Our Founders
Dr. Amit Lotan – Founder & Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Amit Lotan’s path to creating SafeSea began in an unexpected place: tracking leopards through the Judean Desert. After two years of wildlife research using radio telemetry, he shifted his focus to molecular biology, completing his B.Sc. in Life Sciences and M.Sc. in Genetics at Hebrew University, where he studied RNA processing at the cellular level. He continued his research in organic chemistry at the prestigious Weizmann Institute of Science.
But everything changed when jellyfish invaded the Mediterranean.
In the early 1990s, massive swarms of jellyfish suddenly appeared along the entire eastern Mediterranean coast—from Italy to Israel. Beaches that had been safe for swimming became dangerous overnight. Dr. Lotan, an avid diver and ocean lover, witnessed the crisis firsthand and decided to dedicate his doctoral research to understanding what was happening.
The Discovery
Dr. Lotan’s joint doctoral program between Tel Aviv University and Hebrew University was funded by the United Nations and the Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection. His research took him across the Mediterranean, collaborating with scientists from Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Greece, Turkey, and Italy to understand the jellyfish invasion.
But Dr. Lotan didn’t just study the ecology—he became fascinated by the jellyfish stinging mechanism itself. Working at the biochemical level, he became the first scientist to purify jellyfish venom to its primary structure and discover exactly how the venom penetrates human skin. His breakthrough research was published in Nature, the world’s most prestigious scientific journal.
During his postdoctoral fellowship at UC Davis, where he worked on recombinant toxins for agricultural pest control, Dr. Lotan also conducted research at the university’s Bodega Bay Marine Laboratory. There, studying how certain sea snails can feed on sea anemones without being stung, he had his “aha moment”—if nature had found a way to prevent stings, so could science.
Building SafeSea
In 1997, Dr. Lotan returned to Israel and founded Nidaria Technology with support from the Israeli Ministry of Science. His mission: develop a scientifically proven way to protect people from jellyfish stings.
The U.S. Navy took notice. After seeing Dr. Lotan present at a travel medicine conference, they funded extensive prototype development and clinical trials. With U.S. Navy support, Dr. Lotan conducted rigorous testing across the globe:
- Stanford University Hospital (California)
- Okinawa, Japan (where people die from box jellyfish stings annually)
- Oslo, Norway
- Rambam Medical Center (Israel)
- Florida and Latin America (both hospital and open-ocean trials)
The results were definitive: SafeSea worked. It became the world’s first—and still only—clinically proven jellyfish sting prevention technology.
Beyond SafeSea
Dr. Lotan’s innovative approach to the jellyfish stinging mechanism led him to found an additional company developing drug delivery systems based on the same biological principles. He also created Walk on Water Kayak, a cultural tourism project on the Sea of Galilee exploring the birthplace of Christianity—combining his love of science, history, and the water.
Under Dr. Lotan’s scientific leadership, SafeSea has grown into an international brand trusted across Latin America, North America, Europe, Asia, and beyond. The Israeli Defense Forces order SafeSea annually for their naval commando training. The product that began with one scientist’s determination to solve a Mediterranean crisis now protects millions of ocean lovers worldwide.
Dr. Lotan currently lives on the Sea of Galilee, where he’s writing a historical novel set in the first century CE. He is married to Professor Tamar Lotan, a marine biologist at the University of Haifa, and is the proud father of three sons working in high-tech and grandfather to three grandchildren.
Dr. Tamar Lotan – Co-Founder & Marine Biology Research
Professor Tamar Lotan is a distinguished marine biologist at the University of Haifa, where her research focuses on marine ecosystems and cnidarian biology. Her scientific expertise and collaborative research with Dr. Amit Lotan have been instrumental in SafeSea’s development and validation.
Together, the Lotans have built Nidaria Technology on a foundation of rigorous science, clinical validation, and a genuine passion for making the ocean safer for everyone.