My life in and beyond the laboratory.

Abstract

Ephraim Katchalski-Katzir grew up in Israel at a time when the State was coming into being, and like many of those of his generation, participated in its creation and defense. He received his scientific education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and thereafter at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, Columbia University, and Harvard University. During and after the establishment of the State, he acted as scientific consultant to the defense leadership, and continued throughout his career to advise the Government of Israel on research and development. His public activities culminated in his election in 1973 as President of the State of Israel. As one of the founders of the Weizmann Institute of Science, he headed the Department of Biophysics for many years. His research included the study of poly-alpha-amino acids as protein models, immobilized enzymes, and polymers as chemical reagents. He also carried out theoretical and experimental work on the determination of distance distributions and conformational fluctuations in proteins by nonradiative energy-transfer techniques.