Tel Aviv (PTI): The visiting former President A P J Abdul Kalam won the hearts of young Israeli researchers who say they have been floored by his down to earth approach and "child like enthusiasm."

"I'm surprised by his simplicity. I never expected him to take such keen interest in what we are doing. He was not only very attentive but also enquiring and giving inputs from his own experiences," Yael, a research student at the Tel Aviv university, said. Kalam visited several universities during his two-day trip to the Jewish nation.

Dafna, another Ph.D student at the varsity, said: "Such a succesfful scientist and yet with child like enthusiasm to know more. He simply won my heart by his accessible nature."

Kalam spent most of his time interacting with research faculty and students.

He visited the engineering faculty at the Tel Aviv university, held discussions at a forum with representatives of Samuel Neeman Institute at Technion in Haifa to push ahead cooperation in the field of scientific research between India and Israel.

He also addressed a workshop and exchanged research ideas at Israel's prestigious Weizman institute, where Indian research students form the single largest overseas student community.

Kalam also took out time to meet and interact with Indian reasearch students at the Weizman institute.

Asked by an Indian student as how he was able to deal with the contrasting field of politics and science, he said they are quite connected and "it depends on the political system of the country to actually implement scientific vision."