Newsroom – Page 35 – Australian Friends of Tel Aviv University

The “Nobel of Mathematics”: TAU Prof. Noga Alon Wins the Prestigious Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences

Written by AUFTAU on 9 June 2022. Posted in Newsroom.

Prof. Noga Alon of Tel Aviv University and Princeton University has won the 2002 Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences. Prof. Alon, one of the world’s leading researchers in mathematics and computer science, is the second Israeli in history to receive the prestigious prize.

Noga Alon, born in 1956, is Professor Emeritus of Mathematics and Computer Science at Tel Aviv University and Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University. Prof. Alon joined Tel Aviv University in 1985, where he served as head of the School of Mathematical Sciences and was entrusted with the Chair of Combinatorics and Computer Science at TAU’s Blavatnik School of Computer Science. He is a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the Academia Europaea. In the past, he has won the Israel Prize, the EMET Prize, Gödel Prize and the Steele Prize.

The Shaw Prize was awarded to Prof. Alon for the entirety of his groundbreaking work, which has included laying the foundations for streaming algorithms used in Big Data analysis and the development of algebraic and probabilistic methods to deal with problems in graph theory and additive number theory. “[Noga Alon] introduced new methods and achieved fundamental results which entirely shaped the field,” the judges wrote.

Equivalent to the Nobel

The Shaw Prize was founded in 2002 by Hong Kong media tycoon Run Run Shaw, who decided to award it annually to “individuals, regardless of race, nationality, gender and religious belief, who have recently achieved significant breakthroughs in academic and scientific research or applications and whose work has resulted in a positive and profound impact on mankind,” in three categories – mathematics, astronomy, and life sciences and medicine. The prize in each category is $1.2 million.

“Because there is no Nobel Prize in mathematics, there are two prizes, the Abel Prize and the Shaw Prize, which see themselves as equivalent to the Nobel in this field,” explains Prof. Alon. “Obviously, as with any other award, winning depends on various factors, including the composition of the committee, and perhaps ultimately it’s also a matter of luck – because there are certainly quite a few researchers in the world who are deserving of this award. For me, this is a very pleasant surprise; the list of previous winners of the Shaw Prize is really very impressive.”

“Israel is a country that is very strong in the sciences in general, and in mathematics and computer science in particular,” says Prof. Alon. “The global standing of Israeli research in these fields far exceeds the relative size of the population. My own research focuses on combinatorics, which is the mathematics of finite structures, with uses and applications in computer science, additive number theory, combinatorial geometry and other related fields.”

“Prof. Noga Alon has been one of the most influential and prolific scientists in the field for the past decades,” says Head of the School of Mathematical Sciences, Raymond & Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences,Yaron Ostrover. “His research is characterized by originality, an exceptional ability to solve difficult problems, often using an impressive variety of tools and methods. In addition to his outstanding scientific achievements, Prof. Alon has established a long line of outstanding students who have become leading researchers in mathematics and computer science in their own right, and hold positions at prestigious research universities in Israel and abroad.”

In 2020, the Shaw Prize was awarded to Prof. David Kashdan of the Hebrew University, and this year Prof. Alon shares the prize with another Israeli – Prof. Ehud Hrushovski of Oxford.

Featured image: Prof. Noga Alon (photo: Wikipedia)

If We Let Them Go, They Won’t Come Crawling Back

Written by AUFTAU on 6 June 2022. Posted in Newsroom.

One in every five species of reptiles is facing extinction.

There are over 12,000 species of reptiles crawling our planet, but according to a new international study, involving researchers from Tel Aviv University and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, 21% of these, or a total of about 2,000 species, are threatened with extinction. How can we save them? Or is it too late?

15.6B Years of Evolution Down the Drain?

The comprehensive study, the first of its kind in history, was conducted by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and included 52 researchers from around the world, including Prof. Shai Meiri of Tel Aviv University’s School of Zoology, The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences and the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, and Dr. Uri Roll of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. The study was published in the prestigious journal Nature.

The findings of the study show that 30% of forest-dwelling reptiles and about 14% of those living in arid areas are threatened, and that 58% of all turtle species and 50% of all crocodile species are in danger of becoming extinct. The researchers sadly point out that if all of the 1,829 species of turtles, crocodiles, lizards, and snakes that have been found to be threatened do indeed become extinct in the coming years, the world will lose a cumulative wealth of 15.6 billion years of evolution.

Fortunately, no species of reptile has become extinct in Israel in the last decade, but there are many species that are endangered, such as the Hermon Gecko, the Be’er Sheva fringe-fingered lizard and several more.

50% of all crocodile species are in danger of becoming extinct

Mapping Out the Threats

The IUCN is an international body whose role is, among other things, to assess the threat of extinction posed to various species. Each species of animal or plant receives a score on a five-point scale. The purpose of this ranking is to define those species that are the most endangered, thereby enabling decision makers and various bodies, such the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, to outline policies accordingly.

In 2004, the IUCN released a comprehensive report on amphibians, and a few years later it issued reports on birds and mammals. The IUCN has been working on the reptile report for the past 18 years, having invited experts on this taxonomic group from all over the world to participate.

“In general, the state of reptiles in the world is bad,” says Prof. Meiri. “It’s worse than that of birds and mammals, though not as bad as that of the amphibians. And of course there are a lot of nuances. We see that turtles are in a worse position than lizards and snakes, but that may be because we know more about turtles. Perhaps if we knew more about snakes, we would see that they, too, are in big trouble.”

“The biggest threat to reptiles is the destruction of their habitats due to agriculture, deforestation, and urban development, and less because of direct hunting, which mainly affects turtles and crocodiles. We created detailed maps of these threats. For example, if a particular species is highly threatened in the Israel’s Arava desert, but not in the rest of its habitat range that may span the entire Arabian Peninsula, then globally it is not considered a threatened species. The new assessments, for more than 10,000 species of reptiles, will allow us to understand their conservation needs, and hopefully enable us to find far more intelligent solutions for them than we have been able to so far.”

Prof. Shai Meiri

Dr. Uri Roll adds, “This is important work that forms the initial basis for risk assessment among various reptiles around the world, but is certainly not the end of the story. We still lack a lot of information about the various risks facing reptiles. For example, climate change is expected to have significant effects on reptiles. The current assessment that has just been published does not yet include these future threats in its reptile risk assessments. We still have a lot of work ahead of us.”

When asked whether it is still possible to stop the wheels from turning, Prof. Meiri says that “There’s room for optimism, but not overly so. It is finally possible, thanks in part to this study, to plan dedicated nature conservations for reptiles as well – there is more awareness and there are ways in which we can help them. In Israel, great efforts are made to protect various kinds of turtles. Less attention is paid to most species of lizards and snakes, however, which make up the vast majority.”

Featured image: Endangered: Egyptian mastigure (Photo: Alex slavenko)

BOG 2022: Kadar Family Award for Outstanding Research Presented to Four TAU Scholars

Written by AUFTAU on 6 June 2022. Posted in Newsroom.

8th annual Kadar Award ceremony honors excellence in science and teaching.

In recognition of their trailblazing academic work, the 2022 Kadar Family Award for Outstanding Research was presented to four Tel Aviv University scholars: Prof. Michal Feldman (Exact Sciences), Prof. Leo Corry (Humanities), Prof. Jonathan Berant (Exact Sciences) and Dr. Roy Tzohar (Humanities).

Now in its eighth year, the Kadar Family Award honors pioneering scientists and scholars who have reached the highest levels of excellence in both research and teaching. The Award is granted annually to four TAU researchers, two senior and two junior faculty members, from across the entire spectrum of faculties and disciplines at TAU.

The Award Committee selects the winners based on a number of criteria including: groundbreaking research; teaching quality; research grants earned from competitive foundations; quality and quantity of scientific publications; and their status in the global scientific community.

Prof. Dan Peer, TAU Vice President for Research and Development, conferred the awards to the recipients at a festive ceremony, which also included presentations of the researchers’ work, during TAU’s 2022 Board of Governors meeting.

Professor Corry spoke on behalf of the recipients and noted that while scientific advancements in TAU’s hard science faculties are globally recognized, “One important aspect of this award is in the explicit acknowledgment that a great university, like ours, promotes not only one kind of achievement, but also excellence in the humanities and social sciences.

“Precisely in an era of deep technological and scientific change…the study of the humanities is more relevant and necessary than ever before to help interpret and place new context on how these changes are affecting us as a society and individually,” he said.

The Naomi Foundation established the Award in 2015 to honor the memory of Naomi Prawer Kadar PhD, a lifelong Yiddish specialist and the late wife of TAU benefactor Dr. Avraham Kadar, a TAU graduate, physician, educator and innovator. The three Kadar children, Einat Kadar Kricheli, Nadav Kadar, and Maya Kadar Kovalsky, are all TAU alumni and active board members of the Kadar Foundation along with their father. Avraham, Nadav and Maya are also members of TAU’s Board of Governors.

Maya Kadar Kovalsky opened the ceremony and welcomed everyone via a recorded message. She lauded the laureates: “Congratulations…on reaching this high level of distinction and thank you for your pathbreaking contributions in your respective fields.”

TAU President Prof. Ariel Porat also addressed the crowd; “The Kadar Foundation does an excellent job in advancing academic research and excellence,” he said, noting other programs the Foundation supports such as MD-PhD scholarships and the Naomi Prawer Kadar International Yiddish Summer Program, housed in TAU’s Goldreich Family Institute for Yiddish Language, Literature and Culture at the Lester and Sally Entin Faculty of Humanities.

The 2022 Kadar Family Award recipients:

Prof. Michal Feldman – Professor of Computer Science at the Blavatnik School of Computer Science, Raymond and Beverly Faculty of Exact Sciences. She is one of the most visible and successful researchers of her generation working in the rapidly emerging field of algorithmic game theory, which is situated at the intersection of theoretical computer science and economics. She is also a trailblazer in the field, where women are significantly underrepresented.

Prof. Leo Corry – Professor at the Cohn Institute for History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, Lester and Sally Entin Faculty of Humanities, and former Dean of Humanities. Corry is a historian of mathematics. His research explores the historical development of some of the main threads of twentieth-century mathematics, such as the rise of modern algebra and the development of the idea of a mathematical structure. Since 2013, he has held the Bert and Barbara Cohn Chair for History and Philosophy of Exact Sciences.

Prof. Jonathan Berant – Associate Professor at the Blavatnik School of Computer Science, Raymond and Beverly Faculty of Exact Sciences. His research examines Natural Language Processing (NLP), which stands at the crossroads between linguistics, computer science, and artificial intelligence.

Dr. Roy Tzohar – Associate Professor at the Department of South and East Asian Studies, Lester and Sally Entin Faculty of Humanities. His research, publications, and teaching are driven primarily by an interest in the Buddhist philosophical understanding of the role and function of language. His first book, A Yogācāra Buddhist Theory of Metaphor, was published by Oxford University Press and won the Numata Prize for the best book in Buddhist Studies in 2018.

Featured image: The 2022 Kadar Family Award recipients from left: Prof. Jonathan Berant, Dr. Roy Tzohar, Prof. Michal Feldman, and Prof. Leo Corry. (Photo: Israel Hadari)

Blavatnik Prizes for Computer Science Awarded to Doctoral Fellows

Written by AUFTAU on 5 June 2022. Posted in Newsroom.

TAU hosts annual ceremony recognizing standout research in growing field.

The second annual Blavatnik Prizes for Outstanding Israeli Doctoral Students in Computer Science were awarded on June 8 to four recipients, in a ceremony at Tel Aviv University.

With generous funding from the Blavatnik Family Foundation, the Prizes were established to highlight excellent research by Israeli PhD candidates in the field of computer science and emphasize the importance of doctoral studies in general.

The 2022 recipients were:

Nave Frost of Tel Aviv University
Gal Yona of the Weizmann Institute of Science
Assaf Shocher of the Weizmann Institute of Science
Leshem Choshen of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Honorable mention went to:

Hagai Rossman of the Weizmann Institute of Science
Elad Romanov the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Gilad Yehudai of the Weizmann Institute of Science
Lior Rotem of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Among the ceremony attendees was British-American industrialist and philanthropist Sir Leonard Blavatnik (Len Blavatnik), for whom the Prizes are named. The Prize is among the latest programs backed by the longtime TAU benefactor and dedicated supporter of science, innovation and higher education in Israel.

Forefront of the Computer Science Revolution

“Israel is at the forefront of the ongoing computer science revolution that increasingly affects everyday lives around the world,” said Sir Leonard Blavatnik. “As such, it is vital to amplify the academic achievement of emerging trailblazers, who are poised to become future leaders and innovators in academia and industry.”

Sir Leonard Blavatnik, a TAU Governor and Honorary Doctor, has a transformative legacy of giving at TAU, which began over a decade ago with backing for scholarships and the Blavatnik School of Computer Science. From there, his Foundation pledged sizeable gifts to establish the Blavatnik Initiative, a multi-year program in the fields of computing, cyber, drug development, film production, and faculty recruitment. Key programs benefited by the Initiative include the Blavatnik Center for Drug Discovery and Blavatnik Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center.

The Prizes are conferred at TAU by the Blavatnik School of Computer Science at the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences and the School’s Blavatnik Computer Science Research Fund for high-impact areas that contribute to Israel’s economic prosperity. As computer science becomes increasingly central to life today, the Blavatnik School of Computer Science plays a cutting-edge role in TAU’s academic achievements and real-world contributions advancing innovation. Graduates fill leading positions in high-tech companies, Israel’s defense establishment and defense industries, and academic institutions worldwide.

New Avenues for Excellence

TAU President Prof. Ariel Porat welcomed Sir Leonard Blavatnik to campus in front of a packed auditorium at the state-of-the-art Check Point Building: “Again and again, Sir Leonard Blavatnik has demonstrated his heartfelt commitment to nurturing the next generation of outstanding young scientists and creators – at TAU, in Israel and globally. We at Tel Aviv University are grateful for his support and friendship that is felt throughout the campus, and that is opening new avenues for excellence in crucial fields.”

Prof. Sivan Toledo, Head of the Blavatnik School of Computer Science at Tel Aviv University, who moderated the event said: “Israeli PhD fellows in computer science contribute immensely to research and teaching that move the field forward. Sir Leonard Blavatnik and his considerable contributions play an immeasurable role in propelling them to new frontiers. The Blavatnik Prizes celebrate the achievements of the best of these PhD students, and the Blavatnik School of Computer Science is honored to award these prizes for the second time.”

A jury of computer science experts from Israeli universities including TAU, the Weizmann Institute of Science, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem select winners from a pool of doctoral students and recent PhD recipients from all Israeli universities.

Also on June 8, the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in Israel were awarded in a separate evening ceremony held at the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation. The Awards recognize the country’s most promising faculty-rank (academic staff) researchers in life sciences, physical sciences & engineering, and chemistry. The Blavatnik Family Foundation funds the Awards, which are co-administered by the New York Academy of Sciences and The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. To date, two outstanding TAU scientists, Prof. Oded Rechavi of the School of Neurobiology, Biochemistry and Biophysics, and Prof. Yossi Yovel of the School of Zoology, have been Blavatnik Award laureates.

BOG 2022: Smolarz Family Building Dedicated

Written by AUFTAU on 5 June 2022. Posted in Newsroom.

In a warm and emotional ceremony during the Board of Governors meeting, TAU inaugurated the Smolarz Family Building– a home base to hundreds of students in the Smolarz Family Graduate School in Life Sciences.

The Building, which opened in 2020 as part of TAU’s Wise Faculty of Life Sciences Faculty, provides a physical bridge between the Faculty’s two older buildings, Sherman and Britannia-Porter. It has dramatically improved the University’s ability to train young scientists and professionals in the field. The Building houses four spacious, cutting-edge teaching laboratories in microbiology, biochemistry, genetics, cell biology and other subjects as well as classrooms and meeting rooms that provide opportunities for networking and collaboration. It is the last campus project of Honorary Doctor, and Vice- Chair of the Board of Governors Adolfo Smolarz, who passed away last year.  

Aida Smolarz, daughter of Adolfo and Miriam, a fellow TAU Honorary Doctor who recently celebrated her 102nd birthday, spoke to the guests at the inauguration in an emotional address, thanking all those involved in making the project a reality.

TAU President Prof. Ariel Porat said: “There could have been no more loving and generous friends of TAU and Israel than Adolfo and Miriam, and I’m so happy that Aida and Alberto are here with us today to close the circle and to pay a fitting tribute to the realization of Adolfo’s final project here.” 

The Smolarz family has supported TAU, both on campus and in Argentina, for close to 40 years. Their long history of support includes major projects such as the Miriam & Adolfo Smolarz Auditorium, which has served as the University’s premier event venue since 2005; the Smolarz Graduate School in Life Sciences; the Gitter-Smolarz Library; and a floor named in honor of their late son, Pablo, at the Buchmann Faculty of Law building. 

“The Building will serve new generations of students who will go on to become leading researchers, innovators and professionals in Israel and globally in the life sciences field,” said Prof. Marcelo Ehrlich, Vice Dean of the Faculty. “Every day at this faculty, in this building, we see the fruits of Adolfo Smolarz’s vision and generosity—the impact that will continue to perpetuate itself.”  

Guests were treated to a musical performance by students from TAU’s Buchmann-Mehta School of Music students, and viewed a moving video about the Building, which was prepared for Adolfo and Miriam when it first opened in 2020, under COVID-19 restrictions.  

Featured image: Aida Smolarz and TAU President Prof. Ariel Porat (Photo: Ofer Amram)

Pride Week on TAU Campus

Written by AUFTAU on 1 June 2022. Posted in Newsroom.

BOG 2022: Strauss Brain Bank Inaugurated

Written by AUFTAU on 31 May 2022. Posted in Newsroom.

Israel’s first MRI brain database launched to prevent brain disease.

In a festive ceremony during the 2022 Board of Governors meeting, TAU inaugurated the Strauss Neuroplasticity Brain Bank—Israel’s first MRI brain database, poised to become the largest in the Middle East. Data gathered and analyzed through the Brain Bank will be used for discovering new early signs and risk factors of the disease, thus becoming a crucial national scientific and health resource. 

Inaugurated at TAU’s Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, the Brain Bank is the result of a generous and far-sighted contribution of longtime TAU supporters the Strauss family. In 2005, the family pioneered the Strauss Center for Computational Neuroimaging, which has since become a major hub of interdisciplinary research, serving over 20 different research teams from across campus ranging from biomedical research to behavioral change and evolutionary studies. Along with the Center, the family also dedicated the Guillermina Reis de Strauss Periodicals Floor at the Gitter-Smolarz Library and donated student scholarships for many years. 

At the ceremony, TAU President Prof. Ariel Porat said that TAU Governor Guillermo Strauss is continuing the giving legacy initiated in 1990 by his late father Alfredo Frederico Strauss, who was a TAU Governor, and his mother Lotte. “The combination of the Strauss family’s support, together with the expertise of TAU scientists will put TAU and Israel at the forefront of brain science and help to eventually prevent brain disease completely,” concluded Porat. 

Over the next five years, TAU neuroimaging experts will scan the brains of up to 5,000 healthy volunteers and then analyze the data using unique, patented techniques.

“The Strauss Brain Bank will harness the power of big data and translate the findings gathered at the database into earlier targeted treatments or lifestyle recommendations to prevent brain disease,” said Prof. Yaniv Assaf, the Bain Bank’s Founding Director and head of TAU’s Strauss Center for Computational Neuroimaging.  

“This project will boost Israel’s standing and competitiveness in the global scientific arena and usher in a new era of neuroscience worldwide, promoting open ‘citizen‘ science and data-sharing,” he added.  

The inauguration ceremony was attended by Dafna Meitar-Nechmad, Chairwoman of the Board of Governors, Guillermo Strauss, Prof. Abdussalam Azem, Dean of the Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Polly Deutsch, President of the Argentinian Friends of TAU, TAU Governors, faculty, and students.  

Outstanding Navigators, both Night and Day

Written by AUFTAU on 30 May 2022. Posted in Newsroom.

It is time to bust a myth about bats – bats actually see well during the day and they know how to navigate the space during daylight hours. A new Tel Aviv University study has found that fruit bats use their biological sonar during the day, even though their vision is excellent and would ostensibly eliminate the need for the bats to emit calls to the environment and use their echoes to locate objects (echolocation). The researchers believe that due to the high accuracy of the bats’ bio-sonar system in estimating how far objects are, echolocation offers an additional tool – on top of vision – to help ensure that the bats are navigating as effectively as possible. This is similar to a person crossing the street using their sense of hearing as well as sight to make sure the road is clear.

Enjoying the Tel Aviv Sun

The study was conducted under the supervision of Prof. Yossi Yovel, head of Tel Aviv University’s Sagol School of Neuroscience and a researcher at the School of Zoology in The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences and the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History. The study was led by Ph.D. student Ofri Eitan in cooperation with Dr. Maya Weinberg, Dr. Sasha Danilovich, and Reut Assa, all from Tel Aviv University, and Yuval Barkai, an urban nature photographer. The study will be published in the journal Current Biology.

The researchers explain that in general, bats are active mainly at night, and echolocation is the tool they use to navigate their way in the dark. They also say, however, that in recent years a growing phenomenon has been witnessed in Israel, particularly in Tel Aviv but also in other cities, in which Egyptian fruit bats roam around even during the day. In the current study, the researchers sought to examine what happens when the bats are active during the day, and whether they are aided by their unique bio-sonar even in conditions of good visibility.

For the first time, the researchers studied the activity and sensory behavior of the fruit bat during the day. The research was conducted with the help of photography and audio recordings of the bats’ activities throughout the day, in three different situations: in the morning, as they went out to explore in Tel Aviv; later in the day, when they visited Tel Aviv’s sycamore trees; and while they were drinking water from an artificial pool. In each of these situations, the bats used echolocation.

Daytime Integration of Senses

Ofri Eitan explains: “We compared the bats’ landings and flights between the trees, and found that prior to landing, the bats increased the sounds they emitted in order to use the echoes to help estimate the distance to the ground. In addition, we found that even in the pools of water, bats increased the rate of their calls before coming into contact with the water and reduced it (and sometimes even ceased the calls completely) after ascending from the water to fly to an open area. On the other hand, there were cases in which the bats emerged from the pool and had a wall placed in front of them, and once again returned to the use of echolocation. So, all our results show that the fruit bats make functional use of echolocation.”

Prof. Yossi Yuval concludes: “Our results are unequivocal and show that fruit bats make frequent use of echolocation even during the day when visibility is good. We hypothesize that this is due to the fact that echolocation helps the bats to measure the distances of objects in the environment more accurately, and that their brains combine the visual information along with the auditory information. This study shows how important integration between different senses is, just as we humans integrate visual and auditory information when we cross a street, for example.”

TAU Opens Registration for New Management & Liberal Arts BA

Written by AUFTAU on 30 May 2022. Posted in Newsroom.

Tel Aviv University launched a new International BA in Management and Liberal Arts, with an emphasis on entrepreneurship, and recently opened enrollment for the inaugural class beginning in the 2022-23 academic year.

The competitive three-year, double-major track will be taught entirely in English. The Program is open to students from around the world. It is among the first of its kind in Israel and joins a growing number of such degree offerings around the world.

Training for Success, Tel Aviv Style

Today’s global business arena is becoming increasingly complex and competitive. The Program’s organizers believe that, to succeed, managers and entrepreneurs need a diverse skill set that combines a deep understanding of management with knowledge from a range of other disciplines.

Against this backdrop. TAU launched the Program, building on its record as one of the world’s top universities for producing successful entrepreneurs and strength in interdisciplinary research. The new degree will build on TAU’s record as a top institution for innovation and entrepreneurship and its proximity to Tel Aviv’s renowned startup scene. In 2021, TAU was ranked fifth in the world for entrepreneurship and eighth in the world for startup founders. The Coller School of Management is ranked 30th in the world, and its MBA program is 13th internationally.

“The symbiotic relationship between Tel Aviv University and Tel Aviv’s thriving innovation ecosystem with over 2,000 startups has created a unique campus environment that breeds game-changing ideas and innovations,” said TAU Vice President of International Collaboration Prof. Milette Shamir. “This new Program directly reflects TAU’s priorities to become increasingly global and provide a holistic education to all students to prepare them to make real-world impact.”

Diverse Skills to Lead Today’s Businesses

Students in the International BA in Management and Liberal Arts will learn from world-class faculty and instructors, many of whom are industry leaders. The Program also offers students frequent interaction with the local hi-tech sector through internships, networking and mentoring. It is the latest initiative demonstrating TAU’s adoption of a global trend of incorporating a broad liberal arts education into science and technology curricula; it joins initiatives including the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Program for Humanities in Engineering.

The new degree’s academic programming is the result of a joint venture between The Coller School of Management, Israel’s top-ranked business school, and The International BA in Liberal Arts. Graduates from both TAU units have become successful leaders in business and hi-tech.

Prof. Shai Danziger, academic head of the International BA in Management and Liberal Arts at TAU, said: “Traditional degrees for entrepreneurs, such as management or accounting, don’t necessarily provide the kind of diverse skill sets needed to lead businesses today. The broad skills that our students are going to acquire in the humanities and from Tel Aviv’s world-leading startup hub are certain to make them better managers, both in startups and in large corporations.”

As in TAU International’s over 60 other English-language programs, students in the International BA in Management and Liberal Arts program will study among a diverse cohort of students in small classes. The curriculum incorporates rigorous management sciences with an option of seven specialized study tracks in the liberal arts: psychology, digital culture and communications, philosophy, literature, Jewish-Israel Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, and life sciences.

For more information about TAU’s International BA in Management and Liberal Arts, register through the following links for a live open day webinar on June 1 or June 2.

Learn more by visiting the website here.

BOG 2022: From Making Tahini to Advocating Rights

Written by AUFTAU on 29 May 2022. Posted in Newsroom.

In an especially moving ceremony during Tel Aviv University’s 2022 Board of Governors meeting, Israeli Arab businesswoman Julia Zaher was honored for her entrepreneurship and civic leadership role with the Hugo Ramniceanu Prize for Economics.

Zaher is CEO of Al-Arz Tahini in Nazareth. She took a local product and turned it into a global brand sold in 18 countries, including by Amazon in the US. Zaher is the rare female CEO in the Israeli business arena, and she is the only woman in Israel to lead a major Arab-owned company. She also has a long history of philanthropic donations aimed at improving the lives of her fellow Israeli-Arabs—especially women, disabled people, and the LGBT community.

More to the point, Zaher braved controversy to give a voice to weaker segments of the population who were not being heard within Arab society in Israel.

Shared Values

“Mrs. Zaher’s social consciousness aligns with the priorities and values of TAU,” said Prof. Ariel Porat, TAU President, at the ceremony. “We understand, like Mrs. Zaher, that for a country to have a healthy and prosperous economy, you need to have an equitable and inclusive society where everyone is valued, and where every young person’s potential is nurtured.

“Through the Ramniceanu Prize, you are continuing to promote a thriving and socially responsible State of Israel,” Prof. Porat told Zohar.

Always Philanthropic

In her acceptance speech, Zaher, who donated her prize money to a nursing studies scholarship at TAU for an Arab Israeli student, said that her career had been about fighting for the things she cared about. As a young widow and mother of two, she took over her late husband’s tahini factory. Once her business was going well, Zaher felt a responsibility to “take care of the less fortunate.”

“The common ground of everything I do both in business and philanthropy is love, of nurturing others body and soul,” Zaher said.

Dr. Monique Barel, TAU Governor and daughter of the late Hugo Ramniceanu, noted several similarities between the Prize’s namesake and Zaher. “[Like my father] you were incredibly brave, as even when suffering from the great loss of your husband, you decided to take over the company he had created, while you were trained as a mathematics teacher and not an entrepreneur. You succeeded in paying off the debts of the company and even upgraded the manufacturing process.”

The ceremony concluded with the awarding of the Hugo and Valerie Ramniceanu Scholarships in Economics, by their son Gerald, to three TAU students, Ido Tel Tzur, Eden Cohen and Nathan Cohen Itay.

Musician Sefi Asfouri opened the ceremony with a moving performance, which enraptured the audience.

Featured image: From left: François Heilbronn, President of TAU’s French Friends Association, Monique Barel, Julia Zaher and TAU President Prof. Ariel Porat. Credit: Ofer Amram

The “Nobel of Mathematics”: TAU Prof. Noga Alon Wins the Prestigious Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences

If We Let Them Go, They Won’t Come Crawling Back