Faculty of Physics, researc
ranges from probing the secrets o
the nucleus, elementary particle
and astrophysics, to applied physi
where magnetism, lasers, an •
holography projects are under w
and the design of electronic devices
useful in medicine and industry, is i
progress.
Cutting across departmental lines
are a number of recently established
centres in such fields as aging, ener-,
gy, industrial research, molecular
genetics, neurosciences, theoretical
physics, plant research and structu-
ral biology.

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