Photo by
TPS-IL/Blavatnik Prize Fund on 26 May, 2025
British Scientist Who Chose Israel for Career Wins Prestigious Prize
Jerusalem, 26 May, 2025 (TPS-IL) -- A British scientist who made Israel his first choice for career progression, has been honored with the prestigious Blavatnik prize after discovering shrimp can form crystals by manipulating light.
Dr Ben Palmer, 39, originally from Wales, United Kingdom, will next month be awarded $100,000 by the eminent Blavatnik Family Foundation prize fund, which recognises individuals under the age of 42 for groundbreaking research.
His work is expected to make waves in the whitening industry, providing a safer and more natural material than current chemicals regularly used in products such as paint and toothpaste.
Dr Palmer, who has a Ph.D. in crystallography, explained his scientific discovery to TPS-IL: “Guanine [the dna substance produced by fish to make their scales shiny] has been known about for a long time and used in various creatures in the animal kingdom.
“I wasn’t looking for a new material, I was just interested in looking at creatures who use guanine to make crystals.
“The award was given for two reasons – the discovery of materials, and the research on the mechanisms that use them, which has opened up a new sub-genre of biochemistry.
“We saw that shrimp manipulate light to make different shapes out of crystals. The shape dictates its optical qualities. It is a bit like how light reflects from a gem stone or a soap bubble – they reflect differently.”
He moved to Israel eleven years ago to begin his scientific career as Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Ben Gurion University, because, he says, the country has the most “scientific freedom.”
He went on to comment: “In Israel, science is really respected and there is far more room to research subjects just from a pure interest point of view.
“I wanted to study how shrimp manipulate light to form crystals, but never intended on discovering a material that can be used in whitening products.
“There is far more scope for scientific research, which then leads to unexpected discoveries like this. In the UK, there isn’t really the investment or funding for that.”
He said his choice of Israel was further sparked by his grandmother Eileen, who passed away last year, and who was an active friend of the Jewish community in Wales.
This led to the family visiting Israel when he was a child, and he was also impressed with the sense of community and warmth of the country, which he says is similar to that of his home town.
He now plans to use the money to continue his research and other projects he can’t yet disclose.
Previous winners of the Blavatnik Family Fund have gone on to found their own scientific research centers and have made significant contributions to the fields of chemistry, earth science, medicine and more. Alongside Dr Palmer, two Israelis were awarded the prize.
Dr. Yonatan Stelzer, who works at the Weizmann Institute of Science, was recognized for discoveries in embryonic development, which may help with regenerative medicine, and Dr. Chaim Garfinkel from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for his developments in climate change prediction.
