Samer Gnaim had the privilege to study chemistry and biology at Tel-Aviv University, where he received his B.Sc. with honors. In 2013, he started a direct Ph.D. track in bio-organic chemistry with Prof. Doron Shabat. At this juncture, he had the opportunity to work on a broad spectrum of organic and bio-organic topics, including synthetic, supramolecular, polymer, and bio-related chemistry. These techniques were mainly used to enhance the chemiluminescent emissive nature of the novel triggerable 1,2-dioxetane class of compounds and expand their sensing, diagnostic, and theranostic applications.In 2019, upon completing his PhD, Samer was awarded several postdoctoral fellowships to pursue his studies with Prof. Phil Baran at Scripps Research in California. There, he tackled the challenge of developing scalable synthetic electrochemical methods for sustainable desaturation of carbonyl compounds, and cobalt electrocatalyzed functionalization of unsaturated C-C bonds.
In fall 2022, Samer joined the Department of Molecular Chemistry and Material Sciences at the Weizmann Institute of Science as an assistant professor.
Awards & scholarships
- 2025-2029 – VATAT Collaborative grant
- 2024-2029 – ERC starting grant
- 2024-2028 – ISF personal grant
- 2023 – Maof scholarship
- 2022 – Sir Charles Clore prize
- 2019-2021 – The Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellowship
- 2019-2021 – VATAT Postdoctoral Scholraship
- 2019-2021 – The Rothschild Postdoctoral Fellowship
- 2018 – ICS Prize for an Excellent Graduate Student
- 2015-2018 – "Zvi Yanai" Excellence scholarship for Ph.D. students
- 2013-2018 – VATAT Fellowship for Outstanding Ph.D. Students