Rachel Mamlok-Naaman

The story of Rachel Mamlok-Naaman's life

Rachel Mamlok-Naaman was born in Romania. She moved to Israel with her parents in May 1949 and grew up in Jaffa, where she attended Ironi Z high school.

Through the academic reserve program, she studied chemistry and physics at the Hebrew University and earned a teaching certificate there. She received a BSc in chemistry in 1966. At Bar-Ilan University she earned an MA in science education in 1992 and a PhD in 1998, then did postdoctoral research at the University of Michigan with Joe Krajcik.

She began teaching chemistry at a high school in Jaffa in 1970 and taught there for 26 years. She has worked in the Department of Science Teaching at the Weizmann Institute since 1989. She headed its National Center for Chemistry Teachers from 1996 to 2016 and from 2018 to 2020.

Her research covers misconceptions in learning chemistry, sustainability, teacher development and the gender gap. She chairs the education division of the European Chemical Society and sits on the IUPAC Committee on Chemistry Education. She is vice editor-in-chief of Chemistry Teacher International.