advancing women in science award recipients 2010
TRANSCRIPT
Award Recipients 2010Supported by• CloreIsraelFoundation
• CharlesH.RevsonFoundation,USA
• BayAreaFundforWomenScientists,USATheKaplanFamilyFund
• MaureenandJackDym,Canada
• MorrisFederFamily,USA
• JanineGordon,USA
• ArlynImberman,USA
• ThePearlWelinskyMerloFoundation,EllenMerlo,USA
• MichiganWomenofWisdomFund,USA
• Rueff-WormserPostdoctoralFellowship,USA
• MikeandValeriaRosenbloomthroughtheMikeRosenbloomFoundation,Canada
• TheRowlandandSylviaSchaeferFoundation,USAMarlaSchaefer,BonnieSchaefer,RobertaWaller,Directors
• Prof.MaxineSinger,USA
• FreddaWeissFoundation,USA
Additional support• FrancieandStuartKlein,Canada
• Mr.andMrs.AaronSherman,USA
• MarionSilberberg,USA
מכון ויצמן למדע —תוכנית לאומית לפרסי מחקר
בתר–דוקטוריאליים לקידוםנשים במדע
Weizmann Institute of Science —National Postdoctoral Award Program for Advancing Women in Science
For further information about the program, please contact:
Prof. Adi Kimchi
President’s Advisor for Advancing Women in Science Weizmann Institute of Science
972-8-934-2428
Ms. Yosefa Givoli
Secretary
Weizmann Institute of Science
972-8-934-3841
It is a known fact that there are few women scientists in
the world in general, and in the Israeli higher education
system, in particular. Israel, a small country with almost no natural
resources other than human talent, simply cannot afford this loss of
potential
We see it as an urgent priority to increase the number of women
faculty members at the Weizmann Institute, at all levels, from young
researchers to tenured scientists. Our broader aim is to help increase
the number of women scientists nationwide.
Toward these goals, we initiated a plan to proactively advance talented
Israeli female scientists. In the first stage, we focused primarily on the
key issue of recruitment at the postdoctoral level; we strongly believe
that postdoctoral training abroad for a period of between two to four
years is of vital importance to the quality of Israeli science, and a
critical phase in every scientist’s career. However, most Israeli women
graduates in the exact and natural sciences forego this essential part
of their career development for social, cultural, and financial reasons.
This is precisely the stage at which most women, in fact, decide to
abandon their academic careers.
Therefore, in 2007, we established a nationwide award program,
initiated by Prof. Hadassa Degani, open to outstanding women Ph.D.
graduates at all Israeli institutions of higher learning, to enable their
postdoctoral training at leading international laboratories, with a view
of returning to Israel for an academic research career.
The program is administered by the Weizmann Institute’s Feinberg
Graduate School, which has extensive experience in evaluating
students and postdocs.
F o r e w o r d
The Steering Committee is headed by Prof. Adi Kimchi, the President’s
Advisor for Advancing Women in Science.
This year, a nationwide call for applications was issued on March 1, and
sixty five women scientists submitted their applications by June1.
All of these women received their Ph.D. degrees from Israeli institutions
of higher learning: 11 from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; 18
from the Weizmann Institute; 13 from the Technion-Israel Institute of
Technology; 12 from Tel Aviv University; 2 from Ben-Gurion University
of the Negev; 9 from Bar-Ilan University. The selection committee
chose eleven outstanding women scientists who will be each granted
this special award for their studies abroad. Their fields of research
span a wide range of topics in science, including experimental and
theoretical chemistry, molecular cellular and developmental biology,
neurobiology, bioinformatics, mathematics and computer science
and Astrophysics and condensed matter physics.
The criteria for the award were based on academic excellence, as
evidenced by the standard scientific evaluation tools: outstanding
Ph.D. work; state-of-the-art proposed postdoctoral research;
scientific productivity and publications in leading journals; as well
as strong recommendations of advisors and scientists familiar with
the work; recognition from the candidate’s own institution; and
scientific prizes.
All applicants expressed their intention to return to Israel following
postdoctoral training to pursue a scientific career.
In this brochure, we are proud to present the 11 postdoctoral award
recipients for 2010.
T he Weizmann Institute of Science is grateful to our
friends throughout the world who have generously
supported the cause of Women in Science
Rec
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10
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ard
ד”ר הגר גלברד-שגיב Dr. Hagar Gelbard-Sagiv
Ph.D.: Weizmann Institute of Science
Department: Neurobiology
Advisor: Prof. Rafael Malach
Ph.D. Thesis: Neuronal activity in the human medial temporal lobe during memory formation and recollection
Post-doctorate: California Institute of Technology, United States
Department: Division of Biology
Advisor: Prof. Christof Koch
Research Topic: Seeking a neuronal signature of conscious perception in the human frontal lobe
ד“ר אורלי גנתDr. Orly Gnat
Ph.D.: Tel-Aviv University
Department: Astronomy & Astrophysics
Advisor: Prof. Amiel Sternberg
Ph.D. Thesis: Non-equilibrium metal ionization in cosmological environments: conduction fronts, radiatively cooling gas, and fast shocks
Post-doctorate: California Institute of Technology, United States
Department: Theoretical Astrophysics
Advisor: Prof. Marc Kamionkowski
Research Topic: The observational signatures of diffuse ionized gas: equilibrium and non-equilibrium processes
Rec
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ד“ר לירן גורןDr. Liran Goren
Ph.D.: Weizmann Institute of Science
Department: Department of Environmental Sciences and Energy Research
Advisor: Prof. Einat Aharonov
Ph.D. Thesis: The evolution of pore fluid pressure in porous rocks and soils, and its geodynamics effects
Post-doctorate: ETH - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Switzerland
Department: Earth Sciences
Advisor: Prof. Sean D. Willett
Research Topic: Earth surface response to tectonics and climatic forcing - a new landscape evolution model
ד“ר קרן מיכאליDr. Karen Michaeli
Ph.D.: Weizmann Institute of Science
Department: Condensed Matter Physics
Advisor: Prof. Alexander Finkel’stein
Ph.D. Thesis: Thermal transport phenomena in disordered interacting electron systems
Post-doctorate: Massachusetts Institute of Technology - MIT, United States
Department: Physics
Advisor: Prof. Patrick A. Lee
Research Topic: Strongly correlated electron systems
Rec
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ד“ר ויקי פלקסDr. Vicki Plaks
Ph.D.: Weizmann Institute of Science
Department: Biological Regulation
Advisor: Profs. Michal Neeman and Nava Dekel
Ph.D. Thesis: In vivo MRI studies of angiogenesis in reproduction and embryonic development in transgenic mice
Post-doctorate: University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), United States
Department: Anatomy
Advisor: Zena Werb
Research Topic: The interplay between stem cells and their environmental niches in normal development and cancer transformation of the mammary gland: live imaging- assisted studies
ד“ר רינה רוזנצויגDr. Rina Rosenzweig
Ph.D.: Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
Department: Biology
Advisor: Prof. Michael Glickman
Ph.D. Thesis: Pinpointing molecular interactions with and within the base subcomplex of he proteasome
Post-doctorate: University of Toronto, Canada
Department: Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry and Chemistry
Advisor: Prof. Lewis E. Kay
Research Topic: Characterization of structure and dynamics of Hsp104/ClpB chaperon machinery
Rec
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ד“ר רות שרץ-שובלDr. Ruth Scherz-Shouval
Ph.D.: Weizmann Institute of Science
Department: Biological Chemistry
Advisor: Prof. Zvulun Elazar
Ph.D. Thesis: A novel mechamism for redox regulation of autophagy via the Atg4 cysteine protease
Post-doctorate: Massachusetts Institute of Technology - MIT, United States
Department: Whitehead Institute of Biomedical Research
Advisor: Prof. Susan Lindquist
Research Topic: The role of mitochondria and redox in the heat shock response in cancer
ד“ר מיכל סגל-רוזנהיימרDr. Michal Segal-Rosenheimer
Ph.D.: Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
Department: Civil and Environmental Engineering
Advisor: Dr. Yael Dubowski
Ph.D. Thesis: Environmental fate of semivolatile pesticides in the atmosphere: Implementation of FTIR techniques in the investigation of heterogeneous reactions
Post-doctorate: NASA Ames Research Center, United States
Department: Atmospheric Science
Advisor: Dr. Philip B. Russell
Research Topic: Developing data products for an airborne prototype hyperspectral spectrometer for sky-scanning, sun-tracking atmospheric research (4STAR-Air)
Rec
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ד“ר רעות שלגיDr. Reut Shalgi
Ph.D.: Weizmann Institute of Science
Department: Molecular Cell Biology
Advisor: Profs. Moshe Oren & Tzachi Pilpel
Ph.D. Thesis: Coupling transcriptional and post-transcriptional miRNA regulation in the control of cell proliferation
Post-doctorate: Massachusetts Institute of Technology - MIT, United States
Department: Biology
Advisor: Profs. Chris Burge & Susan Lindquist
Research Topic: Post-transcriptional diversity in mammalian cells during stress - potential substrate for evolution and tumor development
ד“ר טלי )אביטל( טרייביץDr. Tali (Avital) Treibitz
Ph.D.: Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
Department: Electrical Engineering
Advisor: Prof. Yoav Schechner
Ph.D. Thesis: Geometry and photometry of imaging through a medium
Post-doctorate: University of California, San Diego, United States
Department: Computer Science
Advisor: Prof. David Kriegman
Research Topic: Vision under extreme variations in illumination and pose
Rec
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ד“ר אנה זמנסקיDr. Anna Zamansky
Ph.D.: Tel-Aviv University
Department: Computer Science
Advisor: Prof. Arnon Avron
Ph.D. Thesis: Non-deterministic multi-valued logics and their applications
Post-doctorate: Vienna University of Technology, Austria
Department: Institute for Discrete Mathematics and Geometry
Advisor: Prof. Matthias Baaz
Research Topic: Non-deterministic matrices and their applications for non-classical logics
Recipients 2009
Dr. Mirela Ben-Chen
Dr. Noam Ginossar (Stern)
Dr. Shlomit Greenberg
Dr. Ilana Kolodkin-Gal
Dr. R’ada (Jada) Massarwa
Dr. Smadar Naoz
Dr. Yana Nec
Dr. Yael Politi
Dr. Michal Rivlin-Etzion
Dr. Asia Rolls
Dr. Maya Zayats
Committee:Prof. Adi Kimchi, Chair
Prof. Lia Addadi, Dean, Feinberg Graduate School
Prof. Irit Dinur
Prof. Batsheva Kerem
Dr. Hanna Rapaport
Prof. David Cahen
Prof. Yosef Nir
Dr. Avraham Yaron
Yosefa Givoli, Secretary
About the Weizmann Institute of Science:The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, is one of the world’s top-ranking multidisciplinary research institutions. Noted for its wide-ranging exploration of the natural and exact sciences, the Institute is home to 2,600 scientists, students, technicians and supporting staff. Institute research efforts include the search for new ways of fighting disease and hunger, examining leading questions in mathematics and computer science, probing the physics of matter and the universe, creating novel materials and developing new strategies for protecting the environment.
Weizmann Institute of Science Feinberg Graduate School P.O. Box 26, Rehovot 76100, Israel Tel: 972-8-9343841; Fax: 972-8-9344114 www.weizmann.ac.il/feinberg/WomenInScience