A 74-year-old Jewish scientist from the Soviet Union who spent seven years in prison during the Stalin era because he allegedly wanted to go to Israel, is presently doing research at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovoth. Prof. Elv A. Tumerman, a former member of the Moscow Academy of Sciences, is engaged in developing new optic systems and will act as an advisor to the departments of chemical immunology, biophysics, biochemistry and genetics, according to Prof. Israel Dostrovsky, acting president of the Weizmann institute.
Prof. Tumerman arrived in Israel several weeks ago. In 1947, a year before the State was formed, he and his wife were arrested by the KGB (secret police) and were sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment on charges of “attempting” or “intending” to go to Israel, then Palestine. They were rehabilitated seven years later, after Stalin’s death.
For 12 years prior to leaving the Soviet Union last month, Prof. Tumerman headed the bio-energetics laboratory at the Institute of Molecular Biology in Moscow. He was engaged in developing research systems which won international recognition. He also did research in the problems of light.
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