Scientist, Zionist statesman, first President of Israel. Born in Russia, he joined the Hibbat Zion movement. His twin passions for science and Zionism were all-absorbing. At 18, he went to Germany and studied at German and Swiss universities. While still young, he made an important discovery in the chemistry of dyes, and in 1904, he became instructor in chemistry at the University of Manchester in England. During World War I, Weizmann served as the head of the British Admiralty Laboratories and developed a process for manufacturing acetone out of starches, a vital link in the production of the explosives needed in the war effort. Lloyd George records in his memoirs that, when asked how the British government might repay him, Weizmann answered, “There is only one thing I want