David Milstein was born in 1947 in Ulm, Germany, where his family took refuge after being displaced during the Holocaust. With his family, he immigrated to the newly founded state of Israel at the age of two.
He went on to complete his Bachelor of Science degree with distinction in 1968, Master of Science with distinction in 1969, and a Ph.D. Summa Cum Laude in 1976 under Prof. J. Blum from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.
Milstein conducted his post-doctoral research at Colorado State University with advisor Dr John Stille.
Currently, David Milstein is Founder and Head of the Kimmel Centre for Molecular Design and the Professorial Chair of Organic Chemistry at the Weizmann Institute of Science, a multidisciplinary basic research institution in the natural and exact sciences in Israel.
He is also presently a Full Professor at the Department of Organic Chemistry at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.
In 2007, Science magazine cited as one of ten “breakthroughs of the year” his group’s pioneering development of a ruthenium-based catalyst to convert starting compounds, called amines and alcohols, directly into another class of widely useful compounds, called amides, which play crucial roles in chemistry and biology. This catalyst, called the ‘Milstein catalyst’ is used today in labs around the world. Two of his catalysts are being marketed worldwide by Strem Chemicals, Inc.
His H Index is 91 (ISI); 97 (Google Scholar) and citations are 30,000 (ISI); 35,500 (Google Scholar).
Honours and Awards:
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David Milstein is a Foreign Member of Royal Society; a member of the US National Academy of Sciences; Israel National Academy of Sciences and Humanities; and the German National Academy of Sciences.
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He has received many honours including the Israel Prize (Israel’s highest honour); the Gold Medal of the Israel Chemical Society; the Israel Chemical Society Gold Medal; and the European Prize for Organometallic Chemistry.