Renata Reisfeld

Renata Reisfeld was born in 1930 in Chełm

Renata Reisfeld, born Renata Sobel, was born in Chełm, Poland, in 1930. She came to Israel in 1950. Her husband was Lazar Eliezer Reisfeld, and they had 2 sons, Danny and Gideon.

She completed a doctorate at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem around 1960. She then did postdoctoral work at the University of Oregon in the United States.

She returned to Israel as a lecturer in chemistry and in 1975 became head of a research team at the university's Institute of Chemistry. From 1978 her team developed luminescent solar concentrators, and her work also covered nanoparticles, sol-gel glasses and photovoltaic electricity. She supervised 28 graduate students and published 532 scientific papers.

In 1976 she was a passenger on hijacked Air France flight 139 and was among the 102 hostages rescued by Israeli forces at Entebbe, Uganda. She later spoke about the event in media interviews.

She retired in 1998 but continued her work. From 2007 to 2010 she was chief scientist of GreenSun Energy Ltd. She received honorary degrees from universities in France, Romania and Poland.