Prof. Haim Harari, President of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel has been awarded the Harnack Medal. Following a proposal by President Hubert Markl, the Senate of the Max Planck Society reached this decision unanimously at its meeting in Munich on 23 March. In doing so, the Max Planck Society recognises Harari’s successful work over 13 years as the senior representative of Israel’s leading research institution. The award was presented at the Max Planck Society’s General Meeting in Berlin in June.

 

President Markl explained that Harari had contributed to the successful continuation of the tradition of co-operation which had existed for 30 years between the Max Planck Society and the Weizmann Institute and to adapting this collaborative work to the needs of science, which was becoming increasingly international and competitive. “We also have Harari to thank for a certain normalising effect which has entered relations, as far as this is possible in view of the historical situation,” said President Markl. He had also extended and strengthened co-operation between the two organisations through his commitment to setting up joint junior research groups at the Weizmann Institute and at Max Planck Institutes.

 

Professor Haim Harari was born in Jerusalem in 1940. He studied physics at his home town’s Hebrew University, ultimately obtaining a doctorate. His interest in German culture and in working with the German scientific community stems from a period spent as a guest scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Physics (Werner Heisenberg Institute) in Munich in the 70s. At this time he already held a chair in High Energy Physics at the Weizmann Institute. He became its president in 1988 and, over the years, has built it up into an institution at the forefront of research, highly regarded throughout the world. Harari always combined his professional ambitions with commitment to educational and social policy, especially in the field of teaching and introducing young people to the natural sciences. As chairman of a committee, which distributes university funding approved globally by the Israeli parliament, he long exerted an influence on developments in the Israeli scientific scene.

 

Following Germany’s reunification, Harari also showed considerable interest in the development of the sciences in the former GDR, which became Germany´s new states. He visited newly established Max Planck Institutes and universities there. His analyses made an important contribution to shaping opinion within the Max Planck Society. The Harnack Medal, endowed in 1924, is the highest award bestowed by the Max Planck Society. It is only rarely conferred and only for exceptional contributions (continuing the tradition of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, of which the theologian, politician and friend to the sciences Adolf von Harnack was a founding father and first president for 19 years). _