Chaim L. Pekeris joined the Weizmann Institute as head of its Department of Applied Mathematics in 1949. He died in Rehovot, Israel on February 24, 1993. Chaim L. Pekeris Chaim Leib Pekeris (June 15, 1908 – February 24, 1993) was an Israeli-American physicist and mathematician. He made notable contributions to geophysics and the spectral theory of many-electron atoms, in particular the Helium atom. He was also one of the designers of the first computer in Israel, WEIZAC. Pekeris was born in Alytus, Vilna Governorate. With the assistance of his uncle, Pekeris and his two brothers emigrated to the United States around 1925. He
Chaim Weizmann fermentation. He used the bacterium Clostridium acetobutylicum (the "Weizmann organism") to produce acetone. Acetone was used in the manufacture of cordite explosive propellants critical to the Allied war effort (see Royal Navy Cordite Factory, Holton Heath). Weizmann transferred the rights to the manufacture of acetone to the Commercial Solvents Corporation in exchange for royalties. First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill became aware of the possible use of Weizmann's discovery in early 1915, and Minister of Munitions David Lloyd George joined Churchill in encouraging Weizmann's development of the process. Pilot plant development of laboratory procedures was completed in 1915 at