Interim President
Born in Belgium in 1959, Daniel Zajfman moved to Israel in 1979. He received a BSc (1983) and a PhD in atomic physics (1989) from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. As a postdoctoral fellow, Prof. Zajfman spent two years at the Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago. He returned to Israel in 1991 and joined the Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics at the Weizmann Institute. Since 2001, he has been an external member of the Max Planck Institute of Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany, and in 2005 he was appointed its Director. In November 2006, Prof. Zajfman was elected the tenth president of the Weizmann Institute of Science. He assumed this position on December 1, 2006, becoming, at the age of 47, the youngest President the Institute ever had. He stepped down from the President's position in December 2019. He was a member of the Senate of the Max-Planck Society in Germany from 2011 to 2023 and, in 2020, was appointed Chair of the Academic Board of the Israel Science Foundation.
His scientific activities focus on the dynamics of atomic and molecular ions, using advanced ion-trapping methods. These studies have implications for how the interstellar medium behaves, how stars and planets form, and the origin of life. Much of this research has been conducted in collaboration with German scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg.
In addition to his research activities and science management positions, Prof. Zajfman has invested significant time and effort in community outreach to the public at large and youth in particular. He was the Chair of the Davidson Institute of Science Education board from 2015 to 2022, and he is the Chair of the Schwartz/Reisman Science Education Centers board. About 7,000 high-school students are studying Physics in these centers, dramatically increasing the number of students matriculating from high school with the highest level of physics.
Prof. Zajfman is the recipient of several awards, including the Commandeur dans l'ordre des palmes academiques (France), the Harnack Medal (Germany), the Commander of the Order of Leopold (Belgium), and the Prize for Understanding and Tolerance from the Jewish Museum in Berlin. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has received honorary doctorates from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, and the Holon Institute of Technology. He has published more than 180 scientific papers and has been invited to give more than 50 scientific lectures, as well as many science education and science policy lectures worldwide.
Go to Interim President Daniel Zajfman's profile