The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences is the oldest academic institution in Israel, and has been involved in research and teaching in the field of life sciences since 1925, the year of the founding of the Hebrew University (read more about our history).
The Institute is located in the heart of the Edmond J. Safra Campus in Givat Ram, Jerusalem, and is the largest of the research institutes in the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences of the Hebrew University. Our close proximity to leading researchers in chemistry, physics, earth sciences, mathematics and computer science enables us to form innovative and interdisciplinary collaborations, and offer our students unique integrative study programs.
Our research encompasses a variety of fields:
- Biotechnology & bioengineering.
- Cell, system & developmental biology.
- Genetics, genomics & computational biology.
- Ecology, evolution & sociobiology.
- Environmental sciences & biology of lakes and seas.
- Neuroscience & psychobiology.
- Plant Sciences & agricultural crops research.
- Structural & molecular biology, biochemistry and protein engineering.
Currently, there are 59 research groups of faculty members and 15 research groups of retired faculty members.
Two Nobel laureates accompany the research at the Institute:
- Professor Roger Kornberg (Chemistry, 2006) as an adjunct professor.
- Professor Michael Levitt (Chemistry, 2013) as a visiting professor.
The Institute has around 700 undergraduate and 250 graduate students.