The guest of the section: Dr. Zohar Nir, Vice President of Marketing and Sales of the company "Licord" Natural Products Industries Ltd. "The special chemical structure of lycopene allows it to act effectively in breaking down radicals and preventing oxidation"
Institute September 32, 2003
Dr. Zohar Nir with his daughter Lilach and grandson Ron. Commitment to scientific methods
The dilemma of whether to work with materials or with people has accompanied the scientific career of Dr. Zohar Nir, from its beginning. Dr. Nir is one of the founding team of "Licord" Natural Products Industries Ltd. (a subsidiary of "Makhteshim-Agan Industries Ltd.").
In the last decade, he has served as the company's VP of Marketing and Sales. He spent many years in the laboratory doing basic research, but he was always interested in the applied aspect of science - how to turn a scientific idea into a product and how to market it. "Prof. David Vopsi, from the Department of Plastics at the institute, was one of the first scientists who advocated the industrial application of science, in the 70s, and was then in the minority among scientists. Over time, a group of students formed around him and I was among them, who saw their future in the industry.
To this day I thank him for revealing to me the possibilities beyond the walls of the laboratory", says Dr. Nir.
In recent years, Dr. Nir has focused on marketing the product otaM-o-cyL produced from lycopene, which is the pigment that gives the tomato its red color, as well as some of its nutritional properties. The human body is not able to produce lycopene by itself, and it is forced to "import" it from an external source. Although, this substance is present in a number of fruits and vegetables, but most of its human consumption comes by way of eating tomatoes and various tomato products.
Dr. Nir: "The special chemical structure of lycopene allows it to work effectively in breaking down radicals and preventing oxidation. The importance of this feature is derived from the fact that free radicals, especially those of oxygen, are a major cause of heart disease, the development of cancer, and a series of degenerative processes associated with aging." In order to take advantage of the potential inherent in this red pigment, the "Licord" company began to develop an innovative industrial process
To extract lycopene and other substances from tomatoes. As part of the project, which lasted for about ten years, unique varieties of tomatoes were developed that excel in lycopene content double that of ordinary tomatoes (the development of the varieties was done using conservative cultivation methods only and not through genetic engineering).
At the same time, an industrial process was developed to produce lycopene and use it in the food industry and the cosmetics industry.
The Lyc-o-Mato brand is used for a wide variety of products in the field of dietary supplements. In the USA, Japan and Western Europe, interest in lycopene and products containing it is growing recently. In the previous year, the company reached a sales volume of
About 20 million dollars. This year, with the acquisition of another company in England, Nir predicts that it will increase its sales by
for 35 million dollars.
Dr. Nir's basic approach is based on adherence to scientific processes. "If we succeed", he says,
"This is mainly thanks to our commitment to scientific work methods and building a company that adheres to ethical principles. We strive to go as deep as possible in the study of lycopene, and for this we collaborate with scientists from Israel and the world. I got the foundation that allows us to act in this way at the Weizmann Institute." Naturally, Dr. Nir's role as a marketing manager requires him to maintain relationships with hundreds of people around the world, and to build marketing strategies, which is largely based on an interest in people and an understanding of social processes.
Dr. Nir was born in the heart of the working settlement, in Moshav Herut in Gush Tel Mond, and developed a love for chemistry following his chemistry teacher, at the regional high school of Emek Hefer. After military service, he began studying chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he received a bachelor's and master's degree. "During my studies," he says, "I served so much in the reserves, and I advanced to the position of M.D. At the end of the Six Day War I served in the engineering corps, and our role
was to clear Jerusalem of mines. We settled in tents in the university area, and there, every morning, I met you
My friends who were on their way to school." Upon completion of his master's degree, he moved to the Weizmann Institute of Science as a PhD research student, in the Department of Biophysics, under the guidance of Prof. Reuven Wolovsky.
Dr. Nir: "I finished the first draft of my doctoral thesis at the Weizmann Institute of Science before the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War, during which I served for about six months in the reserves. Thus, I only finished the final version at the beginning of 1975".
In addition to research and studies, he has time for other activities. "At that time I also worked in the youth operations unit under the direction of Dr. Moshe Rishpon. For several years I managed the international camp for science-seeking youth and accompanied groups of science-seeking youth from Israel to England. The work in the youth activities unit also produced a deep personal friendship between me and Dr. Moshe Rishpon, today the director of the Kalor Science Garden. While I was working on my doctorate, my three children were born. We lived near the institute, my wife worked as a nurse at the Kaplan hospital, and I could come home in the afternoons, be
A few hours with the children and return to work in the laboratory into the night. It was a wonderful time when everything seemed simple and possible.
After I finished my doctorate in 1975, Prof. David Vopsi, who was then the research director of Makhteshim, suggested that I come and do post-doctoral research in the research department of Makhteshim. I accepted the offer and worked in this framework for about five years, during which I first tasted the taste of applied research. At the end of this period, I completed a year of study in polymer chemistry at Amherst University in the USA. Later I worked
at the Mountain-View Research Center in NASA California, where I focused on preventing combustion in composite materials (as part of the development of composite materials for the space program)."
In 1983, Dr. Nir returned to Makhteshim, and joined the company's commercial development team. In this framework, he participated in the development of a series of flame retardant polymeric materials, which was later sold to the Bromine Company, which produces and sells these materials with international success. In 1991 he began working on the development of the product based on the pigment lycopene found in tomatoes. Dr. Nir currently lives with his wife Zohar, who in the meantime has completed her studies for a doctorate in behavioral sciences, in the settlement of Mitar near Beer Sheva. His three children, Tomer, Lilach, and Oren,
They already have their own careers in the high-tech field, and he is a grandfather to two grandchildren.
