Prof. David Harel, President of the Israel Academy of Sciences
and Humanities, and Prof. Yoseph Mekori, Chairman of the Planning and Budgeting
Committee of the Council for Higher Education, paid an official visit to the European
Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in the French city of Grenoble on February
15, 2023, together with an Israeli delegation.
Also in the delegation were Prof. Marek Karliner of Tel Aviv
University, who serves as chairman of the Academy’s National Committee for High
Energies; Prof. Moshe Deutsch of Bar-Ilan University; Dr. Varda Ben-Shaul, acting
director-general of the Council for Higher Education; and Dr. Naomi Beck, deputy
director-general for strategy and international affairs at the Council for
Higher Education. The delegation members met with Prof. Francesco Sette, director-general
of the ESRF, who informed them about its extensive activity.
The State of Israel has been a Scientific Associate of the ESRF
since 1998. The Academy’s National Committee on Synchrotron Radiation promotes
the activity of Israeli researchers at the facility. Thanks to their
outstanding work, use of the facility has increased over the years beyond Israel’s
share of participation in the budget.
The ESRF, the world’s leading facility for synchrotron
radiation, underwent a substantial upgrade in recent years. As a result, the
brilliance and coherence of its X-ray beams increased one-hundredfold, making it
the source of the most brilliant synchrotron radiation on earth. It serves
thousands of researchers from all over the world, who conduct experiments at the
forefront of global science. Over the years of the ESRF’s existence, it has served
as an infrastructure for four studies that were awarded Nobel Prizes, including
Academy member Prof. Ada Yonath’s research on the structure of ribosomes.
In the picture on the left: Dr. Naomi Beck, Dr. Varda Ben Shaul, Director General Itziar Echeverria, Prof. Marek Karliner, Prof. Francesco Sette, director-general of the ESRF, Prof. David Harel, Prof. Yossi Makori, Prof. Moshe Deutsch. Photo: C. Argoud/ESRF
The Israeli delegation visiting ESRF. Photo: C. Argoud/ESRF
Prof. David Harel and Prof. Francesco Sette, director-general of the ESRF. Photo: D. Chenevier/ESRF