Chemistry
Chaim Weizmann
Chemist and first President of Israel
Born 1874 · Died 1952
Photo: Hugo Mendelson · CC BY-SA 3.0
Chaim Weizmann developed a fermentation process that produced acetone, crucial to British munitions in the First World War, and used the political access it gave him to advance the Zionist cause. He became Israel's first president in 1949.
Key achievements
- Invented the industrial acetone fermentation process, 1916
- First President of Israel, 1949–1952
- Founded the research institute now named after him
Universities
Manchester
Lecturer and then reader in chemistry from 1904, where he developed his industrial fermentation process.
Facts
- His bacteria produced acetone from maize when Britain was running out of it for making cordite.
- He founded the research institute in Rehovot that now bears his name.
- He was a working scientist for most of his life and returned to the laboratory between political campaigns.
Photographs
Photographs come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences; the author and licence are shown on each image.