introducing new scientists 2012
TRANSCRIPT
Introducing New Scientists 2012
Introducing New Scientists 2012 is published by the Department of Resource Development at the Weizmann Institute of ScienceP.O. Box 26, Rehovot, Israel 76100Tel: 972.8.934 4582e-mail: [email protected]
Table of Contents
New scientists are vital for Israel’s future .........................................................................................1
Prof. Oded Aharonson, Department of Environmental Sciences and Energy Research Solving planetary puzzles ................................................................................................................2
Dr. Erez Berg, Department of Condensed Matter Physics When matter breaks the rules .........................................................................................................4
Dr. Shahar Dobzinski, Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics Handling selfishness in algorithms .................................................................................................6
Dr. Eran Elinav MD PhD, Department of Immunology Immunity and inflammation ...........................................................................................................8
Dr. Sarel Fleishman, Department of Biological Chemistry Designing new protein functions ....................................................................................................10
Dr. Itay Halevy, Department of Environmental Sciences and Energy Research The climate and geochemistry of planets ........................................................................................12
Dr. Yohai Kaspi, Department of Environmental Sciences and Energy Research The dynamics of storms ...................................................................................................................14
Dr. Rafal Klajn, Department of Organic Chemistry Robert Edward and Roselyn Rich Manson Career Development Chair Chemistry at the nanoscale .............................................................................................................16
Dr. Emmanuel Levy, Department of Structural Biology Understanding protein-to-protein interactions ..............................................................................18
Dr. Yaron Lipman, Department of Computer Sciences and Applied Mathematics The mathematics of shapes ..............................................................................................................20
Dr. Shmuel Rubinstein, Department of Physics of Complex Systems The dynamics of interfaces ..............................................................................................................22
New Scientist Funds and Gifts .......................................................................................................24
1
The Weizmann Institute’s 250 principal researchers are leaders in the world of science, both in Israel and abroad. Over the next five years, nearly 60 of these eminent scientists will be retiring. Approximately 40 reached retirement age in the past five years and have been succeeded by 43 new hires, including the 11 young scientists profiled here. The Weizmann Institute of Science looks for promising researchers who are rising stars in their fields and who are pioneering new directions in science. One of the most notable developments this year is that we recruited three young scientists whose focus is earth and planetary sciences, whose research is helping inform understanding of life on Earth. To help a scientist come to Israel, the Institute offers a commitment of three or more years of research funding and new equipment to establish his or her new laboratory. The costs average from $1 to $2 million depending upon the field of research. Sometimes we are fortunate to recruit a veteran scientist who is an established leader in his or her field, such as Prof. Oded Aharonson, who returned to Israel after teaching at the California Institute of Technology. Private, philanthropic gifts are vital to helping the Institute meet this tremendous funding challenge each year.
Friends of the Weizmann Institute from around the world are making it possible for the Institute to recruit some of the sharpest minds in mathematics and science and give them the tools to follow their restless curiosity wherever it may lead. The following pages profile the young principal investigators recruited in 2011-2012 who illustrate the range of research and startup needs of the Institute’s newest scientists.
New scientists are vital for Israel’s future
Prof. Daniel Zajfman, President
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Prof. Oded Aharonson uses measurements from spacecraft dispatched throughout the solar system to study other planets. In concert with computer modeling and laboratory simulations, data from these space missions help piece together planetary puzzles. For instance, he combined orbital measurements with computer modeling to propose a probable answer for why the crust of Mars is markedly thinner (up to 30 km.) in its northern hemisphere than its southern half — it appears to have been hit by a Texas-sized asteroid more than four billion years ago that forever changed the red planet. He has built laboratory simulations reproducing Mars-like surface conditions (temperature, pressure, composition,
and humidity) to measure and model phenomena such as deposition of ice and frost detected from orbit and photographed by the Phoenix Lander. Prof. Aharonson used laser measurements from spacecraft orbiting Mars to map the geologic evidence of former lake beds and fluvial features (see picture at left). He designed and ran experiments using the
Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity to study the surface of Mars up close.
Prof. Aharonson serves as a co-investigator on a number of space missions and instrument teams, and his research is helping inform our understanding of Earth and the universe around us.
Department of Environmental Sciences and Energy Research
Solvingplanetary puzzles
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Prof. Oded AharonsonProf. Oded Aharonson earned a BSc in Applied and Engineering Physics in 1994 and an MSc in 1995 from Cornell University, New York. He completed a PhD in Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in 2002. He worked as an Assistant, Associate, and full Professor at the California Institute of Technology, from 2002 until 2011. He joined the Department of Environmental Sciences and Energy Research at the Weizmann Instute in 2011.
His professional and academic honors include the NASA Group Achievement Awards for the NEAR Shoemaker Mission Team (2002), the Mars Exploration Rover Science Team (2008), and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Laser Ranging Team (2009). He was also awarded an MIT Kerr Fellowship, an AGU Outstanding Student Paper Award, a Lewis Scholarship, and was elected to the Tau Beta Pi Honor Society.
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Physicists like Dr. Erez Berg are fascinated whenever matter “breaks the rules” of everyday physics and becomes superconducting (able to conduct electricity with zero resistance). Even though superconductivity was discovered a long time ago, new experiments keep suggesting that the class of phenomena that occurs in superconductors is richer than scientists had believed. In his PhD work, Dr. Berg began studying a new type of superconducting phase, a “striped superconductor” in which the local superconducting amplitude is modulated in
space. He plans to study this phase further, and in particular propose and interpret future experiments that can establish its occurrence in nature.
At the Weizmann Institute, Dr. Berg plans to tackle some of these intriguing questions in quantum and superconductor physics as a theorist looking to understand the quirkiness of matter and to find new rules to explain the apparent contradictions.
breaks the rules
Department of Condensed Matter Physics
When matter
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Dr. Erez Berg spent six years of military service in the Theoretical Physics Division of Rafael - Israel’s Armament Development Authority. He earned his BSc in 1998 and his MSc in 2003, both degrees summa cum laude in Physics at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. He completed his PhD in Physics at Stanford University in 2009, and studied as a postdoctoral scholar at Harvard University starting in 2009. He joins the Weizmann Institute in 2012.
Dr. Berg has been awarded a number of academic and professional honors, including a Silver Medal in the 26th International Physics Olympiad, Canberra, Australia, in 1995, a Special Award from Israel’s Parliament (Knesset) in 1998 for outstanding undergraduate students, a departmental prize for outstanding performance from Rafael in 2000, and the Kirkpatrick Award for excellence in teaching at Stanford University in 2005.
Dr. Erez Berg
6
When you search for “pizza” on Google with the intent of finding a local pizzeria that delivers, you get a list of options on your screen. On top of the search results, you will find some ads. The algorithms controlling this ad-display function behind the scenes are highly complicated, and take into account many parameters such as your location and your search history—which help predict, for example, whether you are in fact searching for a pizzeria, or a pizza recipe. It’s all done in a split second. Google doesn’t actually access all the pizzerias and ask them for bids, of course; instead, algorithms exist for each pizza ad and they are all making bids and competing with one another to appear on your screen.
Internet ad display is just one example of the use of algorithms in business. There are plentiful similar examples whenever there is a big and complicated auction—on or off the Internet—like when the U.S. and European countries held auctions for selling spectrum licenses for mobile 3G networks a decade ago. The focus of Dr. Shahar Dobzinski’s research is to enable such auctions, by designing appropriate algorithms so that the auctions are highly effective. In Google search terms, this would mean that the
ads of pizzerias were indeed those in your area, including the last pizzeria web site you were on, and that Google’s revenue will be maximized.
Dr. Dobzinski, who draws on expertise in economics, game theory, and computer science, aims to design auctions (algorithms) that have the following three properties. The first is truthfulness—the expectation of “selfish” behavior in which bidders do not bid the true value of their product; instead, they overvalue it by some degree. The second property is speed, since it’s best for auctions to take place quickly. And the third property is “good approximation,” which is useful because in many settings the very best algorithms take a long time to run, so the compromise is algorithms that are pretty close to ideal, and also fast. Constructing algorithms that contain all three of these properties is the focus of Dr. Dobzinski’s research.
Applications of his work can be found in many areas of computer science and economics, from the design of large electronic markets and highly complicated auctions to the construction of more effective Internet protocols.
Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics
Handling
selfishness in algorithms
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Dr. Shahar Dobzinski earned his BSc cum laude in 2004 and his PhD summa cum laude in 2009, both degrees in Computer Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Since September 2009, he has been a postdoctoral researcher at Cornell University in New York. He joins the Weizmann Institute in 2012.
Dr. Dobzinski’s honors include the Outstanding Paper Award at the Tenth ACM Conference on Electronic Commerce (EC’09), and the Hebrew University’s Schlomiuk Prize for outstanding PhD thesis.
Dr. Shahar Dobzinski
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As an immunologist and a physician trained in internal medicine, Dr. Eran Elinav is intrigued by the dynamics of the gastrointestinal tract, a diverse ecosystem that contains trillions of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites that are separated by only a single layer of epithelial cells from the rest of the body. The intestinal system normally is able to recognize and tolerate these foreign bodies. In the case of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) however, the body triggers inflammation that ultimately results in the destruction of parts of its own tissue. It provides immunologists like Dr. Elinav with a great model to study immune tolerance and inflammation. As an MD working on his PhD at the Weizmann Institute, he experimented with using “reprogrammed” T cells to successfully treat a colitis-like disease in mice.
In his postdoctoral work, Dr. Elinav concentrated on the inflammasome, a multi-protein complex that recognizes bacterial and viral antigens and can initiate a rapid immune response against dangerous pathogens. In a recent paper published
in Cell, he reported on the role of the NLRP6 inflammasome, a previously unknown complex found in the epithelial cells of the colon that appears to serve as a master regulator governing the gut microflora ecosystem.
He showed that impairing NLRP6 functions results in profound alterations in the microflora composition, with expansion of certain bacterial strains that re-program the host gut epithelial cell gene expression program, resulting in pre-disposing for the development of IBD. Understanding the role inflammasomes play in mucosal immunology and their effects on how the host and microflora interact may suggest new therapies for IBD and other inflammatory, autoimmune metabolic, and neoplastic disorders.
Immunity and inflammation
Department of Immunology
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Dr. Eran Elinav MD PhD
Dr. Eran Elinav served for four years in the Israel Defense Forces and completed his BSc in Medical Sciences at Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1995. He earned an MD at Hadassah Medical School at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1999, followed by a year of rotating internship at the Hadassah hospitals. Between 2000 and 2004 he completed a residency in internal medicine at Hadassah University Hospital, Mount Scopus. Dr. Elinav earned a PhD in Immunology at the Weizmann Institute in 2009. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Yale University School of Medicine starting in 2009. He joins the faculty of the Weizmann Institute in 2012.
His honors include being listed on the Rector’s and Dean’s honor role at Hadassah Medical School each year from 1994 through 1997, class representative for the medical students exchange program at Mount Sinai University Hospital in 1998, best presentation awards at the Israel Association for the Study of Liver Disease in 2006 and the World Immune Regulation meeting at Davos in 2007, and at the Yale Cancer Research Center in 2010, and the Otto Schwarts Prize in 2009. He received the 2011 Claire and Emmanuel G. Rosenblatt award from the American Physicians for Medicine in Israel Foundation, the Keystone foundation award in 2012, a Fullbright scholarship (2009), and Cancer Research (Irvington) Foundation fellowships (2010-2012).
He has been granted four biomedical patents, including the co-development of a recombinant mutant of the human leptin hormone being tested by BiolineRx for the treatment of inflammatory diseases and pathological weight loss (cachexia).
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Dr. Sarel Fleishman works at the interface of cellular biology, biophysics, and evolution. He uses a combination of computational modeling and lab experiments to study molecular recognition: how proteins recognize and bind to their intended targets rather than the thousands of other macromolecules that coexist in the cell. He then designs computer-based algorithms that can suggest entirely new proteins that do not exist in nature and can carry out the desired molecular recognition task, such as neutralizing hostile viruses or bacteria. To test these predictions, Dr. Fleishman and his colleagues synthesize each protein in the lab and conduct high-throughput experiments to isolate the most potent binders.
In research they described in Science in 2011, Dr. Fleishman and his colleagues used computational design to produce two proteins that target a critical piece of the deadly Spanish flu virus (H1N1), the virus that caused the worldwide influenza outbreak of 1918. The target site on the flu surface exists in many pathogenic flu strains, including the avian (H5N1) and Asian (H2N2)
flu. The designed proteins were able to neutralize the flu’s infectivity. The finding is of tremendous potential value in medicine, because the same “designer protein” would be able to target different strains of the flu year after year, precluding the need for vaccinations to be updated every year. Dr. Fleishman anticipates that protein design will, in the coming years, be the method of choice for generating high-specificity and potency therapeutics, diagnostics, molecular probes, and other biomedical advances. Already, the research has led to potential commercial advances in therapeutic and diagnostic potential for a wide range of deadly flu viruses.
Department of Biological Chemistry
newprotein functions Designing
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Dr. Sarel FleishmanDr. Sarel Fleishman completed the Adi Lautman Interdisciplinary Program for Outstanding Students and the Life Sciences Research Track Program at Tel Aviv University in 2000. He then completed an MSc summa cum laude in 2002, and a PhD with distinction in Biochemistry in 2006, both at Tel Aviv University. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Washington, Seattle, from 2007 until joining the faculty of the Weizmann Institute in 2011.
His honors include: postdoctoral fellowships from the Human Frontier Science Program from 2006 through 2009, the GE Healthcare and Science Young Investigator Award in Molecular Biology in 2008, a Rothschild Postdoctoral Fellowship, a Sir Charles Clore Doctoral Fellowship from 2003 to 2006, a Dean’s scholarship from the Tel-Aviv University Faculty of Life Sciences in 2002, Dr. Eliahu Mani Awards of Excellence in 2001 and 2002, and the Adi Lautman Interdisciplinary Program Award of Excellence in 2001.
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Dr. Itay Halevy’s research focuses on the climate and geochemistry of Earth and other planets. His insights into the early oceans and atmospheres
of Mars and Earth as reflected in their geology and geochemistry have shed new light on their past climate and on the conditions that allowed life to evolve. He has provided the first direct evidence that near-surface conditions on ancient Mars were not only wetter, as evidenced from the
existence of valleys on ancient surfaces, but also warmer than the present climate. He measured carbon and oxygen isotopes in carbonate minerals in a four-billion-year-old meteorite from Mars (see picture at left) as one of his pieces of evidence.
Moreover, Dr. Halevy has shown that this early warmth, as well as the record of water-lain minerals on Mars, may have been strongly influenced by volcanic emission of sulfur-bearing gases. Among his insights about the Earth’s early oceans, atmosphere and biosphere prior to about 2.5 billion years ago, Dr. Halevy surmises that biological utilization of sulfur was minor and that the composition of volcanic gases had a major role in driving the cycling of sulfur through Earth’s surface environment.
Department of Environmental Sciences and Energy Research
The climate and geochemistry of planets
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Dr. Itay HalevyDr. Itay Halevy received his BSc in Geological and Environmental Science, and in Computer Science, in 2004 from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He received an MA in 2007 and PhD in 2010 in Earth and Planetary Science from Harvard University. Dr. Halevy conducted his postdoctoral research at the California Institute of Technology. He joined the faculty of the Weizmann Institute of Science in 2011.
Dr. Halevy is a recipient of a Fulbright Graduate Fellowship from 2005-2007, the Harvard University Origins of Life Initiative Graduate Fellowship (2006-2010), the Mary Taussig-Henderson Prize for Outstanding Work in Crystallography in 2008, the NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship in 2009-2010, the Texaco Postdoctoral Fellowship of the Caltech Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences (2010-2011),the Editors’ Citation for Excellence in Refereeing from the Journal of Geophysical Research, Atmospheres in 2010, and the Sir Charles Clore Prize for Research in 2011.
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Space missions and orbiting telescopes are providing a wealth of data on planets and moons, and super-computers now enable scientists to build detailed, dynamic models of their atmospheres, including, Earth. Dr. Yohai Kaspi is on NASA’s science team for the Juno spacecraft mission to Jupiter. He is responsible for calculating some of the first close-up gravitational measurements of the atmosphere of that giant, gaseous planet. Jupiter’s atmosphere is dominated by violent storms, with superrotating winds traveling faster than planetary rotation at the equator and strong alternating east-west jet streams poleward in both hemispheres. Dr. Kaspi created a 3D fluid dynamical computer model to understand the deep wind structure and superrotation on such giant planets.
Here on Earth, atmospheric circulation in the temperate mid-latitudes is dominated by regions of turbulent energy called storm tracks. These storm tracks carry much of the momentum, heat, and moisture in the mid-latitudes and are essential to understanding Earth’s climate. Using a general circulation computer model
(GCM) and comparisons to observations, Dr. Kaspi showed that storm tracks are maintained because of stationary waves in the atmosphere, which act to increase the equator-to-pole temperature gradient where the storm track is strongest (see illustration showing average temperature gradient and
variance of kinetic energy). He would like to explore questions about the changes in these storm tracks over time, such as shifts in response to global warming.
The dynamics of storms
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Department of Environmental Sciences and Energy Research
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Dr. Yohai KaspiDr. Yohai Kaspi earned his BSc in Physics and Mathematics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2000, his MSc in Physics at the Weizmann Institute of Science in 2002, and a PhD in Physical Oceanography at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in 2008. Dr. Kaspi worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the California Institute of Technology. He joined the Department of Environmental Sciences and Energy Research at the Weizmann Institute in 2011.
Dr. Kaspi’s academic and professional honors include: an MIT Presidential Fellowship (2002), the Charney Prize in the Program in Atmospheres, Oceans and Climate at MIT (2002), a Teaching Excellence Award at MIT (2007), a prestigious NOAA Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellowship (2008 – 2010), and a Marie Curie Career Integration Grant (2012). He is a member of the Science Team for NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter.
The dynamics of storms
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Manufacturing objects with well-defined shapes at a very small scale is a challenging task because of an absence of viable tools analogous to those we have available at the macro-scale. In order to make nanoscale analogs of various objects useful in everyday life, one has to resort to a wholly different set of tools—those offered by chemistry. Dr. Rafal Klajn is developing such tools.
He and his colleagues have developed a “chemical carving” process to produce bowls 10 million times smaller than those used in our kitchens every day. These bowl-shaped particles, dubbed “nanobowls,” are made of gold and have diameters of only 10 nm—that is, 10,000 times smaller than the thickness of a human hair, and comparable in size to individual protein molecules.
Dr. Klajn is making the nanobowls by a nanoscale analogue of a technique that has been used for centuries to manufacture bells: He “pours” a precursor of metallic gold
onto minuscule templates, each composed of a metallic (silver) and a magnetic counterpart. A single process yields a population of bowls greater than the Earth’s population.
He and his colleagues envision several applications for the nanobowls. First, their cavities may provide environments beneficial for many types of chemical reactions to proceed in an accelerated manner—just like the active sites of the enzymes do. Second, the researchers are now investigating in what ways properties of various molecules or nanoparticles change when they are placed in the cavities of the nanobowls—for example, recent results show that acids placed in these cavities are much weaker than they are outside. Finally, just like the bowls in our everyday life are used to hold different foods, the nanobowls can be filled with various types of cargo (for example, drug molecules), which can then be released “on demand.” This has tremendous potential applications for drug discovery because it means that after they are administered, therapies could be released into the body at pre-specified times.
Chemistry at the nanoscale
Department of Organic Chemistry
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Dr. Rafal KlajnRobert Edward and Roselyn Rich Manson Career Development Chair
Born in Poland, Dr. Rafal Klajn completed an MSc summa cum laude in Chemistry at the University of Warsaw, Poland, in 2004 and a PhD in Chemical and Biological Engineering at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, in 2009. He joined the Weizmann Institute of Science in 2010.
Among his honors and awards are Laureate of the National Chemistry Olympiad in Poland in 1999, 2000, and 2001, first prize in Poland for the EU Contest for Young Scientists in 2000, the Goldman Sachs Global Leader Award in 2003, National Science Foundation (U.S.) Materials Research Science & Engineering Center Fellowships in 2006 and 2007, the International Precious Metals Institute Student Award in 2008, and the IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) Prize for Young Chemists in 2010.
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Dr. Emmanuel Levy aims to discover novel functional and evolutionary properties of proteins. Proteins are central to biology and life, as they are the main actors of cellular functions, and the primary targets of therapeutic drugs. Proteins in a cell are much like people in a company: They must interact with each other in order to work. Protein-to-protein interactions come in different types. Strong and long-term interactions result
in the formation of protein complexes, which can be viewed as “teams of proteins.” During his PhD work, Dr. Levy created 3DComplex, a structural classification of protein complexes (see picture below of major classes of structures). Using this database, he addresses the general question of how protein complexes are built-up during the course of evolution.
In addition to strong, long-term interactions, cellular functions involve tens of thousands of weaker, short-term interactions. Dr. Levy studies the broader picture of all protein interactions within a cell; he has proposed the concept that many “promiscuous” interactions exist. He has shown how key proteins evolved their chemical properties to minimize their promiscuous interactions. He is devising new ways to distinguish true functional interactions from promiscuous ones, to understand how cells work, and ultimately to help treat cells in diseased states.
Department of Structural Biology
Understanding protein-to-protein interactions
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Dr. Emmanuel Levy was born in Morocco and grew up in France. In 2002 he completed his BSc magna cum laude in Biology and Computer Science at Evry University and at the French Genome Sequencing Center (Genoscope). He obtained an MSc magna cum laude in Genome Analysis and Molecular Modeling at Paris VII University. Dr. Levy received his PhD in 2007 from Cambridge University, UK, working at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology where protein crystallography and DNA sequencing were born. Dr. Levy did his postdoctoral research at the University of Montreal. He joins the Weizmann Institute in 2012.
Dr. Levy’s professional and academic honors include three prizes from the French Educational Ministry at the inventors’ competition “Concours Lépine” between 1993 and 1996. He received two merit-based scholarships during his studies in France, a Medical Research Council scholarship at Cambridge, and the Max Perutz Prize for outstanding PhD work. Dr. Levy received prestigious postdoctoral fellowships from the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) and the Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP). He has patented one invention.
Understanding protein-to-protein interactions
Dr. Emmanuel Levy
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Dr. Yaron Lipman is fascinated with the geometry and mathematics of shapes and 3D objects. Comparing 3D objects such as faces, bones, and organs can be a challenging task even for human experts. However, using sophisticated mathematics and harnessing the power of modern computers makes it possible to build algorithms that come close, and in some cases exceed, the human abilities.
Dr. Lipman explores discrete differential geometry, geometric modeling and processing, computer graphics, scattered and non-smooth
data approximation, shape modeling and a host of other tools to work on these types of theoretical and real-world problems. His work has great potential for computational biology, computer graphics and animation, facial recognition software, analysis of images for security or medical applications, and a variety of other possible uses.
The mathematics of shapes
Department of Computer Sciences and Applied Mathematics
^^ Dr.^Lipman^and^his^colleagues^develop^automatic^algorithms^to^find^correspondences^between^anatomical^surfaces^^that^are^used^by^morphologists^to^investigate^evolution.^Correspondences^are^marked^with^spheres^of^same^color^in^the^image^below.
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Dr. Yaron Lipman completed a BSc in Mathematics summa cum laude and Computer Sciences magna cum laude at Tel Aviv University in 2003. He completed his PhD there in 2008 and went on to become a postdoctoral research fellow at Princeton University. He joined the Weizmann Institute in 2011.
Dr. Lipman has received a number of academic and professional honors and awards, including the Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists from the New York Academy of Sciences in 2010, a Eurographics Young Researcher Award in 2009, Rothschild postdoctoral fellowships in 2008 and 2009, and the Raymond and Beverly Sackler School of Mathematical Sciences PhD excellence award in 2005. He has patented one invention.
The mathematics of shapes
Dr. Yaron Lipman
22
Department of Physics of Complex Systems
Dr. Shmuel Rubinstein finds fascinating physics and beautiful mysteries in a water droplet hitting a glass slide, or the dynamics of two continent-sized tectonic plates contacting along a fault line. He tries to narrow his investigations of such phenomena to systems that are as simple as possible, yet exemplify the questions in areas such as non-equilibrium physics and interface dynamics in a natural and intuitive manner.
For instance, earthquakes are governed by frictional instabilities occurring at a sub-micron-thick interface between two tectonic plates. Dr. Rubinstein has created model systems to study the movement along a tectonic plate (see illustration) as well as the dynamics of
particles in another geologic phenomenon, sedimentation. In the process, he developed a new type of microscopy to allow the direct imaging of a single micron-sized fluorescent object deep within a large system.
His insights have shed light on phenomena ranging from sediment on the sea floor, to network-forming biological systems, and have informed many industrial applications related to reclaiming of waste lagoons, food science, and the design of personal care products.
Dr. Rubinstein is also interested in the non-linear dynamics of soft and liquid systems, as well as irregular materials that fall into the areas often called “squishy physics” — materials that are easily deformed by very weak forces or even temperature. These range from mayonnaise, shaving cream, and Jello to biomaterials such as worms, cells, and living tissue.
The dynamics of interfaces
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Dr. Shmuel Rubinstein completed his BSc in Physics and Mathematics magna cum laude at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2000, followed by the direct-track, MSc / PhD in Physics summa cum laude at the Racah Institute of Physics at Hebrew University in 2009. He conducted research as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Physics at Harvard University from 2009 until he joined the Weizmann Institute in 2011.
His academic and professional honors include the Schiller Award for MSc studies (2004), a Sir Charles Clore fellowship for PhD Students (2007), the Israel Physical Society Prize for graduate students (2008), a Rothschild postdoctoral fellowship through Yad Hanadiv (2010), and the Schlomiuk prize for an outstanding PhD thesis from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2010).
Dr. Shmuel Rubinstein
The dynamics of interfaces
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• Abramson Family Center for Young Scientists• Abisch-Frenkel Foundation for the Promotion of Life
Sciences• Ruth and Herman Albert Scholars Program• Alberto Moscona-Nissim, AMN Foundation for
Science and the Arts in Israel• Asher and Jeannette Alhadeff Research Award• Candice Appleton Family Trust• Ernest and Kate Ascher Career Development Chair• Gerhard and Hannah Bacharach Charitable Trust• Estate of David Arthur Barton• Andrew and Froma Benerofe New Scientist Fund• Berlin Family Foundation New Scientist Fund• Leo M. Bernstein Family Foundation• Edith C. Blum Foundation• Estate of Shlomo (Stanislav) and Sabine Bierzwinsky• Frances Brody Young Scientists Fund • Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Burton, CBE• Carolito Stiftung• Chais Family Fellows Program for New Scientists• Clore Israel Foundation• Sir Charles Clore Research Prize• Lester Crown Brain Research Fund• Sir Harry S. Djanogly, CBE• Rena Dweck New Scientist Endowment Fund• Mel and Joyce Eisenberg Keefer Professional Chair for
New Scientists• Judith and Martin Freedman Career Development
Chair• Meir and Jeanette Friedman Research Fellowship• Estelle Funk Foundation President’s Fund for
Biomedical Research• Fusfeld Research Fund• Alice Schwarz-Gardos• Gephen Trust• Peter and Patricia Gruber Awards• IPA New Scientist Prize
The Weizmann Institute of Science has received substantial gifts for the benefit of new scientists from the following individuals, families and funds, and wishes to express its appreciation to them:
New Scientist Funds and Gifts
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• J & R Foundation• Nancy and Dr. Joseph Jacobson Presidential
Development Chair• Enid Barden and Aaron J. Jade Presidential
Development Chair for New Scientists in Memory of Cantor John Y. Jade
• Liz and Alan Jaffe Endowment• Jarndyce Foundation• Mitchell T. Kaplan and Marilyn E. Jones• Sanford Kaplan• Koret Foundation• Prof. Daniel E. Koshland, Jr.• Larson Charitable Foundation New Scientist Fund • Mr. and Mrs. Gary Leff• Alvin and Gertrude Levine Career Development
Chair• Mr. and Mrs. Howard Levine• Estate of Lela London• Loundy Fund for New Scientists in memory of
Jeanette and Mason Loundy• Rhoda R. Mancher• Robert Edward and Roselyn Rich Manson Career
Development Chair• Mrs. Judith Marks • Dr. Karen Mashkin• Rina Mayer• Janice Montana• Morse Family Fund• Alberto Moscona-Nissim, Mexico, A.M.N. Fund for
the Promotion of Science, Culture and the Arts in Israel
• Dr. Ernst Nathan Fund for Biomedical Research• Jordan and Jean Nerenberg Family Foundation Young
Scientist Fund• William Z. and Eda Bess Novick New Scientists Fund• Estate of Paul Ourieff• Paedagogica Foundation
• Victor Pastor Fund• Arnold and Diane Polinger Discovery Endowment
Fund• Robert Rees Applied Research Fund• Henry S. & Anne S. Reich Research Fund for Mental
Health• Abraham and Sonia Rochlin Foundation• Mrs. Clara Clarisse Roman• Hana and Julius Rosen Fund• Lois Rosen New Scientist Fund• Mr. and Mrs. Louis Rosenmayer• Rosenzweig-Coopersmith Foundation• The Lewis and Alice Schimberg New Scientist Chair• Rose Shure• Lord Sieff of Brimpton Memorial Fund• Skirball Chair for New Scientists• Samuel M. Soref & Helene K. Soref Foundation• South Florida Committee for the Weizmann Institute
of Science “Brain Gain Fund”• Mr. and Mrs. Walter Strauss• Swiss Society of Friends of the Weizmann Institute of
Science• Mrs. Sara Z. De Usansky• Sarah and Rolando Uziel• Nathan, Shirley, Philip and Charlene Vener New
Scientist Fund• Dr. Albert Wilner• Wolfson Family Charitable Trust New Investigator
Laboratories• Jacques and Anita Zagury• Natalie Zinn Haar Foundation• Dr. Celia Zwillenberg-Fridman Fund for Young
Scientists
