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March 25, 2026 - New Grant Awarded for Photothermal Hydrogen Release Research

We are pleased to share that the lab has received new research funding for a project on photothermal hydrogen release. We especially thank Ofir for his major effort in preparing and advancing this proposal. This support will help drive our ongoing work on light-driven hydrogen-related energy research.

March 25, 2026 - Yossi Receives Research Excellence Grant

Yossi Weizmann has been awarded the Research Excellence Grant in recognition of his outstanding research achievements. This distinction reflects his continued commitment to high-quality research and scientific innovation.

March 22, 2026 - We are proud to share two recent achievements in our group.

Nir received the Rector’s Prize for outstanding academic achievements, and Ofir was awarded the Dean’s List for his excellent academic performance.

We warmly congratulate Nir and Ofir on these well-deserved honors!

March 19, 2026 - Congratulations to Adi on successfully defending her master’s research and Ph.D. proposal, passing with excellence. This is a proud and well-deserved achievement, and a wonderful milestone on her scientific journey.

March 16, 2026 - New publication: Our new paper, “Photothermal nanocomposite hydrogels enable precise nucleic acid manipulation and separation,” presents a light-driven gel platform with embedded photothermal nanoparticles for controlled in-gel heating. This approach enables reagent-free DNA separation and purification of complex DNA nanostructures. Special congratulations to Uri, who led this work, and to all co-authors and collaborators.

Read more here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S3050562326000620

February 17, 2026 - Group BBQ: A Great Afternoon Together. Yesterday, from noon until five, we gathered for a group BBQ and enjoyed a wonderful afternoon together. It was a great opportunity to step away from our daily routines, relax, and spend quality time as a team in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.

A special thank you to Radik for hosting and organizing the event. Everything was perfectly arranged, and your hospitality made the afternoon especially enjoyable for all of us.

We also celebrated a small but meaningful “group expansion”: two members brought their newborns, officially making them our youngest (and undoubtedly most charming) new additions. No experiments assigned just yet, but the future of the group looks bright.

Photos from the event are available on the Photo Albums subpage:https://www.weizmann-group.com/photoalbums

Looking forward to the next gathering together.

December 30, 2025 - Our recent work was featured as a news article on Ynet. The piece highlights our development of latent monomers that enable precise, on-demand control over polymer curing using light or mild heating, offering a new route to safer, energy-efficient polymer processing and advanced manufacturing applications.

Read the article here: https://www.ynet.co.il/environment-science/article/rkmlhc1ezl

December 28, 2025 - Adi presented her Master’s seminar titled “Development of a High-Throughput Screening Assay for Topoisomerase IB.”

The seminar marks an important milestone in her Master’s studies, and we warmly congratulate Adi on this achievement. Her work highlights ongoing efforts to develop sensitive and scalable assays for studying topoisomerase IB activity, and we are excited about the future directions and potential impact of this research.

December 10, 2025 - Happy to share the Nature Chemistry Research Briefing accompanying our recent paper, “Photoswitchable olefins as latent metathesis monomers for controlled polymerization,” authored by Nir and Yossi.

Read the Research Briefing here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41557-025-02013-5

December 8, 2025 - Thrilled to share that our paper, “Photoswitchable olefins as latent metathesis monomers for controlled polymerization,” is accepted and now online in Nature Chemistry. 

Huge thanks to Nir and the entire group for the hard work, creativity, and persistence that made this happen. Special thanks as well to our collaborators in the Lemcoff group. This project is a great example of what strong teamwork and collaboration can achieve.

Read the paper here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41557-025-02011-7

November 11, 2025 - Congratulations to Mark, Uri, and the entire group on the acceptance of our paper in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. This achievement reflects their hard work, creativity, and true team effort.

Link: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acsami.5c16447?ref=article_openPDF

September 11, 2025 - Congratulations to Adi! 🎓

Adi officially received her BSc degree yesterday, a well-deserved milestone and we are all very proud of her!

August 17, 2025 - Congratulations to Ella! 🎓

We are delighted to congratulate Ella on successfully defending her Master’s thesis. She gave an excellent presentation, and we wish her the best of luck in her future endeavors! 

August 13, 2025 - Our warmest congratulations to Gil and Uri for receiving STEM Scholarships for new Excellence Ph.D. Students!
This is a well-deserved recognition of their hard work, dedication, and excellence! We’re very proud to have you as part of the group!

July 13, 2025 - Breakthrough Applied Research Award 2024–2025

Yossi has received the Breakthrough Applied Research Award for 2024–2025 in recognition of his pioneering work developing technology that enables chemical reactions and the synthesis of advanced materials using photothermal materials to harness light energy, instead of heavy industrial heating.

This achievement highlights the group’s commitment to advancing sustainable chemical processes through innovative materials and photothermal chemistry.​

July 08, 2025 - A proud day for our team!
Uri and Gil delivered their master’s lectures with energy and excellence. Their talks were insightful, engaging, and a true reflection of their hard work. Well done! you’ve earned every bit of the applause!

Below: Photos of Uri (up) and Gil (down)

 

July 07, 2025 - Another proud moment for our team! We had a strong showing at today’s awards ceremony, with several honors going to members of our group. Huge congratulations to all the recipients – your commitment and effort really shone through. Well earned and well celebrated!

Below is a photo of the winners, from left to right: Adi, Doron, Adi, Uri, and Gil.

 

June 24, 2025 - Our invited perspective, "Advancing topoisomerase research using DNA nanotechnology", is now online and featured  on the cover of Small Methods! A big thanks-you to Doron and Adi for their hard work and contributions. 

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May 6, 2025 - Our invited Account on "Let There Be Heat: Silica-Coated Gold Nanoparticles as Photothermal Reactors for Chemical Synthesis" is online and featured as a cover in Accounts of Chemical Research. Thanks, Aritra and Nir, for your efforts! 

April 28, 2025 - We are thrilled to share that Yossi has been awarded the Vice President and Dean’s Award for Breakthrough Applied Research by the Faculty of Natural Sciences!
This prestigious recognition celebrates outstanding achievements in advancing applied research.
Congratulations to Yossi on this well-deserved honor — and a big thank you to the entire group for the ongoing support and collaboration that made this possible!​

April 14, 2025 - Paper Accepted in Accounts of Chemical Research!

We are thrilled to share that our manuscript titled
"Let There be Heat: Silica-coated Gold Nanoparticles as Photothermal Reactors for Chemical Synthesis"
has been officially accepted for publication in Accounts of Chemical Research.

This work highlights our recent advances in using silica-coated gold nanoparticles as efficient and controllable photothermal reactors for driving chemical transformations.

Congratulations to Aritra and  Nir!

Stay tuned for the full article soon!

April 1st, 2025 - Our paper on "Molecular light-to-heat conversion promotes orthogonal synthesis and assembly of metal-organic frameworks", has been featured on the Editors' Highlights webpage under Physical Sciences research, in the topic of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry. Great job, Aritra and the team!

"The Editors’ Highlights pages aim to showcase the 50 best papers recently published in an area, and we routinely replace papers as more great research is published at Nature Communications."

Link: https://www.nature.com/collections/wtpqpqpgwd​​

March 20, 2025 - Our paper on "Molecular light-to-heat conversion promotes orthogonal synthesis and assembly of metal-organic frameworks" as been accepted to Nat. commun. Great job led by Aritra! A big congrats to the fantastic team and the rest of the group, for your hard work and dedication! And now is online: https://rdcu.be/eepjh​​​

March 17, 2025 - Congratulations to Adi for receiving the Rector’s Award for Academic Excellence in 2024. Well deserved!

March 10, 2025 - Congratulations to Adi for winning the Best Poster Award at the Women's Scientist Day 2025 in STEM Fields!

Feb 25, 2025 - What a fantastic achievement! Congratulations to all the award recipients! A special shoutout to Gil and Uri for receiving the Department Award for Excellence in M.Sc. Studies (First Year) and to Doron for earning a spot on the Dean’s List for Excellence in Ph.D. Studies (Second Year). Your dedication and hard work have truly paid off—well deserved!

Feb 18-19, 2025 - Here are some members of our amazing group at the 88th Annual Meeting of the Israel Chemical Society.

From left to right: Gil, Doron, Uri, Ofir, Aritra, and Yossi.

Feb 19, 2025 - Here, Aritra delivers his flash talk like a pro.

Dec 08, 2024 - Adi received the Faculty Scholarship for Excellence in MSc. Congratulation! 

November 12, 2024 - Congratulations on the acceptance of "Advancing Topoisomerase Research Using DNA Nanotechnology" in Small Methods! It's great to see this perspective featured in the special issue on "Nucleic Acid Nanotechnology." Well done, Doron and Adi, on contributing to this accomplishment.

August 27, 2024 - I'm thrilled to share that Gil has been awarded the Best TA in the University! Below are two photos—on the right, you can see how seriously Gil takes the role (the lab coat gives it away! 😄).

August 15, 2024 - It was time for our group BBQ! Click the 'Photo Albums' button to check out some great moments. Huge thanks to Radik for letting us borrow your home space!​

July 15, 2024 - What an amazing achievement! Our group shone brightly at the awards ceremony today, with many of the winners coming from our team. Congratulations to all the award recipients – you truly are superstars! Your hard work and dedication truly paid off. Well deserved!

Below is a photo of the winners, from left to right: Uri, Ofir, Adi, Gil, and Nir.

June 27, 2024 - Adi received the Outstanding Scholarship for Master's Degree Aspirants. Congratulation! 

June 19, 2024 - Absolutely thrilled to congratulate Nir Lemcoff for winning the highly prestigious Clore Scholars Award! So proud of you!
This award is designed to promote outstanding young Israeli scientists and aims to significantly advance scientific excellence in Israel. With only ten new scholars appointed each year across all fields of natural sciences—including mathematics, physics, chemistry, life sciences, earth sciences, computer science, agriculture, engineering, and technology—this is a remarkable achievement.

Your accomplishments reflect your dedication and excellence. Congratulations again!

June 17, 2024 - Congratulations to our exceptional students on receiving prestigious awards for their outstanding achievements! So proud of your hard work and dedication. 

Below are the well-deserved recognitions:

Nir Lemcoff: Dean's List for Outstanding Achievement in M.Sc. studies (second year)
Ofir Shelonchik: Dean's List for Outstanding Achievement in M.Sc. studies (second year)
Ofir Shelonchik: ADAMA Award for Outstanding Ph.D. Students
Uri Ben Nun: ADAMA Award for Outstanding B.Sc. Students
Gil Gordon: Department Award for Excellence in B.Sc. studies (third year)
Adi Katz: Dean's Award for Outstanding B.Sc. Students (third year)
Adi Katz: ADAMA Award for Outstanding B.Sc. Students

Your achievements are a testament to your dedication and excellence in your studies. Congratulations once again!

April 18, 2024 - Ofir received the Negev-Tzin Fellowship for Midway Outstanding Ph.D. Students,  Congratulations! ​

Feb 11, 2024 - Gil received the Faculty Scholarship for Excellence in MSc. Congratulation! 

Feb 7, 2024 - Our paper on "Light-induced MOF synthesis enabling composite photothermal materials" as been accepted to Nat. commun. Great job led by Ofir! A big thanks to the fantastic team and the rest of the group, for your hard work and dedication! And now is online: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-45333-9

Jan 17, 2024 - The group received the Kamin Incentive grant! Many thanks for the support from the Israel Innovation Authority!!!

Jan 7, 2024 - Yossi has started a new role as an Editorial Advisory Board (EAB) Member for ACS Applied Bio Materials, beginning on January 1st, 2024.

https://pubs.acs.org/page/aabmcb/editors.html

Nov 23, 2023 - Doron Yesodi was awarded the Ze'ev Jabotinsky Scholarship by the Ministry of Science and Technology for her direct Ph.D. studies. This prestigious fellowship spans a duration of 4 years! Congratulations!

Please find the University announcement regarding the prestigious award in the following link:

https://www.bgu.ac.il/en/news-and-articles/two-women-doctoral-students-win-prestigious-scholarships/

Oct 17, 2023 - Our newly published paper, titled "Photothermally heated colloidal synthesis of nanoparticles driven by silica-encapsulated plasmonic heat sources" has been featured on the Editors' Highlights webpage for recent research in the field of "Materials Science and Chemistry."

Link: https://www.nature.com/collections/wtpqpqpgwd

Oct 17, 2023 - Nir Lemcoff and Gill Gordon received the School of Sustainability and Climate Change’s Scholarship for Outstanding Masters and Doctoral Students. Congratulations!

October 10, 2023 - Our paper on "Photothermally heated colloidal synthesis of nanoparticles driven by silica-encapsulated plasmonic heat sources" as been accepted to Nat. commun. Great job led by Aritra! A big thanks to the fantastic team, including Nir, Ofir, and the rest of the group, for your hard work and dedication! And now is online: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-42167-9

October 3, 2023 - Yossi as been invited to serve on the Editorial Advisory Board for ACS Applied Bio Materials beginning January 1st, 2024. I'm looking forward to working with a great team for the next two years.

October 3, 2023 - Our paper on "Photothermally heated colloidal synthesis of nanoparticles driven by silica-encapsulated plasmonic heat sources" as been accepted to Nat. commun. Great job led by Aritra! A big thanks to the fantastic team, including Nir, Ofir, and the rest of the group, for your hard work and dedication!

August 29, 2023 - Nir received the Negev Fellowship for Outstading Ph.D. Research Students (2023-2027). Congratulations!

August 17, 2023 - Doron received the Negev STEM Fellowship for Outstanding Ph.D. Research Students (2023-2027). Congratulations!

August 2, 2023 - We thank the BGU UK Foundation for their generous support in funding our research project on "Artficial DNA topology for the design of a topoisomerase activity assay."

June 22, 2023 - We thank the Ilsa Katz Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology for their generous support in funding our collaborative research project on MOF-Derived Materials.

June 19, 2023 - Here are some snapshots captured during the ADAMA Award ceremony. The Weizmann group demonstrated remarkable engagement. Congratulations on a job well done!

From left to right we have Gil, Ofir, Doron, Nir, and Yahel.

 

June 12, 2023 - Nir, Doron and Ofir received the ADAMA Award for Outstanding M.Sc. Students. Congratulations!                              

June 12, 2023 - Gil and Yahel received the ADAMA Award for Outstanding B.Sc. Students. Congratulations!                                   

June 04, 2023 - Doron delivered her M.Sc. presentation on "Mimicking Biological Functionality Using Artificial DNA Topology for the Design of a Topoisomerase Activity Assay"! Congratulation on the amazing talk!

May 24, 2023 - Congratulations to Ofir on his exceptional defense of his Master's thesis and Ph.D. proposal. Well done!                                 

May 1, 2023 - Congratulations to Nir for receiving the Distinction Award in Chemistry during the first year of his Master's Degree, and congratulations to Doron for receiving the Chemistry Excellence Award during the first year of her Master's Degree. Well done to both of them!  

Feburary 15, 2023 - A group trip to make colorful pasta in Papon Gal Shaish. To view photos from the event, please enter the photo albums 

January 30, 2023 - More News on our new paper in Nature Chemistry: 

January 29, 2023 - We are on the NEWS:

"LED פיתוח ישראלי: פולימר הפולט חום בחשיפה לאור" 

https://www.ynet.co.il/environment-science/article/skqt811q2i                   

January 26, 2023 - Olefin metathesis gets the golden touch!

I'm very excited to share our new paper on plasmonic nanoparticles that have been utilized to activate latent ruthenium catalysts carrying light-induced olefin metathesis into the IR range, now online in Nature Chemistry.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41557-022-01124-7

Many thanks and congrats to Nir Lemcoff and the group!
Awesome collaboration with Gabi Lemcoff's group
Plasmonic nanoparticles have been utilized to activate latent ruthenium catalysts carrying light-induced olefin metathesis into the IR range. 

January 19, 2023 - Our Minireview on "Point-of-care nucleic acid tests: assays and devices" is online and featured as a cover in Nanoscale. Thanks, Doron and Ofer, for your efforts! 

 

December 7, 2022 - Our Minireview on "Point-of-care nucleic acid tests: assays and devices" is published online in the Journal Nanoscale! Congratulations, Ofer and Doron! The invited minireview is part of the themed collection "Emerging concepts in nucleic acids: structures, functions and applications."                                  

November 13, 2022 - Ofir delivered his M.Sc. presentation on "Light-induced MOF synthesis and catalysis by photothermal activation of plasmonic nanoparticles"! Congratulation on the amazing talk!

November 3, 2022 - Our Topical Review on "RNA nanostructures: from structure to function" is published online in the Journal of Bioconjugate Chemistry! Congratulations, Ofer and Doron! The invited Topical Review is part of the themed collection “Chemistry of DNA Nanotechnology.”                           

Jun 21, 2022 - Ofir, Nir, and Doron received the Faculty Scholarship for Excellence in MSc. Congratulation! 

Jun 21, 2022 - Ella Yonit Finestone received the Dr. Baruch Zinger Memorial Fund for excellence and social contribution. 

Congratulations!

Jun 10, 2022 - Congratulation to the BGU international cricket team - the "BGU Striker" who destroyed the Weizmann institute and Technion teams. Our group member Aritra got the highest score - RESPECT!

                                       

Nov 1, 2021 - Ofir received the outstanding B.Sc. Award at the ADAMA Awards ceremony day

Oct 20, 2021 - A new postdoc scholar, Dr. Aritra Biswas, has joined our lab. Welcome! 

Oct 18, 2021 - Ofir Shelonchick received the ADAMA Award for Outstanding B.Sc. Students. Congratulations!

Oct 11, 2021 - Ofir Shelonchick received the School of Sustainability and Climate Change’s Scholarship for Outstanding Masters and Doctoral Students. Congratulations!

Sep 22, 2021 - Our RNA crystal paper is online and featured as a cover in Science Advances. Thank you all for your efforts! 

Dec 7, 2020 - Yossi talks about his research at the Zuckerman Symposium - "Strength through Partnership." Yossi's talk starts at 52 min.

Nov 12, 2020 - Yossi has received the NSFC-ISF Joint Program Grant! Many thanks for the support from ISF!!! and NSFC!!! And to our collaborator Prof. Xuemei Wang!

Aug 31, 2020 - Yossi has received the Zuckerman Faculty Scholar Award! Many thanks for the support from Zuckerman Institue!!!

 

 

Jul 23, 2020- Yossi has received the New-Faculty Equipment Grant! Many thanks for the support from ISF!!!

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Jul 23, 2020 - Yossi has received the Individual Research Grant! Many thanks for the support from ISF!!!

Aug 22, 2018 - JACS symposium featured a great lineup of speakers!

Our cover was featured on the JACS symposium flyer:

Editor-in-Chief Peter Stang with speakers from the JACS symposium: "Spotlight on Nanoscience, Nanotechnology & Beyond"

JACS symposium at ACS meeting celebrating 140 years!

From right to left: Ye Tian, Yossi Weizmann, Ben Feringa, Peter Stang, Hanadi Sleiman, Zhenan Bao

After the symposium, we had lunch with great friends

We are grateful to the following for funding and supporting our research: