Daniel "Danny" Gold (; born in 1962) is an Israeli military leader. He was appointed head of the Israeli Directorate of Defense Research & Development (DDR&D) and a

Tat Aluf ( or "first/leader of a group" in Biblical Hebrew) is a senior military rank in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) for officers who in other countries would have the rank of general, air marshal, or admiral. In addition to the ''aluf'' rank, fo ...

( Brigadier General) in the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

in 2016. Additionally, he serves as the head of the National Technological Center for Combatting the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

at the

Israeli Ministry of Defense The Ministry of Defense (, acronym: ) of the government of Israel, is the governmental department responsible for defending the State of Israel from internal and external military threats. Its political head is the defense minister of Israel, ...

Biography and career

Danny Gold was born and raised in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

. His parents, Aviva and Avraham, were

Holocaust survivors Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no universall ...

who immigrated to Israel from

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. He completed his studies in

Electronic Engineering Electronic engineering is a sub-discipline of electrical engineering that emerged in the early 20th century and is distinguished by the additional use of active components such as semiconductor devices to amplify and control electric current flo ...

at the Technion and in 1983 began his service in the

Israeli Air Force The Israeli Air Force (IAF; , commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial and space warfare branch of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). It was founded on May 28, 1948, shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Indep ...

, where he held positions in electronics, munitions, and electronic warfare. He later served in the DDR&D in various roles, including head of the Electronic Warfare Systems Department and head of the Research and Development Unit. Among his notable contributions was the development of the

Iron Dome Iron Dome () is an Israeli mobile all-weather air defense system, developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries. The system is designed to intercept and destroy short-range rockets and artillery shells fired f ...

missile defense system, which he worked on even before the project's approval. This work of his was originally critiqued by the states comptroller. For his work, he received the

Israel Defense Prize The Israel Defense Prize (Hebrew: פרס בטחון ישראל), also known as the Israel Defense Award is an award presented annually by the President of Israel to people and organizations who made significant contributions to the defense of the ...

in September 2012. In 2014, he completed his service in the IDF with the rank of Brigadier General and founded the company "Gold Technology and Entrepreneurship". In April 2016 he was appointed as the head of DDR&D. In March 2020 he established the National Technological Center for Combatting the

in collaboration with the Ministry of Defense, the defense industry, the local tech industry, the IDF, and academic institutions, in cooperation with the Ministry of Health, hospitals, the National Health Insurance, the Mossad, and other entities, to find solutions related to the virus in various fields. The teams that were formed implemented a wide range of technologies. In June 2014 he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the Ruppin Academic Center. Gold holds two doctoral degrees from

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) is a Public university, public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Located in northwest Tel Aviv, the university is the center of teaching and ...

, in electronic engineering and business administration (specializing in technology management). In 2015, he was chosen to light a torch at the Independence Day Torch Lighting Ceremony.

Personal life

Gold is married and a father of two.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gold, Daniel Living people 1962 births 21st-century Israeli military personnel 21st-century Israeli civil servants Israeli people of Hungarian-Jewish descent Military personnel from Tel Aviv