The conflict that began last week when Israeli drone and missile attacks destroyed nuclear facilities and killed top officials and weapons scientists in Iran has also devastated a top Israeli science institution, the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot. On 15 June, retaliatory missile strikes by Iran caused catastrophic damage to two major campus structures: a facility to house chemistry and material science labs that was scheduled to open this year and an existing building devoted to life and computational sciences. Hundreds of scientists at the university in Rehovot have lost a year or more of work in the rubble.
“Clearly we are a target,” says physicist Roee Ozeri, Weizmann’s vice president for development and communications. Although dozens have been killed by Iranian missiles elsewhere in Israel and hundreds have died in Iran, there were no reported injuries at the prestigious institute, which has some 500 housing units on campus for visiting faculty, postdocs, and students. Ozeri says Weizmann has now evacuated visitors to hotels off campus and the school is currently closed to faculty and staff.
Although it is strongest in the life sciences, Weizmann conducts some research in partnership with the Israeli military related to computer science, energy, and medicine, which some on social media have suggested may have made it a target for Iran. But most of the damage was done to laboratories that research cancer.
