Prof. Roee Ozeri was born in Israel and earned a BSc in physics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He received his MSc and PhD degrees in physics from the Weizmann Institute of Science. He conducted postdoctoral research at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado and joined the Weizmann Institute faculty in 2007.
Prof. Ozeri conducts research in the field of ultra-cold atoms. One of his research efforts is quantum computing—the development of computing systems that make use of the principles of quantum mechanics. Such quantum systems have the potential to perform immense information-processing tasks that are out of reach of regular computers, and they can have a vastly greater capacity for storing information. If such systems are indeed built, they will revolutionize the world of computing, requiring, for example, an entirely new approach to ensuring the secrecy of information—for example, in online banking transactions. Prof. Ozeri focuses on one of the greatest challenges in developing quantum computers: finding appropriate units, or bits, for storing information. Another research direction is the understanding of interactions between atoms at very low temperatures such as how chemical reactions occur at a temperature close to absolute zero and whether new forms of matter can be created under these extreme conditions.
Prof. Ozeri received the Levinson Physics prize in 2012 and the prestigious Rothschild Fund postdoctoral prize fellowship in 2003. His articles have been published in prestigious scientific and physics journals such as Nature, Science, and Physical Review Letters. Prof. Ozeri is the chair of the Weizmann Institute Early Childhood Education Center steering committee and is a member of the executive boards of the Davidson Institute of Science Education and the Schwarz-Reisman Centers for Science Education.
He is married to Carmit and has three children, Omer, Tamar, and Netta. His hobbies include Sea-kayaking, running, cooking, reading, and swimming.