Tag: Tel Aviv University

The Milner Foundation, founded by renowned tech investor and science philanthropist Yuri Milner and his wife Julia, has donated $3 million to three Israeli institutions currently leading a “race against the clock” to beat the coronavirus pandemic: Magen David Adom, Israel’s national emergency medical response organization, which is launching an innovative project to reduce the number of people coming to clinics; Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine and George S. Wise Life Sciences, which is accelerating research efforts aimed at developing treatments for the virus; and Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Ichilov Hospital, which will directly fund the intensive care unit that is caring for COVID-19 sufferers. Mr. Milner, an Israeli citizen living in Silicon Valley, was an early investor in a range of tech giants that shaped the Internet, including Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Airbnb and Spotify. He and his wife Julia hope that the Foundation’s donation will help fight the spread of infection in Israel, and will advance new research and technological tools to combat the virus. The donation was carried out in close cooperation with Israel’s Consul-General to the Pacific North West in San Francisco, Mr. Shlomi Kofman. “This is an investment in the present and the future,” Mr. Milner says. “In the short term, it’s a way to increase the intensive care unit capacity in Israel and relieve pressure on doctors and, in the longer term, it will support the search for a cure and help develop a new system of virtual medical treatment. “In the face of global threats like this, science, technology and innovation are our best hopes. Israel is a leader in those fields, and I hope this initiative can both make an impact on COVID-19, and also become a model that can be replicated by other countries.” Consul-General Kofman adds: “It is wonderful to see Israelis abroad supporting their country at this difficult time. Silicon Valley and the State of Israel share a resourcefulness and ingenuity that will be invaluable in overcoming this crisis, and this donation from the Milner Foundation will be a big help in advancing that goal.”

Donation to Tel Aviv University

Tel Aviv University will utilize the donation for vaccination and drug R&D to treat coronavirus infection. Five TAU research groups will be assisted in their gene sequencing and gene editing technologies, in computer analysis and other advanced methods to find ways to block the penetration of the virus into cells or alternatively to strengthen the body’s immune response to overcome infection. TAU scientists will use samples taken from coronavirus patients in hospitals affiliated with the university and will work in close cooperation with many organizations including the Health Ministry, the Technion Institute of Technology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Weizmann Institute of Science, the Biology Research Institute and other research institutions in Israel and worldwide. TAU President Prof. Ariel Porat says: “It’s very moving that in these difficult days, Milner Foundation has not forgotten the State of Israel and is generously helping Tel Aviv University. We for our part will do everything in our ability to justify the confidence given to us and through our first-rate researchers, we will contribute our part in this world war of a type that we have never known before.”

Donation to Magen David Adom (MDA)

MDA is launching an innovative project to reduce the number of people in Israel at healthcare fund clinics as well as hospital accident and emergency rooms. This is currently a critical necessity as the healthcare system contends with massive public demand. The project, which commenced due to the spread of the coronavirus, is part of MDA’s day-to-day operations and harnesses advanced telemedicine technologies in intensive care ambulances to provide effective, professional and safe medical treatment and reduce the number of people at clinics and hospitals. Due to this project, it will now be possible to treat coronavirus patients at home as well as those patients who cannot currently enter clinics for routine tests and treatment. MDA prepared the groundwork for the project in 2018, and the need for it has currently risen due to the coronavirus outbreak in Israel; the Foundation donation will enable MDA to fully launch this innovative project. MDA Director-General Eli Bin says: “Milner Foundation’s generous donation takes this initiative — something we’ve planned for years — and instantly turns it into a viable program that can keep hundreds of thousands of Israelis out of hospitals every year. Using technology to benefit our patients has long been a priority at Magen David Adom, and the telemedicine equipment that we will now purchase on a large scale will allow us to significantly increase the number of patients we can respond to at home while reducing the burden on hospitals and preventing unnecessary infections.”

Donation to Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center

According to Prof. Ronni Gamzu CEO of TSMC (Ichilov), “The donation would serve the need of supporting Intensive Care Unit department, promoting diagnosis and research for the epidemiology and treatment of the new disease while serving the entire State of Israel and the world.”

Milner Foundation

Yuri Milner, who lives in Silicon Valley, California and holds Israeli citizenship, is one of the world’s most respected technology investors. His portfolio has included some of the world’s most prominent internet companies, such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Airbnb, Spotify, Alibaba, and others. The Milner Foundation has contributed to a range of initiatives and organizations in Israel as well as to Jewish communities in Europe via The Conference of European Rabbis. In 2018, to mark the 70th anniversary of the State of Israel, the Foundation awarded NIS 25 million to 70 outstanding Ph.D. students at the Technion, Tel Aviv University and Hebrew University. In addition, it is a prominent donor to the Peres Center for Peace and FIDF. At the same time, Yuri and Julia Milner have long supported initiatives that utilize scientific and technological innovations to improve peoples’ lives, including joining Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett’s “Giving Pledge” initiative, as part of their commitment to donate most of their wealth for important scientific programs. In 2012, they, together with other senior tech figures including Google cofounder Sergey Brin, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, Pony Ma founder of Tencent and Anne Wojcicki founder of 23andMe founded the Breakthrough Prizes – a not-for-profit organization which awards prizes for breakthrough research in the fields of fundamental physics, life sciences and mathematics. The Breakthrough Prizes are considered among the most prestigious in the world of scientific achievements, and every year six winners each receives $3 million. Since 2012, the organization has awarded more than $200 million to about 2,000 scientists (including some prizes split between the members of large research groups).

International Women’s Day has been celebrated around the world since the early 20th century. Although we’ve progressed since then, gender inequality still affects most women. Women make up half the world’s population, but hold less than 23% of parliamentary positions worldwide, earning about 30% less on average than men doing the same jobs.

“Discrimination against women in the workforce harms women, their families, businesses, and the economy as a whole,” says Prof. Daphna Hacker, from the Buchmann Faculty of Law and the NCJW Women and Gender Studies program at the Lester and Sally Entin Faculty of Humanities at Tel Aviv University.

“Women face discrimination when seeking employment because of the maternal role they play, they aren’t rewarded fairly for the work they do, and they’re affected by the glass ceiling, which prevents them from advancing to management positions. They are hurt because they do not enjoy the best workforce and diversity that women bring with them to the workplace; and the entire economy shuffles around when women are not allowed to exercise in all kinds of professions and occupations.”

Each for Equal

Each year, a theme is selected for International Women’s Day Campaign, and this year the focus stems from the notion of “collective individualism”: our actions, conversations, personal behaviors can affect all of society. Together, we can make change happen.

The campaign says:  “Let’s build a gender equal world. Equality is not an issue exclusively for women, it’s a business issue for everyone. Gender equality is essential for economies and communities to thrive. A gender equal world can be healthier, wealthier and more harmonious – so what’s not great about that? The race is on for the gender equal boardroom, a gender equal government, gender equal media coverage, gender equal workplaces, gender equal sports coverage, more gender equality in health and wealth … so let’s make it happen. Let’s be #EachforEqual.”

Building a female professional network

In the world of work, one of the most important strategies for career management in general and job searches in particular is effective networking, which can, among other things, bring about a coveted job, higher pay or quick promotion. Such activity involves developing relationships with others who have the potential to provide work or career advice. For example, joining professional associations, searching for high-visibility assignments, participating in social activities and more. When the data shows that even in 2020, women earn less and there are fewer of them in management positions, some women think that women can use these social tools to fight for their place in a very competitive market.

“Networking is considered especially critical for women because it is a strategy they can use to break the glass ceiling,” explains Meirav Hauben, a personal career consultant at Tel Aviv University’s Career Development Center. “Being able to build relationships with others can help women expand their reach to senior positions in the organization. But various studies show that men and women do not work the same way in establishing and maintaining relationships, and this difference gives men a significant advantage.”

“We see today that women’s participation in the workforce is approaching that of men, but familial obligations are still primarily a woman’s responsibility, and a lot depends on her ability to combine work and family roles. Often, women may experience conflict between these roles. For example, if I want to have lunch with senior managers at the office, but still have the responsibility to leave early and pick up my child from kindergarten – I will not be able to take part in this important networking activity. “

“Women should be encouraged to look at and examine their location on the social networks they build, the value they bring to the network, and how they tend to use it to achieve their professional goals. When seeking work, every woman should proactively create and maintain relationships in a way that serves those professional goals. “It is important that organizations continue to encourage equal opportunities, recruit and promote women to senior positions, where women can be role models and create a network for other women.”

In recent years, we’ve been seeing the beginnings of a welcome trend where employers are encouraging both men and women to give importance to family life and the work-life balance, something that improves job satisfaction and employee productivity. In the Netherlands, for example, the work week is only 29 hours, compared to 40.6 hours in Israel. Denmark and Norway are also on the list of countries with the lowest weekly working hours in the world. Recently, high-tech companies in Israel have begun to allow workers to work from home a few days a week, but we’re still a long way away from finding a good balance between raising children and investing in a career.

^{Can’t do without it – mingling is important for networking and professional success}

Studying and articulating gender

Virginia Wolf said: “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” Prof. Hannah Naveh and Prof. Hannah Herzog of Tel Aviv University thought that a woman needed her own publication as well, and established “Genders” – a series of research and philosophy books in all areas of women’s and gender studies and feminist theory, which they’ve been editing for twenty years.

The character of the mother of the soldier in new Hebrew literature, the preoccupation with dance in childhood and adolescence for girls in Israel, the 19th century female initiation novel and dozens of other subjects around gender and femininity make for a fascinating title list, where any woman can find something of interest. Over thirty books have been published in the series since the year 2000, including breakthrough books and even bestsellers, most of which have become major texts and have shaped critical thinking at Israeli universities. Researchers from Israel presented original and innovative research in “Genders”, among them: Daphna Hacker, Sharon Geva, Roni Halpern, Tova Cohen, Orit Kamir, Michael Gluzman, Nissim Gal and more. You can find all the books on the United Kibbutz Publishing site.

Living online

At Tel Aviv University, women researchers are soaring and paving the way for science and discovery. Want to know more talented female scholars and read about their work? All week, the University’s social networks will put women front and center, in the stories at the telavivuni instagram account, the tau2go Facebook account, and in English on the TAU LinkdIn account, using the #tau_wmn hashtag.