Benjamin Geiger

Born in Israel, Prof. Benjamin (Benny) Geiger conducted his undergraduate studies at Tel Aviv University, and his MSc studies in Immunology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1977, he was awarded a PhD degree in Chemical Immunology from the Weizmann Institute of Science and conducted his postdoctoral research at the University of California, San Diego. In 1979, Prof. Geiger returned to Israel and joined the Weizmann Institute’s Department of Chemical Immunology. He held a number of senior posts at the Weizmann Institute, among them Dean of the Feinberg Graduate School (1989-1995), Founder and Head of the Department of Molecular Cell Biology (1996-2004), and Dean of the Faculty of Biology (2004-2009). He is the incumbent of the Erwin Neter Professorial Chair in Cell and Tumor Biology, and he is an elected member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). Prof. Geiger served as President of the Israel Cell Biology Organization and the European Cytoskeletal Forum, Chair of the Euro BioImaging and various other scientific initiatives. Between 2003 and 2009 he chaired the Life Science and Medicine Section of the Israel Science Foundation (ISF), the major funding source for basic research in Israel, and since 2009 he serves as the ISF Chair.

The research activity of Prof. Geiger is mainly related to the mode of interaction on living cells, healthy and cancerous, with their microenvironment. In his work specific mechanisms of cellular interactions were studied, most of which were associated with cell adhesion to each other and to the surrounding extracellular matrix. His studies provided an insight into the role of the cell-skeleton in controlling environmental interactions, which, in turn regulate multiple cellular processes such as cell signaling proliferation and cancer invasion. Studies conducted in the Geiger laboratory were described in nearly 400 publications and presented in many scientific conferences.

He was involved, throughout the years in national activities associated with science education and various fields in the performing arts.

He is married to Dr. Selly Geiger, father of Anat, Tamar and Avner, and grandfather of Yotam, Shira, Ayala and Orr.