Ron Milo (; born February 11, 1975) is a Professor of Systems Biology at the Weizmann Institute of Science. He is Weizmann Dean of Education,Weizmann website the chairperson of the Israel society of ecology and environmental sciencesThe Israel Society of Ecology and Environmental Sciences and the director of the Institute for environmental sustainability Institute for environmental sustainability at Weizmann. Formerly he was the chairperson of the Israel young academy.Israel Young Academy website
Education Ron Milo was born in Haifa and educated in Kfar-Saba. At the age of 15 he won the National Physics Olympiad. He holds a bachelor's degree with honors in physics and mathematics from the Hebrew University as part of the Talpiot program, a master's degree in electrical engineering from Tel Aviv University and a PhD in the laboratory of Professor Uri Alon at the Weizmann Institute of Science. In 2006–2008, Milo was the first Harvard Systems Biology Fellow. at Harvard Medical School.
Research Milo harnesses the tools of quantitative thinking and systems biology to find solutions to the challenges of sustainability.Milo lab Milo’s goal is improving the ability of humanity to produce food more efficiently by creating new ways to fixate carbon dioxide from the air. His group demonstrated for the first time an ability to convert carbon dioxide into sugar in a synthetically engineered E. coli. Gleizer, S., Ben-Nissan, R., Bar-On, Y. M., Antonovsky, N., Noor, E., Zohar, Y., ... & Milo, R. (2019).Conversion of Escherichia coli to generate all biomass carbon from CO2. Cell, 179(6), 1255-1263Antonovsky, N., Gleizer, S., Noor, E., Zohar, Y., Herz, E., Barenholz, U., ... & Milo, R. (2016). Sugar synthesis from CO2 in Escherichia coli. Cell, 166(1), 115-125.
Milo also leads a global accounting of biomass on earth giving a fresh perspective on the impact of humanity and the future of biodiversity.Elhacham, E., Ben-Uri, L., Grozovski, J., Bar-On, Y. M., & Milo, R. (2020). Global human-made mass exceeds all living biomass. Nature, 588(7838), 442-444. His work on the biomass distribution on EarthBar-On, Y. M., Phillips, R., & Milo, R. (2018). The biomass distribution on Earth. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(25), 6506-6511. is widely cited for example in BBC documentaries and served for an exhibition in the museum of Natural history in London. He also quantified the land, irrigation water use, and greenhouse gas emissions of dietary choices, and the needed changes required to minimize our impact on the planet.Eshel, G., Shepon, A., Makov, T., & Milo, R. (2014). Land, irrigation water, greenhouse gas, and reactive nitrogen burdens of meat, eggs, and dairy production in the United States. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(33), 11996-12001.
His book “Cell Biology by the Numbers”,Cell Biology by the Numbers is freely available online and was translated to multiple languages. He is the founder of BioNumbers,BioNumbers the database of useful biological numbers. His papers were cited over 50,000 times.Google Scholar
Awards Rothschild Prize (2024) European Molecular Biology Organization membership (2019)EMBO website Weizmann Institute Scientific Council Award (2013)Weizmann website GE & Science Prize for Young Life Scientists "All Other Countries" category winner (2006)Science website, Grand prize winners, 2006
References
External links
Cell Biology by the Numbers Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences at Weizmann