Israeli Ambassador to China, H. E. Amos Nadai, visited Shanghai between 12-13, 2009.

During his visit H. E. Nadai had meetings with Shanghai mayor, Mr. Han Zheng and with the mayor of Hongkou. Furthermore he met the organizers of the Expo exhibition, Mr. Yang from Shanghai: Commerce Commission and visited Fudan University where he met the university president, Mr. Yang Yuliang.

On March 24th, 2009, Peking University hosted the Ambassador Amos Nadai and the Academic Attach Avishay Gottdiener. During their visit the Ambassador met Prof. Lin Jiahua - the Executive Vice President of the university.  Furthermore attended the meeting Mr.  Li Yansong, the Assistant President and the Director of the Office of International Relations, Prof. Wang Suolao from the School of International Studies, Dr. Wang Yu and Dr. Chen Yiyi from the School of Foreign Languages - The Hebrew Studies Program.

Moreover, The Ambassador met students from the Hebrew Language Department and from the International Relations Department and presented his personal point of view of the different processes Israel has been going through since the day of its establishment. After the lecture a discussion was held, focusing on some issues, among them: the Israeli political system, the Zionist Narrative, Israel and the Middle East and the Peace Process.

The Weizmann Institute of Science congratulates Prof. Ada Yonath on receiving the 2009 Nobel Prize in chemistry and is proud of her scientific achievements. We are delighted that the Nobel Prize committee has recognized the significance of Prof. Ada Yonath’s scientific research and awarded her this important prize.

Prof. Yonath’s research is driven by curiosity and ambition to better understand the world and our place within it. This research aims high: to understand one of the most complicated “machines” of the biological system.

In the late 1970s, Prof. Yonath decided, when she was a young student at the Weizmann Institute, to take on the challenge of answering one of the key questions concerning the activities of live cells: to decipher the structure and mechanism of action of ribosomes – the cell’s protein factories. This was the beginning of a long scientific journey that has lasted decades, and which required courage and devotion from the start. The journey began in a modest laboratory with a modest budget, and with the years, increased to tens of researchers under the guidance of Prof. Yonath.

This basic research, which began in the attempt to understand one of the principles of nature, eventually led to the understanding of how a number of antibiotics function, something that is likely to aid in the development of more advanced and effective antibiotics. This discovery will hopefully also help in the struggle against antibiotic-resistant bacteria, a problem recognized as one of the most central medical challenges of the 21st century.

Prof. Yonath can be considered a model of scientific vision, courage in choosing a significant scientific question, and devotion in realizing the goal to its end – which will hopefully broaden knowledge for the benefit of humanity.

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