Yitzhak Apeloig - Biography#

Yitzhak Apeloig was born in Buchara, Uzbekistan (1944) and in 1947 he immigrated to Israel. He received his B.A. M.Sc. and Ph.D (1974) degrees in Chemistry (summa cum laude) from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In 1974-1976 he was a postdoctoral fellow in Princeton University. In 1976 he joined the Technion, becoming a full professor in 1988. During 1995-1999 he served as Dean of the Faculty of Chemistry. Currently he is a Distinguished University Professor and holds the Nahum Guzik Distinguished Academic Chair.

During 2001-2009 he was President of the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. During these eight years he lead the Technion to higher levels of excellence in research and teaching and to increased involvement with the community. He led the Technion into new areas of science and technology and raised some $700 million dollars from private donors and foundations. During this period he continued to teach and to lead an active research group.

Yitzhak Apeloig is a world-leader in organosilicon chemistry and in the application of quantum mechanics theory to chemistry. He has published more than 200 scholarly papers and reviews, and edited 7 books. He was a visiting professor at universities in four continents and presented some 200 invited lectures in international conferences, universities and industry.

He received many awards, among them: ACS Kipping Award in Silicon Chemistry (2010), Wacker Silicone Award (2007), Israel Chemical Society Prize (2002), Alexander von Humboldt Senior Scientist Award (twice), JSPS Visiting Professor Award (3 times), and Technion Awards for Academic Excellence, Excellence in Research and Excellence in Teaching.

He is an Honorary Foreign Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2010), a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2009), holds an Honorary Doctorate from TU Berlin (2006), an Honorary Fellow of the Jerusalem College of Engineering (2011) and received the Order of Merit (First Degree) of Germany (2011).