Dr. Veronika Rabl: Finding a Home and Creating a Future at Weizmann

“Weizmann saved my life,” said Dr. Veronika Rabl. “The Institute gave me a home and the intellectual foundation for my future.”

When Dr. Rabl began to consider her legacy, she knew she wanted to give back to Weizmann — where she earned her MSc in physics in 1971. Veronika began her studies at the Institute under unusual circumstances: as a refugee from Soviet oppression. She was born in Czechoslovakia soon after World War II. Most of her family, including her older brother, had perished in the Holocaust. Her parents survived by hiding in the mountains with the partisans. Her father, an engineer, passed away when she was 10. Though her mother faced the challenges of single parenthood, she was assertive about her daughter’s education and pushed Veronika to enter a vocational school.

As an alternative, Veronika applied to and was accepted by an elite high school in Prague, hundreds of miles from her hometown. The school was created to train a select group of future nuclear engineers and scientists. Veronika then went on to study nuclear engineering and physics at Charles University. She was among the very few women in these programs and quickly distinguished herself as one of the most promising students.

“At the university, there was one mathematics professor who always sought to decimate the incoming class,” she recalled. “On my first math exam, I got an A minus. That was the first time that anyone got an A, particularly a woman, from this professor.”

In August 1968, during a brief period of liberalization and before her final year at the university, Veronika traveled to Israel to meet her cousin Magda, her only surviving relative on her father’s side. Magda was among the 999 young girls on the first Jewish transport to Auschwitz and was one of the very few who survived. Magda passed away about a year ago.

During her summer holiday, Soviet troops invaded Czechoslovakia to reassert control and crush the “Prague Spring.” With tanks in the streets of Prague, Veronika decided not to return.

“I got stuck without money and with a canceled passport. All I had was a small suitcase of summer clothes,” she said.

Through a friend of Magda’s husband, an interview was arranged for Veronika at Weizmann. Three preeminent physicists conducted the interview: Profs. Haim Harari, Harry “Zvi” Lipkin, and Igal Talmi. At the time, Veronika spoke little English and no Hebrew, so the interview was conducted in broken English and German.

“I’ll never forget standing at a blackboard, with the three professors sitting in front of me,” she recalled. “They’d get up every now and then to write a problem or equation and I would finish it.” Though she had not yet completed her university degree, she impressed the faculty and was offered a full scholarship to Weizmann’s master’s program in physics.

Weizmann quickly became her home. She lived in the Clore House with an Israeli roommate. The environment was intimate and interactive, with small classes of fewer than 30 students. Most of all, she was thrilled to study with world leaders in her field.

“I studied and worked with an incredible faculty,” she said. “Lipkin was a very big name in physics. It was intimidating but also very exciting. After one semester with Prof. Lipkin, I learned more about quantum mechanics than I had in my years in Prague.” Later, Prof. Lipkin became Veronika’s thesis advisor.

During her time on campus, she met and married her then husband — who was a Weizmann postdoctoral fellow. She followed him to the University of Bonn in Germany before immigrating to the United States and finishing her doctorate at Ohio State University. Following a postdoc at Syracuse University, she accepted a research position at Argonne National Laboratory. It was there that she transitioned from physics to the emerging fields of energy and the environment.

Over the course of her career, she has provided leadership for energy technologies and programs, advised companies and governments around the world, written numerous publications, and won awards and honors.

“I’ve never forgotten the people, the intimacy, the approach, and, of course, the financial support that enabled me to continue my studies,” she said.

After reconnecting with Prof. Haim Harari, Veronika visited the Weizmann campus with her partner and decided to give back to the institution that had given her so much. In 2017 she established the Veronika A. Rabl Physics Discretionary Fund in support of the Institute’s continued excellence in physics. In recognition of her significant legacy commitment, she was inducted into Weizmann’s prestigious President’s Circle.

In late 2023, Veronika was elected to the board of the Feinberg Graduate School, which is the educational arm of the Weizmann Institute of Science. Her expansive knowledge and experience in the areas of science and energy make her an invaluable resource to the board — and to the Institute at large.

She also continues to be a generous donor to the institution. Her recent gifts to the Veronika Rabl Sustainability Initiative not only reflect her passion for sustainability but also her confidence in the Institute and its flagship priority in environmental science. “If you want to give to a place that has a very high chance of delivering breakthroughs, it is tough to rival Weizmann,” she said.

Dr. Rabl described several features that make Weizmann unique among educational institutions, most notably, its focus on multidisciplinary research.

“Given what’s happening in science and engineering today, there’s no way one could make a significant contribution from a siloed position. Interdisciplinary work is essential for progress. Weizmann is a quintessential interdisciplinary research center not easily found elsewhere.”

Veronika also cited the Institute’s method of recruiting scientists and students who represent "the best of the best" in their fields and then giving them the resources they need “so that they can just focus on the work.”

In her own experience, the Institute’s investment in brilliant minds has made all the difference. Today she’s grateful to be able to pay it forward by investing in the people and the breakthroughs of tomorrow. Veronika hopes others, including former students, postdocs, and faculty, will consider making Weizmann part of their lasting legacies.