Boca Raton student learns about international cooperation at institute

Between graduating last spring from Donna Klein Jewish Academy in Boca Raton and moving on to Tufts University to study biomedical engineering, Michael Vizner of Boca Raton spent four weeks at the Dr. Bessie Lawrence International Summer Science Institute at the Weizmann Institute of Sciences in Israel.

It was an eye-opening experience, he told the Boca Raton News by phone from his dorm at the Massachusetts university.

“I got a taste of what it is like to work at a research institution,” he said. “The coolest thing,” he added, was “to see how the professional staff works with each other and how they get along.”

“What I gained most,” he said, “was an understanding of people,” and how researches from various nations work together for a cause.

Vizner was one of 19 American scientist hopefuls chosen to take part in the 39th annual summer institute. He joined 60 students from around the world for scientific exploration at the institute located in Rehovot, Israel.

While at the institute, “I was given a synthetic drug for multiple sclerosis. My job was to help improve it.”

Actually, the summer of 2007 was the second time he worked on the program. “I got into it last year while working at Florida Atlantic University with Dr. Jang-Ken Wu.”

Admitting he’s still getting “settled in” at Tufts, Vizner said he signed up for the biomedical engineering track. “They will run me through all the engineering first,” he said.

After that, he hopes to move on to molecular biology.

Michael is the son of Sam and Dana Vizner.

Each year, some 20 American students – or one in five of the applicants – are accepted into the program. Eligibility is based solel9y on the candidate’s abilities, said Jeffrey Sussman, vice president of marketing, communications and public affairs at the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science.

“Some of the most talented students in the U.S. are attracted to the Weizmann Institute program,” he noted. “These students, all high school seniors, are chosen based upon merit and academic achievement.”

Sussman picked up on Vizner’s observation, noting that students from around the world “experience the challenges and rewards of working along side top professional scientific researchers at one of the world’s leading basic science research centers. At the same time, they learn about life in Israel.”

The final week of the program is spent at a field school in the Judean Desert, near the Dead Sea. By observing ecology, geography, climate, archaeology and other sciences in the field, Sussman said, participants learn to formulate questions that they may eventually explore in the laboratory.

Dale M. King can be reached at 561-549-0832 or at dking@bocanews.com.