David Bensimon's Biography

David Bensimon, Research Director, Ecole Normale Superieure

David Bensimon graduated summa cum laude in Physics and Electrical Engineer from Technion. He went on to do a M.Sc. in Applied Physics at the Weizmann Institute and a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics (1986), on Chaos and pattern formation at the University of Chicago under the direction of Leo Kadanoff. After a post-doc at Bell labs, he joined the Laboratoire de Physique Statistique at the ENS where he co-leads a research team with V.Croquette. After initial investigations of the shape of  phospholipid vesicles of non-spherical topology, he co-discovered molecular combing and studied the elastic properties of a single DNA molecule and its interactions with proteins using the magnetic trap system developed in his group. He recently extended his interest to the photo-control of protein activity in a live organism and to problems in evolution.  A holder of 17 patents, founder of two companies, he is also Professor at UCLA where he spends the winter quarter.