BEER-SHEVA, ISRAEL, July 31, 2012 -– Ben-Gurion University of the Negev researchers have been awarded 70 new individual and team grants from the Israel Science Foundation (ISF).
The ISF, established by the Israel National Academy of Sciences, is Israel's major source of competitive grants, funding basic research at Israeli universities, other institutions of higher education, as well as medical research centers. The grants were awarded to individual researchers in BGU's Faculties (Colleges) of Humanities and Social Sciences, Health Sciences and Engineering Sciences.
In addition to individual grants, the ISF awarded several special team grants, including one to Prof. Avishai Henik, Prof. Yoseph Tzelgov and Dr. Andrea Berger, members of the Department of Psychology, along with their Haifa University colleague Prof. Orli Rubinstein, to continue support of the Center for the Neurocognitive Basis of Numerical Cognition. The Center was established four years ago within the ISF Centers for Excellence program, in order to study the neurocognitive basis of numerical cognition.
Two major ISF grants for institutional facilities were also awarded to BGU researchers for a state-of-the-art Scanning Probe Microscopy Laboratory in the Department of Materials Engineering and an Environmental Isotopes Laboratory at BGU's Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research to study the fate of organic compounds in aquatic systems.
The ISF's Klein Prize for Outstanding Cancer Research was awarded to Prof. Angel Porgador and Dr. Eitan Rubin of the Shraga Segal Department of Microbiology and Immunology, and Dr. Eyal Sheiner of Soroka University Medical Center. The prize is named for Prof. Georg and Eva Klein, prominent cancer researchers at the famous Karolinska Institute in Sweden, who established an endowment for an annual prize in Israel.
"I'm delighted -- but not at all surprised -- to learn that BGU's research achievements in so many disciplines are being recognized by Israel's most prestigious scientific funding body," says Doron Krakow, executive vice president of American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. "This research may save lives, cure disorders and address staggering environmental problems, and I invite our American friends to join us in advancing these efforts."
American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev plays a vital role in sustaining David Ben-Gurion's vision, creating a world-class institution of education and research in the Israeli desert, nurturing the Negev community and sharing the University's expertise locally and around the globe. With some 20,000 students on campuses in Beer-Sheva, Sede Boqer and Eilat in Israel's southern desert, BGU is a university with a conscience, where the highest academic standards are integrated with community involvement, committed to sustainable development of the Negev. For more information, please visit www.aabgu.org.
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