ON TARGET Tel Aviv University graduate students Rotem Perry (left) and Amit Sagi prepare dendrimer-based drug-delivery systems.
CHEMISTRY IN THE HOLY LAND Having to contend constantly with political turmoil distinguishes RESEARCHERS IN ISRAEL from those in the West MITCH JACOBY, C&EN CHICAGO
ASK ISRAELI SCIENTISTS inacademia about their lives as researchers and they will likely paint a picture that in some ways resembles the lives of their counterparts in the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere but in other ways is quite distinct. Like researchers abroad, Israeli academics in the chemical sciences must raise research funds, build and manage research groups, and publicize their findings under the scrutiny of peer review. But unlike other countries that are widely known for scientific productivity, Israel is tiny. The country is smaller than the state of New Jersey and hosts a population of only some 6 million people. Furthermore, Israel
is located in the Middle East, far from the Western countries with which it is aligned politically, socially, and academically. And it's surrounded by several hostile neighbors, some of which have declared publicly the desire to wipe the Jewish state off the map. The odds of developing a successful chemical research program in such a place and under such circumstances might seem slim, and the task maybe daunting. Yet Israeli chemists don't seem particularly fazed by the challenge. "Kacha zeh ba'aretz," they say in a matter-of-fact way.
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"That's just the way things are in Israel." To get a firsthand look at the state of chemical research in Israel, G&EN visited some 30 research groups at three distinct types of academic institutions: Weizmann Institute of Science, in Rehovot, a leading private research institution; Technion— Israel Institute of Technology, in Haifa, an elite engineering and technical school; and Tel Aviv University (TAU), a large "full service" university. By drawing on interviews with scientists at those institutions, this profile aims to give a flavor of the kinds
Follow a C&EN reporter on a tour of Israel's research centers and holy sites at C&EN Online, www.cen-online.org. 1C
MARCH 5, 2007
COVER STORY
of research proj ect s under way ω in Israel's academic chemistry >2 laboratories and to open a winS dow—just a crack—into the lives 3 of the people who work there. 5 I SITTING IN his office in the Weizmann Institute's original building, which dates back to the 1930s, organic chemistry profes sor Mordechai (Mudi) Sheves contemplates a question about the factors that make chemistry research in Israel unique from that in other countries. Sheves, who just finished serving a term as the dean of Weizmann's chemistry faculty, points to his colleagues' work in ar chaeology and solar energy as distinctive ex amples of chemical research tied specifically to the land, climate, and history of Israel. But for the most part, he says, "Israeli chemists focus on the same general areas of cuttingedge basic research as non-Israeli chemists." For example, Sheves' own area—molecular mechanisms that control retinal protein function—is studied in several countries.
typical, he says, for Israelis to be gin their under graduate studies at around age 21 WÊKÊÊÊÊÊ and to graduate with a bachelor's degree at 24 or 25. At that point, students can continue their education at an institution such as Weizmann, which offers only graduate degree programs, and spend roughly two years working toward a master's degree and another five years to complete a doctorate. Along the way, however, young Israeli researchers get called up for military reserve duty, which can keep them away from the lab for one month per year, sometimes longer. As a result, "by the time you get a Ph.D. in Israel," Sheves says, "you're likely to be around 32, which, by American standards, is quite old." Precisely how an older student body and compulsory military service affect scientific research and productivity is an IN SIGHT A t
Weizmann, Sheves addresses the molecular basis of vision.
For a unique-to-Israel angle, Sheves points instead to a fact of life for nearly every Israeli teenager: mandatory military service. As a result of that national require ment, which generally begins at age 18 and lasts three years for men and two for wom en, "Israelis tend to start their university education at an older age than American or European students," Sheves observes. It is
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