Ernst David Bergmann

Ernst David Bergmann was born in 1903 in Karlsruhe

Bergmann was born in 1903 in Karlsruhe, Germany, the eldest of 8 children. His father, Judah Bergmann, was a rabbi. The family later moved to Berlin.

He studied chemistry at the University of Berlin and earned a doctorate there. He then worked with Professor Wilhelm Schlenk, and the two wrote a manual of organic chemistry. After the Nazis came to power in 1933, he was dismissed and left for London to work with Chaim Weizmann.

In January 1934 he immigrated to Mandatory Palestine to work at the Daniel Sieff Research Institute in Rehovot, which later became the Weizmann Institute. He was its first scientific director and later its director. During World War II he worked on defense projects for the French, British and Americans.

After Israel's founding he held senior science posts in the IDF and the Ministry of Defense and advised David Ben-Gurion. In 1952 he became the first chairman of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission and led it until 1966. He was also a professor of organic chemistry at the Hebrew University and published more than 500 scientific papers.

He received the Israel Prize in life sciences in 1968 and died in 1975. Kiryat Bergmann and an institute of Rafael are named after him.