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The first Public Humanities conference, a joint venture of Fulbright Israel and  Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design took place in Jerusalem yesterday, May 17.

Around 180 people, including Fulbright fellows and alumni, Academics, and representatives of cultural and academic institutions as well as participants from government and the third sector came to discuss relevance, creativity, and the humanities, and their great importance to civil, cultural, economic, and academic life in Israel.

U.S. Ambassador Thomas Nides opened the event, together with the president of Bezalel, Professor Adi Stern.

During her opening lecture, guest speaker, Nina Simon discussed relevant art pertaining to museums and other public institutions.

The day continued with additional lectures and workshops, that linked theory and academic skills to practice and between creativity and humanities to technology and economics.

Thank you to Dr. Tal Rippa and Rotem Ruff our partners at Bezalel.

Our gratitude also goes to the U.S. Embassy Jerusalem and especially to the team in the Department of Public Diplomacy.

Photo: Shlomi Yosef

Congratulations to Dr. Leeat Keren, who was awarded the 2023 Krill Prize for Excellence in Scientific Research.

Leeat, a 2016 Fulbright Post-Doctoral fellow at Stanford University, holds the Fred and Andrea Fallek President’s Development Chair, Department of Molecular Cell Biology at the Weizmann Institute of Science.

Dr. Keren’s research is understanding how different cells interact as a system in health and disease to collectively define progression and outcome in response to treatment. By combining novel high-dimensional imaging methods with advanced computational analysis, artificial intelligence and clinical collaborations, with the ultimate goal of achieving in-depth understanding of systemic, trans-cellular interactions leading to the development of better treatments and diagnostics.

The Krill Prize is awarded by the Wolf Foundation to outstanding academic faculty members and promising researchers from research universities in Israel who have demonstrated significant research breakthroughs and who are expected to lead research and academia in Israel in the future in the fields of exact sciences, life sciences, medicine, engineering, and agriculture.

Congratulations to Fulbright alum, Professor Nissim Benvenisty for been awarded the 2023 Rappaport Prize for an Established Biomedical Researcher.

Prof. Benvenisty is the principal investigator at the Azrieli Center for Stem Cells and Genetic Research, at the Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research focuses on differentiation and genetic manipulation of human embryonic stem cells, human genetic disorder and human embryonic stem cells; tissue engineering, genetic and epigenetic aberrations and cancer research.

Professor Benvenisty was awarded the 1990 Fulbright Research Program fellowship to conduct research at Harvard University.

The Rappaport Prize for Excellence in the field of Biomedical Research is awarded to scientists for groundbreaking or innovative research which has the potential to advance the health of mankind.

Congratulations!

Today the Ministry of Education announced that Fulbright Alum, Professor Jehoash Hirshberg, has been awarded the Israel Prize, in the field of Music for 2023.

During his career, Hirshberg has researched the musical heritage of the Karaite Jews in Israel, the history of the music of the Yishuv (1880-1948), music in migrant and refugee societies and the origins of the early classical concerto.

The prize committee stated that the prize had been awarded to Professor Hirshberg for his extensive international and national research skills and for his outstanding contribution to the research of original artistic composition in Israel, with extensive music exploration during the settlement of Israel, as well as monographies of famous composers.

Professor Jehoash Hirshberg was awarded 1966 Fulbright Graduate student fellowship to peruse his PhD at the University of Pennsylvania.

Photo: Wikipidia

Fulbright Israel is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Sender Cohen as Chairman of the Board of Directors. Mr. Cohen is the Chief Investment Officer of Schusterman Interests LLC, the investment office for the Schusterman family as well as for the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies. Previously, Mr. Cohen was President of Soros Capital, and prior to that he was the Director of Research and Head of External Allocations at Soros Fund Management, as well as a Managing Director at Duquesne Capital Management. Mr. Cohen currently serves on the boards of the Israel Institute as well as Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America (LEDA) and is a trustee emeritus of Yeshiva University and the founder of the Natan Fund. He lives in New York with his wife and four children.

Mr. Cohen was selected to lead the bi-national board by U.S. Ambassador to Israel Thomas R. Nides. As the United States’ flagship international academic exchange program, Fulbright fosters academic and cultural ties between the people of the United States and people from more than 140 countries around the world. Since 1956, the Fulbright program with Israel has provided fellowships to more than 3,600 American and Israeli students, writers, teachers, and scholars. Alumni of Fulbright exchanges between Israel and the United States include Nobel, Pulitzer, and Wolf Prize laureates, members of Knesset, and countless leaders in academia, industry, and public service.

Congratulations to Fulbright Israel alumna Professor Ronit Satchi-Fainaro on her ERC 2022 Proof of Concept Grant. Prof. Satchi-Fainaro (Fulbright Post-doctoral fellow 2001) received the prestigious European Research Councils Horizon 2022 Proof of Concept Grant for her project "Modular Targeted Nanoplatform for Immune Cell Regulation and Therapy" to explore the commercial or societal possibilities of cutting-edge frontier research.

Full list of all selected researchers in the this link.

: Erik Sultan

Three Fulbright alumni from Israel are the recipients of the prestigious 2022 ERC Starting Grants:

Prof. Naama Geva-Zatorsky (Fulbright Post-doctoral fellow 2011) for her research titled: "Deciphering host-gut microbiota spatio-functional plasticity in inflammation"

Dr. Yair Hartman (Fulbright Post-doctoral fellow 2015) for his research titles: "Random Walks on Groups, Commutative and Noncommutative Dynamics"

Dr. Hadas Soifer (Fulbright Post-doctoral fellow 2014) for her research titled: "Band-resolved imaging and nonlinear optical control of currents in topological materials"

Congratulations!

Full list of all selected researchers in this link.

Dr. Rony Dahan (Fulbright Doctoral fellow 2009) for his research titled: "Immune Synapse Engagement as a Novel Approach for Cancer Immunotherapy."

Professor Asya Rolls (Fulbright Post-doctoral fellow 2008) for her research titled: "Neuronal control of fascia."

Professor Tom Schonberg (Fulbright Post-doctoral fellow 2009) for his research titled: "Identification and change of passive value markers in the laboratory and naturalistic environments."

Professor Hila Shamir (Fulbright Doctoral fellow 2004) for her research titled: "A New Labour Law for Supply Chain Capitalism."

Congratulations!

Full list of all selected researchers in the following link.