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.

 

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