Where Behavior and Brain Intersect

TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY REVIEW
Summer 2010
STEINHARDT COLLECTIONS
The new building to be constructed at TAU
for the National Collections of Natural History
was propelled forward by the first meeting of its
Scientific-Public Council on the TAU campus. Council
members, including the project’s primary donor Michael
Steinhardt, former chairman
of TAU’s Board of
Governors from 2000
to 2006 and recipient of
both an honorary doctorate
and the President’s
Award from the university,
were greeted by
TAU President Joseph
Klafter and Rector
Dany Leviatan, and received
a project update
by Prof. Tamar Dayan,
Director of the Collections. The meeting was chaired
by former TAU Executive Council member Dr. Itamar
Borowitz.
Additional Israeli members comprise Nobel Prize laureate
Prof. Aaron Ciechanover, Vice President of the Israel
Academy of Sciences and Humanities Prof. Ruth Arnon,
A Home for
Natural History
General Director of the Ministry of Education and former
TAU Executive Council member Shimshon Shoshani,
former Israeli Supreme
Court justice Yaakov
Turkel, Chairperson
of the Tel Aviv City
Council Yael Dayan,
Executive Director
of Yad Hanadiv Ariel
Weiss, former Member
of Knesset Gedalia Gal,
former President of the
Weizmann Institute
Prof. Ilan Chet, Prof.
Yehudith Birk of the
Hebrew University, author Meir Shalev, business magnates
Samuel Hayek and Ami Federmann, and artist and
advertiser Shony Rivnay.
Overseas members are Dan David Prize founder and
major TAU benefactor Dan David, and Australian philanthropist
Brian Sherman.
From left:
Prof. Tamar
Dayan,
Michael
Steinhardt,
TAU
President
Joseph
Klafter and
Rector Dany
Leviatan
SCIENTIFIC PARTNERSHIP
Promoting UK-Israel
Research Ties
The Britain-Israel Research and Academic Exchange
(BIRAX) Partnership program, a new initiative largely
funded by the Pears Foundation, now enables scientists
from Israel and the UK to work together on a range of
advanced, carefully chosen research projects.
“Our foundation has Jewish roots, and we are very
driven by what we perceive as Jewish values,” says Charles
Keidan, chairman of Pears, which is a UK-based charitable
foundation supporting human rights, education
and international development, with a special affinity for
projects in Israel. “This identity has led to a strong attachment
to Israel and a desire to contribute to its prosperity,
and to promote Israel’s contribution to the wider world.”
The partnership program, launched in 2008 by the
prime ministers of both countries, aims to strengthen academic
cooperation between the UK and Israel as well as
their knowledge economies. It is managed by the British
Council – the UK’s international organization for cultural
relations and educational opportunities.
On the Israeli side of the partnership, it was Tel Aviv
University that won the day with eight out of a total of 15
grants. The remaining seven were shared among four other
Israeli institutions. The new TAU-UK collaborations
include research in a wide range of areas: biomedicine,
neurobiology, cellular biology, bioengineering, electrical
engineering, particle physics and archaeology.
The Chairman of the Scottish Group of the TAU Trust
in Great Britain, Leslie Wolfson, describes BIRAX as “one
of the most imaginative and promising initiatives in recent
years promoted by the British Council.”
The Pears Foundation has extended generous support
for educational, arts-related and community initiatives at
Tel Aviv University for several years, including sponsorships
of TAU conferences and of British Trust events.
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