Prof. Ehud Gazit Ph.D. FRSC FNASc OSSI
Ehud Gazit is a Professor and Endowed Chair at both the Faculties of Life Sciences and Engineering of Tel Aviv University (dual appointment) and a member of the Executive Council of the University (comparable to a Board of Trustees in US universities) as a University Senate representative (from 2017). From 2016-2025, he served as the founding director of the BLAVATNIK CENTER for Drug Development. From 2012-2014, he was the Chief Scientist of the Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology. From 2008-2012 he served as Tel Aviv University Vice President for Research and Development and the Chairman of the board of directors of Ramot Ltd., the tech transfer company of Tel Aviv University. In 2015, he was knighted by the Italian Republic for his service to science and society. He was named the 2023 International Solvay Chair in Chemistry, the first Israeli appointed to this prestigious position, previously held by 15 top scientists, including three Nobel Laureates.
Gazit received his B.Sc. (summa cum laude) after completing his studies at the Special Program for Outstanding Students of Tel Aviv University and his Ph.D. as a Clore Fellow at the Weizmann Institute of Science in 1997. For his Ph.D. work, he received the John F. Kennedy Award. He has been a faculty member at Tel Aviv University since 2000, after completing his postdoctoral studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he also held a visiting appointment (2002–2011). He also had a visiting appointment at St John’s College, Cambridge University, UK (2016), a Senior Visiting Professor at Fudan University, China (2018-2019), a Gästprofessor at Umeå University, Sweden (2019-2021), and a Meitner-Humboldt Awardee Gäste at Friedrich-Schiller University Jena, Germany (2025-).
Gazit has published more than 400 peer-reviewed publications in top journals, including Science, Nature, Cell, Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Physics, Nature Materials, and Nature Chemical Biology. He is a very prolific inventor with over 100 patents, including 54 US patents granted and many pending applications. His technology was licensed to several companies in Israel, US, and Germany. He is a co-founder of Galimedix Therapeutics and a member of the scientific advisory boards of Starget Pharma and EasyFix. His technology transfer achievements were acknowledged by inclusion in the list of 100 Innovations from Academic Research to Real-World Application by the Association of University Technology Managers and in a list of 100 Technology Offers stemming from EU Research Programmes.
Gazit served and serves in various positions related to science and technology at the national and international levels. From 2003-2009 he served on the International Relations Committee of the Biophysical Society. He also served as a member of the Nominating Committee of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and was a member and chairman of The Interdisciplinary Center for Technology Analysis & Forecasting (2008-2011). He is currently a member of the UK-Israel Science Council, the Scientific Advisory Board of the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research.
He delivered more than 300 invited presentations, including opening lectures, keynote presentations, and named lectures such as the McMahon Lecture at Harvard University, the opening EMBO Keynote Lecture at BioMAT 2017, Distinguished iNano Lecture at Aarhus University, and closing EMBO Keynote Lecture at 2023 FASEB protein aggregation meeting. Gazit has received numerous awards and honors, including Dan David Scholarship Award, Meitner-Humboldt Research Award, Hestrin Award for Young Scientists, Research Prize Award Named After “Teva” Founders, Rappaport Prize for Excellence in Biomedical Research, Changjiang Scholar Award, the Landau Prize for Arts and Sciences, and Kadar Family Award for Outstanding Research and the 2024 Highly Cited Award, Cross-Field Category, Web of Science (Clarivate). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, USA and a foreign fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India (FNASc), and a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO).
