Israel’s Progress in Nuclear Science Reviewed at London Parley

Weizmann Institute scientists have designed and built an electronic computer which has already proved extremely valuable in working out major problems in applied mathematics, it was reported here today at scientific sessions of the three-day meeting of the board of governors of the Institute.

Other scientific achievements made public today included the discovery of a new nuclear particle and the manufacture of enriched oxygen isotopes at the Institute’s laboratories, making Israel the world’s only producer and exporter of this substance.

Representatives of the science staff of the Institute presented a program designed to coordinate it more closely with the needs of the country, convert it into a teaching institute on a graduate level and improve academic and working conditions for the scientific staff. The program asks:

1. That a president be appointed for the Institute, and that the membership of the Institute’s Scientific Committee be broadened along the lines of a university faculty.

2. That rank and status at the Institute be reviewed with an eye toward making more effective use of existing ranks by raising the position of associate to academic equality with the head of a department, through the use of the single title of “professor” for both. The Institute should also correlate academic status with academic ranks existing in universities.

3. That “mature scientists be given a voice in the direction of the scientific work of their own departments.” Also that the agenda and decisions of the Scientific Committee generally be made available to the scientific staff.

4. That the administration take steps to facilitate the participation of the Institute’s staff in the field of applied research, and that graduate students be encouraged to work at the Institute and that the instruction of such students lead to the founding of a graduate school.