Dr. Uriel Arnon was born in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1930, and immigrated with his family to Mandatory Palestine in 1945. He studied chemical engineering at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, graduating in 1957, and subsequently pursued advanced studies at the Polytechnic Institute of New York (previously the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn), receiving his PhD in polymer chemistry in 1964.
His engineering career included positions in government and commercial companies, nuclear research centers, and in the Israel Aerospace Industries, where he served as the head of Materials Engineering and Technology Development for 13 years. Since 1992, he has been an independent consultant.
Uri is married to Prof. Ruth Arnon, former President of the Israel Academy of Sciences and the Humanities and former Vice President of the Weizmann Institute of Science. The two share a deep commitment to advancing the future of Israeli science through youth education at the highest level. In the spirit of this vision, in 2014 they established the Ruth and Uriel Arnon Science Education Campus at the Weizmann Institute, housing the Schwartz/Reisman Science Education Center, Rehovot, a science learning center that offers advanced science curricula for high-school students from the Institute’s region (Rehovot and Ness Ziona).
Uri and Ruth are active and generous philanthropists who have supported a broad range of causes related to science, health, music, and education in Israel, including a donation for the construction of an internal medicine ward focusing primarily on acute conditions for geriatric patients at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov).
Uri has been a member of the Institute’s International Board since 2014, and was elected a Life Member in 2018.
The couple has two children, Michal and Yoram.