Roy Beck-Barkai

Roy Beck-Barkai’s research focuses on the forces and interactions governing the self-assembly of biomolecules into functional nanoscopic structures. This include the organization principles of cytoskeleton proteins within the neuronal system, intrinsically disordered proteins, membranes and nano-complexes of lipids and proteins. His research combine various biochemical techniques to isolate and express desired products and advance microscopic and biophysical techniques such as small angle X-ray scattering to characterize the structures and their governing intermolecular forces in conditions relevant in biology.

Along with his scientific achievements, Beck-Barkai promotes science and education to underprivileged youth, and to religious scholars. Since 2012, he has served as the vice-chair of the user executive committee of the SESAME project, a collaborative intergovernmental venture that will make synchrotron radiation science available to the Middle East and neighboring regions.

He received his B.Sc. degree in physics and computer science and Ph.D. in low-temperature solid-state physics from Tel Aviv University, Israel. Seeking a way to combine physics with biology and medicine, he completed a four-year post-graduate fellowship in biophysics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In 2010, he was recruited to Tel Aviv University to open an experimental interdisciplinary laboratory for biophysics.