Tag: Honours & Awards

Three TAU professors were awarded the Israel Prize in the fields of law, chemistry and environmental sciences research. The Israel Prize is the State of Israel’s highest cultural honor and is awarded annually in a public ceremony on Israel’s Independence Day.

The 2023 Award Recipients:

Prof. Yoram Dinstein, President of TAU from 1991 to 1999, has won the 2023 Israel Prize for legal research. Prof. Dinstein was recognized as one of the founding fathers of the field of international law in Israel. He served as Rector of TAU from 1980 to 1985 and as Dean of The Buchmann Faculty of Law at Tel Aviv University from 1978 to 1980, among numerous other academic, national and international leadership roles.

Prof. Emanuel Peled of the School of Chemistry at the Raymond & Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences has won the 2023 Israel Prize for chemistry research. He was recognized for his pioneering work in lithium batteries and fuel cells that has influenced the energy field all over the world. Among his many distinctions, Prof. Peled is the recipient of the Israel Chemical Society Outstanding Scientist Award for 2016 and is a Fellow of the International Society of Electrochemistry.

Prof. Avital Gasith of the School of Zoology at The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences has won the 2023 Israel Prize for environmental sciences and sustainability research. The prize was awarded for his pioneering work in the protection of nature in Israel, especially freshwater aquatic systems, and his active civic involvement in promoting conservation. He was former Head of the Environmental Studies Master’s Program at the Porter School of the Environment and Earth Sciences.

The Dan David Prize, the largest history prize in the world, today announced its 2023 winners – nine emerging scholars and practitioners, whose work illuminates the past in bold and creative ways. Each of the winners – who work in Kenya, Ireland, Denmark, Israel, Canada and the United States – will receive $300,000 (USD) in recognition of their achievements and to support their future endeavors.

“Our winners represent the new generation of historians,” said Ariel David, board member of the Prize and son of the founder. “They are changing our understanding of the past by asking new questions, targeting under-researched topics and using innovative methods. Many of the winners we are recognizing today are still in the early stages of their careers, but they have already challenged how we think about history. Understanding the past, in all its complexity, is critical to illuminating the present and confronting the challenges of the future.”

The 2023 winners are listed below:

	Prof. Saheed Aderinto from Florida International University uses unusual lenses such as sexuality, guns, animals and music to reexamine colonial identity and subjecthood in modern Africa, with a particular focus on Nigeria (photo: JC Photography, Miami).
	Prof. Ana Antic from the University of Copenhagen is a social and cultural historian whose research focuses on the relationship between politics, violence and psychiatry in twentieth century Europe, as well as the decolonisation of psychiatric practices and concepts (photo: Zarko Ivetic).
​	Karma Ben Johanan, a senior lecturer from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, looks at the relationships between different religious traditions, most recently working on how the Catholic Church responded to Jews after the reconciliation attempts of Vatican II, and how orthodox Jewish thinkers have responded to the same developments (photo: Avigail Piperno-Beer)
​	Asst. Prof. Elise Burton from University of Toronto is a historian of science, race and nationalism in the modern Middle East, focusing on the history of genetics, physical anthropology, evolutionary biology and biomedicine (photo: courtesy of Elise Burton).
​	Prof. Adam Clulow from University of Texas at Austin is a global historian who reassesses power relations between Europe and East Asia, and uses video games and VR to make history accessible to both students and the wider public (photo: courtesy of Adam Clulow).
​	Asst. Prof. Krista Goff from University of Miami uses oral history and everyday sources to understand the experiences of understudied ethnic minorities in the Soviet Union, especially those not recognized as nationalities by the state (photo: Courtesy of Krista Goff).
​	Prof. Stephanie Jones-Rogers explores women’s social, economic and legal relationships to enslaved people and to the slave trade in the trans-Atlantic world (photo: Lily Cummings McCubbin).
​	Asst. Prof. Anita Radini from University College, Dublin, is an “archaeologist of dirt” who analyzes the tiny remains of dust that collect in dental plaque, and uses them to learn about the work lives and environments of people in the past (photo: courtesty of Anita Radini).
​	Chao Tayiana Maina is a public historian who uses digital technologies (she is the founder of African Digital Heritage) to capture and preserve previously hidden or suppressed historical narratives in Kenya, enabling communities to engage with their cultural heritage (photo: Lyra Aoko).

“We all share a past. We all shape the future”

“Insights about the past should circulate through every part of every community,” said Prof. Aviad Kleinberg, historian and Dan David Prize board member. “We all share a past. We all shape the future. Knowledge of the past – historical, not mythological – belongs to everyone. A culture that does not understand its past is like an individual with acute amnesia. Amnesia makes one bear the past’s consequences without awareness of it and without the power to escape it.”

The winners were selected from hundreds of nominations submitted by colleagues, institutions and the general public in an open nomination process. The finalists were chosen by a global committee of experts that changes annually. This year’s committee members were affiliated with a range of institutions including the universities of Cambridge, Paris, Pennsylvania and Seville. A full list of the 2023 committee is available here.

The Dan David Prize, endowed by the Dan David Foundation and headquartered at Tel Aviv University, was first established in 2001 by the late entrepreneur and philanthropist Dan David, to reward innovative and interdisciplinary work that contributed to humanity. In 2021, the Prize was relaunched with a focus on historical research, honoring the founder’s passion for history and archaeology. Today, the Prize rewards emerging scholars, aiming to help both academics and public historians fulfill their potential at a time when support for the humanities is dwindling.

The nine 2023 winners will be honored at the Dan David Prize Award Ceremony in Tel Aviv in May.

About the Dan David Prize

The Dan David Prize is the largest history prize in the world. Dan David, the founder of the Prize, believed that knowledge of the past enriches us and helps us grapple with the challenges of the present, and is a foundation for reimagining our collective future. At a time of diminishing support for the humanities, the Prize celebrates the next generation of outstanding historians, archaeologists, curators and digital humanists. Each year, up to nine researchers are awarded $300,000 each in recognition of their achievements and to support their future endeavors.

To learn more about Dan David, the Prize and the 2023 winners, visit www.dandavidprize.org.

The Federation of all the Israel Societies for Experimental Biology (FISEB) announced that Prof. Karen Avraham, Dean of Sackler Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University is the winner of the STAR Award for Scientific Excellence and Leadership. The STAR Award is a prestigious award that recognizes outstanding scholars in biomedical research and is a testament to their dedication and contribution to advancing the academic community in Israel.

Exceptional Contributions with Significant Impact

The selection committee noted: “Prof. Karen Avraham’s contributions to the field have been truly exceptional and have significantly impacted the advancements of human genetics from basic concepts to innovative therapeutics. Her creative ideas, unwavering commitment and leadership have inspired many and set a benchmark for others.”

Prof. Karen Avraham, Dean of the Sackler Faculty of Medicine: “I am thrilled to receive this honor. There is nothing more significant than getting the recognition of your peers and colleagues. I have had tremendous opportunities to pursue my scientific research, leadership and mentoring in Israel for many years and I am very grateful for that.”

“Prof. Karen Avraham’s contributions to the field have been truly exceptional and have significantly impacted the advancements of human genetics from basic concepts to innovative therapeutics. Her creative ideas, unwavering commitment and leadership have inspired many and set a benchmark for others.” (The selection committee for the STAR Award)

Disease Genomics With Emphasis on Hearing Disorders

Prof. Avraham is recognized as one of Israel’s top scientists for her research that centers on disease genomics, with an emphasis on hearing disorders. Her team explores the genes responsible for hereditary hearing loss and implements new gene therapies to reverse deafness. Recently, she expanded her research to study rare genetic diseases including developmental delay, epilepsy and breathing disorders in children. She is a member of the Department of Human Molecular Genetics & Biochemistry at the Faculty of Medicine and the Sagol School of Neuroscience.

For her scientific achievements, she has won numerous awards, including the Sir Bernard Katz Prize from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany and the Michael Bruno Memorial Prize from the Rothschild Foundation (Yad Hanadiv), and she was recently awarded the Israel Science Foundation Breakthrough Research Grant.

In addition to her outstanding research achievements, she is the first woman to serve as the Dean of Sackler Faculty of Medicine at TAU. Prof. Avraham also served as founder and former director of the Healthy Longevity Research Center and the Aufzien Family Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Parkinson’s Disease and of the Taube-Koret Global Collaboration in Neurodegenerative Disease. She is the founder and director of the Biomed@TAU Research Hubs, which aim to bring together scientists and foster collaboration from across Tel Aviv University and affiliated hospitals that share overlapping research interests.

The Federation of all the Israel Societies for Experimental Biology (FISEB) is a federation of 34 Israeli societies of experimental biology, which was established in 1994 in order to promote scientific collaboration between members of the societies.

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)