Born in Jerusalem in 1991, Yonatan served for three years in the Combat Intelligence Collection Corps of the Israel Defense Forces. Yonatan studied chemistry at the Hebrew University and co-authored a paper in the area of biosensors during his BSc studies. He received the Dean’s award during his BSc. studies and a scholarship for his academic excellence. He also received an award from the Feinberg Graduate School of the Weizmann Institute of Science for his outstanding achievements during his MSc studies. His results were reported in Angewandte Chemie. By understanding the fundamental structural design principles of his nanoscale thin films, he was able to predict and design both their electrochemical and electrochromic properties. The demonstrated bilayer operates as a multicolored charge storage device.

Currently, he is a PhD student (direct track) at the Weizmann Institute of Science, where he continues to conduct research with Prof. Milko van der Boom and Dr Michal Lahav. Last year, Yonatan initiated a new project related to electrochemical screening for the spike glycoprotein of coronavirus. The Dean of the Faculty of Chemistry awarded him with funding to pursue his ideas.

Yonatan guides high school students who are developing experiments at the Ramon SpaceLab to be performed at the International Space Station (ISS). The SpaceLab program, under the auspices of the Ramon Foundation, exposes students to cutting-edge research. They consult with leading experts from academe as well as from the Israeli and the American space agencies (ISA and NASA). He believes that igniting scientific curiosity among teenagers while providing them with tools to deal with challenges is the key to creating a better society.