Symposium Held in Memory of Slain Weizmann Institute Professor

A symposium in memory of Professor Aharon Katzir-Katchalsky, Weizmann Institute scientist killed in the Lod Airport massacre on May 30, 1972, was held yesterday at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn. Nobel Laureates Professor Melvin Calvin of the University of California, Berkeley, and Professor Gerald M. Edelman of The Rockefeller University were among the participants. The symposium was under the auspices of the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn and the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science.

Prof. Katzir-Katchalsky, 58 years old, killed as he was returning from a scientific conference in Europe, was an internationally recognized specialist in the field of thermodynamics of irreversible processes and especially the application to biological membranes. At the time of his death he was deeply involved in brain research. He was the founder and head of the Polymer Research Department of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel.

An Aharon Katzir-Katchalsky Center of Physical Biology is now in the process of being established on the campus of the Weizmann Institute of Science as a permanent memorial to him. An International Committee of distinguished scholars headed by Nobel Laureate Dr. Manfred Eigan of the Max Planck Institute at Gottingen, Germany, is acting as advisors to the Weizmann Institute in developing plans for the Center.

The Center, will be devoted to the advancement of research in the areas of biological macromolecules, membrane structure and function, and theoretical biology–fields in which Dr. Katzir-Katchalsky gained international recognition. The activities of the Center will be supported by the Weizmann Institute of Science, as well as by private donations. Numerous universities, scientific organizations and individual scientists have volunteered their support.