We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the following sponsors:
Council for Higher Education
Batsheva de Rothschild fund of the Israeli Academy of Science.
Stuttgart/Ulm Center for Integrated Quantum Science and Technology
Bar-Ilan University
We gratefully acknowledge the administrative support of:
Minerva Foundation
Batsheva de Rothschild 1914-1999
Batsheva de Rothschild was a biologist, trained at the Sorbonne, Paris and at Columbia University, New York. She worked for a while at the Pasteur Institute, Paris. During World War II, Bethsabée joined the Free French Movement at its office in New York and volunteered for its armed forces. Assigned to London, she landed in Normandy during the Allied invasion, eventually reaching Paris, where she served as liaison between the French and the United States military forces. As a frequent visitor to the young State of Israel in the 1950s, she met with Prof. Ephraim Katzir (Weizmann Institute) and Prof. Alex Keynan (Hebrew University), who convinced her of the acute need to support basic research in Israel. In 1958, she established the fund bearing her name, which she personally headed with great devotion until her last days.
The Batsheva Fund was established as a private endowment fund, first in New York City and afterwards, in 1965, in Israel. In 1993 she generously transferred the fund to the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. In 1958 she became the only one ever, from her legendary family, to settle in Israel and became active in public life. Science and the arts were the two loves of this exceptional woman. In 1989 she was awarded the prestigious Israel Prize for her many contributions to Israeli society, among them the founding of Israel’s Batsheva and Bat Dor Dance Companies. The Batsheva Fund’s purpose is to further Science in Israel for the people of Israel. It operates through a five-member Directorate. A Panel of Advisors, comprised of Israeli scientists of several disciplines, is appointed to guide its scientific activity. The President of the Academy serves as its President.
