Prof. Ronen Alon earned his PhD in biophysics at the Weizmann Institute of Science in 1993. For the next several years, he worked as a research fellow at Harvard Medical School’s Center for Blood Research under the supervision of Dr. Tim Springer. In 1996, he joined the Weizmann Institute’s Department of Immunology. He is a full professor and the incumbent of the Linda Jacobs Professorial Chair in Immune and Stem Cell Research. Prof. Alon investigates the mechanisms by which white blood cells exit blood vessels at specific sites of inflammation and injury with specific interest in how chemokines and integrin adhesion molecules promote leukocyte crossing of distinct endothelial barriers. He was among the first to propose that integrin adhesiveness and the transendothelial migratory potential of lymphocytes are facilitated by shear forces. Recently, he has become interested in how the endothelial cytoskeleton is remodeled by extravasating immune cells and how metastatic cells use helper immune cells to promote their extravasation in various target organs. He has published more than 130 papers and reviews. Prof. Alon served as the president of the Israeli Immunological Society and is a member of several ethical and promotion committees in his institute. He also serves on scientific advisory boards. In 2012 he was elected as a member of EMBO.