Scienceעמוס דה-שליט

Amos de-Shalit

Amos de-Shalit was an Israeli nuclear physicist who founded the nuclear physics department at the Weizmann Institute and won the Israel Prize in 1965.

1926 to 1969The nuclear shell modelWeizmann Institute nuclear physics departmentScience education programs for youth

Born: 29 September 1926, Jerusalem
Died: 2 September 1969, Rehovot
Occupation: physicist, university teacher, nuclear physicist
Education: Hebrew University of Jerusalem, ETH Zurich, Ironi Alef High School

Amos de-Shalit was born in 1926 in Jerusalem

Amos de-Shalit was born in Jerusalem in 1926 to Ada and Moshe de-Shalit. He grew up in Tel Aviv and attended Gymnasia Balfour.

He earned a master's degree in physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1949 under Giulio Racah. In 1951 he received his doctorate from ETH Zurich. From 1952 to 1954 he worked at Princeton University, MIT and the Saclay atomic research institute in France.

During the War of Independence he served in the IDF Science Corps. With fellow students he wrote to David Ben-Gurion about the importance of nuclear physics for Israel.

In 1954 he founded the Department of Nuclear Physics at the Weizmann Institute and headed it for 10 years, while advising the Ministry of Defense. He was the institute's science director from 1961 to 1963 and later its general manager. With Igal Talmi he won the 1965 Israel Prize for work on the nuclear shell model.

He helped found the Minerva committee linking the Weizmann Institute with German scientists, and started science programs for young people. He died of acute pancreatitis in 1969. Schools in Rehovot and a summer school program bear his name.