October 7, 1928 – August 14, 2021
Holocaust Oral History Project of the Orange County Anti-Defamation League with Sol Kimel – September 11, 1994
Formative Years
Sol Kimel was born in October 7, 1928 in Berlin, Germany. In 1930, Sol and his mother joined his aunt’s family in Amsterdam, while his father stayed in Berlin. For six years, he attended an elementary school of the then-novel Montessori system where children could study according to their development. During these formative years, one of his classmates was Anne Frank. After the war, the school was named the “Anne Frank School.”
Sol’s life was turned upside down during the five-year Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. In 1942, Sol’s mother was taken in a Nazi razzia to Sobibor never to return. Subsequently, Sol and his aunt’s family of four went into hiding, living with a Protestant family on a rural farm. Sol’s family was confined to one room with no sunlight. In early 1945, the farm was raided by Nazi authorities. Sol’s uncle was killed in the raid, while Sol and the remaining family were sent to Westerbork transit camp where they were detained until the liberation of the camp by Canadian forces on April 12, 1945.
Leader in Laser Spectroscopy
Sol pursued higher education after the war. In 1955, he joined the Weizmann Institute, returning to the Netherlands to marry Bianca Blaugrund-Alefrant. In 1956, they immigrated to Israel, where their daughter Daphne and son Etan were born.
In 1960, Sol obtained his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Amsterdam with a thesis titled: “Optical dispersion of gases in the infrared region: the dispersion through the first overtone band of HCI.” From 1961 to 1963, he was a postdoc at Princeton University. After serving as a Research Scientist at the Weizmann Institute, he became an Associate Professor at the Technion in Haifa, Israel. In 1977, he was promoted to Full Professor.
Sol served on many Technion assignments, including Chair of Physical Chemistry Division, a committee member for promotion and tenure of senior staff, the committee for research, student tribunal and academic staff association. From 1969 to 1972, he served as Chairman of Israel Laser and Electrooptics Society and was member of the Quantum Electronics Division, European Physical Society.
Sol, a world leader in laser spectroscopy, was a highly demanded visiting professor at many universities. He served as a visiting professor at the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands (1972-73); University of Bielefeld, Germany (1979-80); UCI Beckman Laser Institute & Medical Clinic (1987-88, 1993-94); Université Paris-Sud in Orsay, France; Max-Planck Institute for Quantum Optics at Garching; National Research Council in Ottawa, Canada; Brandeis University and Université Paris-Nordin in Villetaneuse, France. In 1989, he was elected a corresponding member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. In addition to two sabbatical years, Sol spent 18 summers at UCI Beckman Laser Institute & Medical Clinic engaged in multiple key projects.
Journey in Science
Sol’s 50-year journey in science started with high-resolution gas-phase spectroscopy and matrix spectroscopy, via laser chemistry to biomedical applications of lasers, developing photodynamic therapy (PDT) for cancer treatment. He developed photosensitizing drug candidates, including porphyrins, porphycenes, and phthalocyanines. Sol investigated their binding to erythrocytes and liposomes, their absorbance and fluorescence spectroscopy and their efficiency in generating oxidative damage to various tumor cell lines. He used advanced video microscopy in real-time and computerized image analysis to monitor and quantify the entire process of tumor growth and tumor regression.
After retirement in 1997, Sol spent ten years as a Senior Advisor in the Advanced Technology Center at the Sheba Medical Center. Sol passed away in Haifa on August 14, 2021 at the age of 92.