page_title: Weizmann Institute of Science
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Weizmann Institute of Science / History
caption_attribution_description: English: President Chaim Weizmann, who was a science professor before becoming Israel's first president. עברית: נשיא המדינה, המדען פרופ' חיים ויצמן.
context_page_description: The Weizmann Institute of Science is a public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, 14 years before the State of Israel. It differs from other Israeli universities in that it offers only graduate and postgraduate degrees in the natural and exact sciences.
  It is a multidisciplinary research center, with around 3,800 scientists, postdoctoral fellows, Ph.D. and M.Sc. students, and scientific, technical, and administrative staff working at the institute.
  As of 2019, 6 Nobel laureates and 3 Turing Award winners have been associated with the Weizmann Institute of Science.
context_section_description: Founded in 1934 by Chaim Weizmann and his first team, among them Benjamin M. Bloch, as the Daniel Sieff Research Institute. Weizmann had offered the post of director to Nobel Prize laureate Fritz Haber, but took over the directorship himself after Haber's death en route to Palestine. Before he became President of the State of Israel in February 1949, Weizmann pursued his research in organic chemistry at its laboratories. The institute was renamed the Weizmann Institute of Science in his honor on November 2, 1949, in agreement with the Sieff family.
  WEIZAC, one of the world's first electronic computers was locally built by the institute in 1954–1955 and was recognized by the IEEE in 2006 as a milestone achievement in the history of electrical and electronic engineering.
  In 1959, the institute set up a wholly owned subsidiary called Yeda Research and Development Company to commercialize inventions made at the institute. Yeda has more marine genetic patents than any other research institute. By 2013 the institute was earning between $50 and $100 million in royalties annually on marketed drugs including Copaxone, Rebif, and Erbitux.
caption: Chaim Weizmann (1874-1952), first president of the State of Israel and founder of the institute
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