Tag: General

Science to power performance in the new state-of-the-art center

Elite athletes often speak about chasing fractions of a second or a few extra centimeters. At Tel Aviv University, those margins are becoming the focus of cutting-edge research.

This week, TAU officially inaugurated the Sylvan Adams Sport Science Institute, a landmark new center that brings together researchers, physicians, engineers, physiologists, data scientists, and AI experts to transform scientific discoveries into practical tools for athletic performance. Established through an approximately $35 million philanthropic gift from businessman and philanthropist Sylvan Adams, the Institute positions Tel Aviv University at the forefront of sport science research while strengthening Israel’s competitive edge on the international stage.

More than a state-of-the-art training center, the institute is designed as a living laboratory where science and elite sport meet. Researchers will investigate everything from exercise physiology and biomechanics to nutrition, injury prevention, environmental adaptation, and performance optimization, translating academic research into personalized programs for athletes.

“The Institute at TAU is unique and will do groundbreaking research. It lays the scientific, technological, and research foundation that will help Israeli athletes achieve new levels of sporting excellence and I believe that bringing together research, innovation, and professional excellence will help develop Israel’s next generation of champions,” said Mr. Sylvan Adams at the inauguration ceremony.

Mr. Sylvan Adams talking about his vision for the Institute (photo: Yael Tzur)

The Institute houses one of Israel’s and the world’s most advanced sport science facilities. Its laboratories—developed in collaboration with TAU’s Gray Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences and the Fleischman Faculty of Engineering—include an advanced scientific gym, motion analysis systems with high-speed video technology, a swimming flume, comprehensive fitness assessment facilities, and a climate chamber capable of recreating the temperature and humidity conditions athletes encounter at competitions around the world. A hypoxic hotel can even simulate training at altitudes of up to 5,000 meters, allowing researchers to study and enhance performance under extreme conditions.

Athletes will receive individualized physiological testing, nutrition guidance, mental performance support, and data-driven training recommendations. At the same time, researchers will use these facilities to conduct world-class applied research aimed at improving athletic performance, reducing injury risk, and advancing our understanding of human physiology.

“We are proud to inaugurate the Sylvan Adams Sport Science Institute, a project that would not have come into being without Sylvan’s extraordinary vision and generosity,” said TAU President Prof. Ariel Porat.

Canadian-Israeli philanthropist Sylvan Adams has played a transformative role in advancing Tel Aviv University’s vision, building on his family’s longstanding commitment to the institution. Through major philanthropic support, he established the Sylvan Adams Sport Science Institute as well as the Sports Center, helping position TAU as a national leader in sports science, athletic performance, and Olympic athlete development. A Vice-Chair of TAU’s Board of Governors and second-generation benefactor, Adams has also strengthened the University through scholarships, research initiatives, and global advocacy on its behalf.

The Olympic Partnership

A major milestone announced during the inauguration was a new strategic partnership between the institute and the Olympic Committee of Israel. Under the collaboration, selected Olympic athletes will receive ongoing scientific assessments and personalized support as they prepare for the Los Angeles 2028 and Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games, creating a direct pipeline between university research and international competition.

Trying the advanced gym equipment with Olympic cyclist Mikhail Yakovlev (photo: Yael Tzur)

Prof. Irad Ben-Gal, who heads the Institute, emphasized that its greatest strength lies in bridging the gap between research and practice. “What makes the Institute unique is its ability to transform scientific data into practical recommendations,” he said. “Every athlete will receive an individualized performance plan designed to improve results, optimize training, reduce injury risk, and monitor progress over time.”

While elite competitors will be among its primary beneficiaries, the Institute’s impact will extend well beyond Olympic sport. Its expertise and services will also support sports clubs, coaches, recreational athletes, and researchers, creating new opportunities for collaboration and innovation while advancing Tel Aviv University’s leadership in health, performance science, and interdisciplinary research.

At Tel Aviv University, theater students learn to live, listen, and create across Israel’s deepest divides.

On any given evening at Tel Aviv University (TAU), the lights go up on a stage that is more than a performance space. It is a laboratory, a classroom, and, perhaps most importantly in today’s reality, a rare meeting ground for students from profoundly different backgrounds.

Jewish and Arab students, religious and secular, immigrants and native-born Israelis—all rehearse, argue, solve problems, and perform together. Theater demands a level of closeness few other academic disciplines require.

“When you’re rehearsing six hours a day with someone, you can’t stay in slogans,” says fourth-year acting student Mayar Sakran, from Nazareth.

“You have to listen. You have to trust each other. That changes something.”

A Microcosm of Israeli Society

Unlike other university programs, theater cannot be learned at a distance. At TAU Theater, actors, directors, and designers train together throughout an intensive four-year integrated BA–MFA program, while productions themselves are part of the curriculum rather than extracurricular activities.

“We believe that cultural and intellectual knowledge enrich artistic creation,” says Prof. Yair Lipshitz, TAU Department Chair of Theatre Arts. “Our students don’t just channel emotion—they analyze, contextualize, and interpret. Theory and practice feed each other.”

That shared creative process often results in something increasingly rare: understanding.

For Mayar the experience transformed not only her artistic development, but her personal life. “It was much more diverse than anything I’d experienced before,” she says. “I had never really engaged with Hebrew-speaking people or people from so many different backgrounds. It made my circle bigger.”

Over four years, she says, those encounters fundamentally changed the way she sees people. “Seeing how other people think about difficult topics really changed a lot of things for me. I’m not the same person I was four years ago.”

One of the most unexpected experiences came when she was cast in The Dybbuk, the classic Yiddish play, portraying Amalia—a young Jewish woman from an Eastern European shtetl. “It was something extremely far away from me,” she says. “I was excited to learn another language and research a world that wasn’t part of my own.” Today, Mayar still finds herself quoting lines in Yiddish.

War Enters the Rehearsal Room

After October 7 and during the ongoing wars, tensions inevitably surfaced. Some students were coping with unimaginable loss; some disappeared for weeks or months to serve in the reserves. Others were facing entirely different fears and realities. Political disagreements that had once remained in the background suddenly became impossible to ignore. And theater offered no easy way to avoid each other.

“We are so much a melding of one another,” says second-year acting student Gil Daniels, an American immigrant and a combat soldier in the IDF. Gil played a girlfriend of Amalia’s in The Dybbuk.  “Our work is about being fully present.” This sort of intensity in rehearsals forced difficult conversations.

Mayar and Gil on stage at The Dybbuk performance

Gil admits there were times he didn’t feel comfortable expressing his views, and some disagreements strained even close friendships.

“There were moments when my classmates and I, we really took space from each other,” he recalls.

But the nature of theater made permanent distance impossible, and the students had to find a way to move forward. “We had to readjust and re-understand how to progress … and still appreciate each other as people, colleagues, and fellow students,” Gil reflects. For him, that change was reflected in his relationships with Arab classmates, including students from Nazareth. Conversations that initially felt impossible gradually gave way to simple acts of concern, such as asking how one’s doing or visiting a sick classmate.

Learning to Disagree

Prof. Lipshitz knew his students arrived with vastly different personal and political perspectives. Rather than trying to erase disagreement, he focused on creating an environment where difficult conversations could happen without overwhelming the class.

“There were tensions, of course. Some classes decided together that the classroom should remain a protected learning space and not become overwhelmed by outside politics,” Lipshitz says. 

“The challenge is creating a space where people feel they belong without turning every class into a political argument.

I try to present the material as fully and honestly as possible, knowing I’ll still miss things and people from all sides may disagree with me.” His goal, he explains, is not consensus. “None of us are entirely comfortable, and that’s okay.”

Interestingly, the debates that proved most heated were often the least expected. “I’d think the class on Palestinian theater would provoke the biggest debate,” Prof. Lipshitz says. “Instead, a discussion about Mizrahi representation in theater would generate the strongest reactions.” Not every discussion ended neatly. Some students chose to continue conversations privately after class rather than speaking publicly. But they kept returning—to class, to rehearsals, and to one another. “And in this, I think, we succeeded in building trust,” Prof. Lipshitz reflects.

For Mayar, that trust was built just as much through everyday life as through performances. “We’re a close-knit group, and we’re here every day, morning till night. Over the years we became a family.” The friendships she formed crossed linguistic, cultural, and political lines. “I don’t like to categorize people and choose my friends based on the category they’re in,” she says. “I like to look at the person for who they are.”

Even misunderstandings became opportunities to grow. “Sometimes people accidentally hurt each other,” Mayar reflects. “But we talk about things together. We solve problems together. And when it works out, it’s beautiful.”

Lipshitz is careful not to describe the department as a utopia. Disagreements remain. So does discomfort. But after years of watching students creating together, he has come to believe that coexistence is not a defined set of rules:

“If students believe we’re here to learn from each other rather than erase one another,” he says, “then meaningful dialogue becomes possible.”

A Work in Progress

For many students, returning to rehearsals also became part of recovering from the trauma of war. The theater offered not only a place to create, but a place to reconnect—with themselves and with one another.

Gil believes that Israeli society needs more spaces where people can genuinely interact across differences. “There has to be more than just war,” he says. “There has to be more than a military culture.” Theater, he believes, offers one possible path.

Mayar shares that sentiment. “I think if people open their minds and see the beauty that’s out there [in each person], they really could live together,” she says. “It is possible.”

The 2026 Coller Dolittle Prize was awarded to Dr. Julie E. Elie for research showing that zebra finches classify calls by meaning rather than sound.

The Jeremy Coller Foundation and Tel Aviv University have announced the winner of the 2026 Coller Dolittle Challenge for Two-Way Interspecies Communication. This year’s US$100,000 prize was awarded to Dr. Julie E. Elie, of the Theunissen Lab at the University of California, Berkeley, for her discovery that zebra finches classify their calls according to meaning more so than acoustics.

Building a Dictionary of Bird Calls

Using AI machine learning and detailed observations of animal behavior, Dr. Julie Elie and her team investigated the acoustic features of zebra finches’ vocalizations and created a “dictionary” classifying zebra finches’ vocalizations into 11 categories or call-types, with meanings such as aggression, hunger or bonding. Elie took her research one step further, carrying out an experiment that tested whether the birds agreed with her classification. She trained zebra finches to press buttons which played her categorized call-types, each day rewarding only one of the call-types with seeds. The birds rapidly learned which call-type was being rewarded, waiting for their reward at the end of the playback, and interrupted non-rewarded call-types.

The Discovery Came from the Birds’ Mistakes

But the truly remarkable scientific advancement was discovered after the categorization exercise, when Elie and her team investigated the errors that birds made when seeking the rewarded call-type. Zebra finches made classification mistakes on calls with shared meaning that could not be explained by how similar-sounding these call-types were. For instance, the birds mistook long-distance contact calls and short-distance contact calls, which are acoustically very different. But, they never mistook a short contact call with a short alarm call, which have very similar acoustic patterns but entirely distinct meanings. As such, the study reveals that call perception elicits a mental imagery of the meaning of call-types, rather than triggering a reflexive response.

AI Brings Scientists Closer to Animal Communication

The prize was presented during an event on 25th June with four shortlisted teams of researchers from the US, France and Switzerland presenting their remarkable discoveries on communication with African striped mice, chimpanzees and bonobos. AI tools were central to the finalists’ studies, enabling them to analyze larger data sets at greater speed, and to decode bioacoustic patterns which are inaudible to human hearing.

A pair of zebra finches

Dr. Julie Elie said: 

“Our research shows that exciting scientific discoveries come from mistakes. It’s been a fascinating collaborative exercise to ask the zebra finches questions about their vocalizations. The fact that, sometimes, the birds get the classification of their own calls wrong has enabled us to gain huge insight into their perceptions and mental imagery. 

“But, there is so much more to be done. Beyond developing the right algorithm to interpret animal vocalizations, we must coordinate the acoustic with the visual. I am excited for the development of robots to mimic the movements and posture of the species we’re interested in. But in the meantime, I’m delighted that I have been recognized by the Coller Dolittle Committee for our team’s contributions to the goal of two-way interspecies communication. I am really grateful to all the people that contributed to this project and to the Jeremy Coller Foundation for making this recognition possible.”

From Animal “Words” to Animal “Sentences”

Professor Yossi Yovel, Tel Aviv University and Chair of the Coller Dolittle Challenge, said: “This year’s finalists have raised the scientific bar of the Coller Dolittle Challenge even further. We have seen a clear transition from studying individual animal “words” to the study of “sentences”. Dr. Julie Elie’s research excelled in all domains. Her study has gone beyond decoding zebra finch’s communication and has begun to answer whether these patterns identified by scientists are actually relevant and meaningful to the birds. On this trajectory, we are accelerating at pace towards two-way interspecies communication.”

Jeremy Coller said: “Congratulations to Dr. Julie Elie, a well-deserved winner of this year’s Prize. From primates to rodents, from jungles to deserts, down on the ground and up in the sky, today’s finalists are all pushing the frontiers of animal communication. While the ultimate goal of achieving genuine two-way communication remains tantalizingly out of reach, scientists are bringing us all one step closer to what I am convinced is now inevitable.

AI is accelerating so fast, I have absolute conviction we’ll crack the code by 2030 – a breakthrough that will benefit humans and our fellow animals the world over and give a long overdue voice to the voiceless.”

The 2025 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences laureate visited campus for three days of lectures, discussions, and special events celebrating his achievements and longstanding ties to the University.

This week, Tel Aviv University welcomed back Prof. Joel Mokyr, winner of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences and Visiting Professor at TAU’s Eitan Berglas School of Economics, for a three-day campus visit celebrating both his academic achievements and his longstanding connection to the university.

The three-day visit included an interdisciplinary discussion on economic history, a public lecture titled “What Drives Economic Growth?”, a ceremony dedicating the Economics Student Plaza in his honor, participation in a conference at the Porter School of Environmental and Earth Sciences, and a special reunion with his former high school classmates, who gathered on campus to celebrate his Nobel Prize.

Prof. Mokyr, an Israeli-American economic historian and professor at Northwestern University, received the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his pioneering research on innovation, technological change, and the forces that drive long-term economic growth. His work has fundamentally reshaped the understanding of how scientific knowledge, institutions, and ideas contribute to prosperity over time.

Exploring the Origins of Economic Growth

One of the highlights of the visit was a public lecture, hosted by Tel Aviv University President Prof. Ariel Porat and Vice President for International Affairs Prof. Milette Shamir, which brought together students, faculty members, and members of the public to explore one of the central questions that has shaped Prof. Mokyr’s career: What enables societies to innovate and grow over the long term?

Prof. Joel Mokyr delivering his lecture at Bar-Shira Hall during his visit to Tel Aviv University

Prof. Mokyr began teaching at Northwestern University in 1974 and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1996. Throughout his career, he has served as President of the Economic History Association and developed the concept of the Industrial Enlightenment, which links ideas from the Enlightenment to the processes that drove the Industrial Revolution.

His books include A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy (2016) and Two Paths to Prosperity: Culture and Institutions in Europe and China (2025).

The visit also included an interdisciplinary discussion on economic history with researchers from across the University and Prof. Mokyr’s participation in a conference at the Porter School of Environmental and Earth Sciences. On Monday, classmates from his high school years gathered on campus for a special reunion celebrating his Nobel Prize, marking another memorable moment during his visit.

Prof. Joel Mokyr

Honoring a Longstanding Member of the TAU Community

As part of the visit, Tel Aviv University dedicated its Economics Student Plaza in honor of Prof. Mokyr, recognizing both his groundbreaking scholarship and his many years of teaching and mentoring students at the Eitan Berglas School of Economics.

Prof. Joel Mokyr with Tel Aviv University President Prof. Ariel Porat

Reflecting on his connection to Israel and Tel Aviv University, Prof. Mokyr said:

“No matter where you live, Israel remains stuck deep in your soul. I especially love teaching Israeli students—they are always highly involved and ready to share their ideas. I can’t wait for what comes next…I’m only getting started.”

On AI, Innovation, and the Future of Universities

Prof. Mokyr’s research has long explored how the creation and dissemination of what he calls “useful knowledge” helped drive the Industrial Revolution and laid the foundations for modern economic growth. During his visit, we asked him how he sees these ideas applying to one of today’s most transformative technologies: artificial intelligence.

If innovation depends not only on new inventions but also on the spread of knowledge, what role might AI play? Could it expand this body of knowledge, or reshape the conditions that make innovation possible?

“My sense it could go either way,” Prof. Mokyr said.

“AI clearly will expand the body of knowledge and make it even more accessible. Yet if the entire world will use two or three sources of AI, say ChatGPT and Claude and Gemini, then we may all be bleating the same tones.”

At the same time, he noted that if the entire world were to rely on only a handful of AI systems, diversity of thought could suffer. Drawing on lessons from economic history, however, he believes competition will continue to challenge dominant technologies and encourage new ideas.

“I expect the number of companies providing AI and other sources will expand, and they may use very different algorithms and ways to process information, and in that world they can avoid the loss of diversity—and could even expand it. It’s hard to predict, but the past teaches us that monopolies are always contestable and in the long run even IBM and Google and Amazon have had to face new entrants and competition—the essence of creative destruction.”

He concluded:

“AI is a malleable tool and I would not be surprised if it actually led to MORE intellectual diversity.”

Prof. Joel Mokyr

Prof. Mokyr also reflected on the role universities play in sustaining the international exchange of ideas at a time of increasing political polarization and geopolitical competition.

” Universities are a major pillar of the global intellectual community—they make an explicit effort to promote international connections, of students, faculty, and even staff.”

He added:

“The campuses are full of foreign students, postdocs, academic visitors. They run seminars and conferences that attract scholars from all over. Many Universities have overseas campus and have ‘semester abroad’ and similar program, fostering cosmopolitan attitudes and supporting worldwide connections. In short, they are one of the main drivers of the global intellectual community—how could they not?”

Ranked 208th globally and 29th worldwide in Citations per Faculty, TAU continues to lead Israeli academia and strengthen its position on the international stage.

Tel Aviv University has once again been ranked as Israel’s leading university in the prestigious QS World University Rankings 2027. One of the world’s most influential measures of academic excellence, the QS rankings evaluated more than 1,500 universities from around the globe this year.

According to the rankings, TAU placed 208th worldwide, ahead of all other Israeli universities. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem ranked 218th, while the Technion ranked 334th. This year’s global top three are MIT, Stanford University, and the University of Oxford.

TAU’s performance was particularly impressive in the Citations per Faculty indicator, where it ranked 29th in the world. This measure, which accounts for 20% of the overall QS score, is considered one of the key indicators of research quality and international impact. It reflects the extent to which the university’s scientific publications influence the global academic community.

The QS World University Rankings are among the most respected and influential rankings in higher education. Each year, QS evaluates approximately 1,500 universities worldwide across a range of indicators, including research impact, academic reputation, graduate employability, and internationalization. The rankings are based on approximately 17.5 million academic papers and 240,000 interviews with academics and employers worldwide.

Israeli universities ranking >

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TAU’s Vice President for Research and Development has been awarded the Founders Award in recognition of his groundbreaking contributions to drug delivery science.

The international Controlled Release Society (CRS) announced that Prof. Dan Peer, Vice President for Research and Development at Tel Aviv University, has been awarded the Society’s Founders Award. The Founders Award of the Controlled Release is the highest honor and recognition given to a scientist whose research made a groundbreaking, lasting impact on the field of drug delivery science.

A Pioneer in RNA Therapeutics

Prof. Dan Peer, Vice President for Research and Development, is one of the pioneers of mRNA drug development worldwide and Head of the Laboratory of Precision Nano-Medicine at the Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research at TAU’s  Wise Faculty of Life Sciences. Prof. Peer is a trailblazer and among the pioneers in the use of RNA molecules as molecular therapeutics. His research focuses on the development of RNA-based molecular medicines for a wide range of diseases, including inflammatory bowel diseases, blood cancers, brain cancer, ovarian cancer, and rare genetic diseases. In addition, Prof. Peer studies the use of RNA molecules as vaccines for viral diseases, bacterial diseases, and cancer, and develops nanometric drug carriers with the ability to selectively target specific cells.

Breakthrough Achievements in Drug Delivery

Among his groundbreaking achievements, Prof. Peer and his laboratory were the first in the world to demonstrate that mRNA molecules can be delivered to produce therapeutic proteins in animals, to use short RNA molecules for gene silencing in immune system cells, and to perform gene editing using nanoparticles that home to their target cells when injected into the bloodstream. In addition, Prof. Peer and his team were the first in the world to develop an mRNA-based vaccine against antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

In recognition of his achievements, Prof. Peer was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, the U.S. National Academy of Inventors, and the Israeli Young Academy. He has also received numerous awards, including the Rappaport Prize, the Landau Prize, and the Litwin Prize for Breakthrough Research. The inventions to which he has contributed (more than 160 patent applications) have been commercialized by several companies. In addition, Prof. Peer has founded several startup companies in Israel, the United Kingdom, and the United States, some of which are already in clinical trials.

Prof. Dan Peer: “The Founders Award of the Controlled Release Society is the highest recognition in the field of drug delivery and controlled release research, and I am excited by the recognition and honor given to the contribution of my laboratory and the team that works with me to the field.”

New funding will strengthen the Colton Consortium for Autoimmunity, a research network running across UPENN, NYU, Yale, and TAU

The Colton Consortium for Autoimmunity based at the University of Pennsylvania, last week announced a new $15 million, three-year investment from the Colton Foundation to strengthen scientific leadership, expand faculty expertise, and advance collaborative research to accelerate breakthroughs in autoimmune disease across its partner institutions at New York University, Tel Aviv University, and Yale University.

Autoimmune diseases affect millions worldwide and remain among the most complex conditions to diagnose, treat, and prevent. While advances in immunology have deepened our understanding of disease mechanisms, many conditions still lack effective therapies. At the same time, converging progress across academia, clinical research, and biopharma has created an ecosystem with transformative opportunities—one where coordinated investment and collaboration can translate discovery into meaningful advances for patients.

A Global Partnership for Autoimmune Research

The Colton Consortium for Autoimmunity is a global, multi-institutional research partnership uniting leading academic medical centers—including the University of Pennsylvania, New York University, Yale University, and Tel Aviv University—in a coordinated effort to transform the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of autoimmune diseases. Through sustained philanthropic investment and a highly integrated collaborative model, the Consortium advances high-impact science that spans discovery research, translational studies, and clinical application, with the shared goal of improving outcomes for patients worldwide. The Consortium is made possible through the generosity of the Colton Foundation, led by Judy and Stewart Colton.

Strengthening Collaboration Across Institutions

This investment strengthens the Consortium’s ability to operate as an integrated, high-performing research network—supporting work that no single institution could accomplish alone. This new investment supports three core pillars: advancing faculty recruitment across institutions, accelerating cross-consortium research collaboration and strengthening leadership and research infrastructure. As the Consortium enters its next phase with this new $15 million investment, Colton investigators are well positioned to capitalize on a strong foundation and lead new advances in autoimmune research.

Uri Nevo, PhD, Director of the Colton Center for Autoimmunity at Tel Aviv University: “This generous donation enables Tel Aviv University, together with its clinical partners in hospitals and healthcare organizations across Israel, to establish collaborative partnerships with Colton institutions in the United States. Together, we will lead innovative research initiatives aimed at advancing the understanding and treatment of autoimmune diseases. The approved projects will include not only clinical and biological research, but also data-driven studies and studies designed to build the engineering and computational infrastructure necessary for improved diagnosis and treatment”.

Tel Aviv University reaches a major sustainability milestone, with approximately 45% of campus electricity consumption powered by renewable energy

Tel Aviv University’s Green Council is proud to announce that, as part of the implementation of the strategic plan for climate change and sustainability, approximately 45% of the campus’ power consumption already comes from green energy sources. This means that nearly half of the power consumed on the TAU campus is no longer based on fossil fuels. This is another significant step that positions TAU at the forefront of sustainability among Israel’s institutions of higher education.

From Rooftop Solar Panels to Campus-Wide Transformation

Members of the Green Council explain that TAU annually consumes approximately 75 million kWh of electricity -about 4 million of which originate from 17,000 square meters of solar systems installed on the rooftops of various buildings across campus, including: the Dan David, Buchmann-Mehta, Mitchell, Sharett, De Botton, Goldschleger and Health Professions buildings, and lecture halls of the Gray Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences. A vast solar roofing system will soon be installed on the Smolarz parking lot as well.

A Roadmap to 100% Renewable Energy

The remaining green power consumption, totaling about 29 million kWh, is supplied by off-campus solar energy sources. The Council emphasizes that its multiannual plan involves a shift to 100% green power within the next few years, including construction of a large energy storage center on campus.  According to the agreement signed with Shikun & Binui Energy, an advanced energy storage facility with a capacity of more than 30 MWh will be built on campus – one of the largest projects of its kind in central Israel and the first in an Israeli academic institution.

A Campus-Wide Sustainability Strategy

The ambitious strategic plan was launched about three years ago by TAU’s Green Council, led by President Prof. Ariel Porat and CEO Gadi Frank. Following extensive preparatory work, the Green Council set a series of additional goals, including: shifting to sustainable energy, saving energy and water, waste minimization and smart use of resources, sorting waste and reducing transportation emissions, fostering and preserving flora and fauna, and more. All this, alongside climate change adaptations such as shading and planting trees across campus.

Rooftop solar panels at the Law Library building

Turning Commitment into Action

Dr. Judi Lax, Head of Sustainability, Engineering and Maintenance at TAU: “Until recently, our use of renewable energy amounted to just a few percent. In a short time, we were able to make a dramatic change and reach 45% green power on campus. This is not just an environmental statement – it is a real operational revolution that significantly reduces TAU’s greenhouse gas emissions. We see the campus not only as a place for research and teaching, but also as a cradle for meaningful change. Our goal is clear: to turn TAU into a campus that leads the way in rapid, drastic emissions reduction. It is important to understand that these initiatives result from broad collaboration within the university – connecting science, data, operations and field personnel, consultants, management, students, and faculty – as well as a great deal of daily work on the campus itself. Change of this kind only happens when an entire system rallies and works together toward a shared goal.”

From Research to Real-World Impact

Prof. Marcelo Sternberg, a leader of the program for reducing greenhouse gas emissions on campus and a researcher at the Wise Faculty of Life Sciences: “Alongside research and teaching that address the climate-ecological crisis, TAU also sees great importance in the practical implementation of sustainability principles within the campus itself. As a center of knowledge, innovation, and public influence, we have both the opportunity and the responsibility to also lead environmental change through direct action. TAU’s rapid rise to 45% renewable energy demonstrates how science, vision, and good management can turn environmental commitment into reality on a significant scale. This is an important message to our students, to Israeli society, and to other institutions both in Israel and worldwide: meaningful action is both possible and necessary – and the time to act is now.”

“Space is no longer a distant destination; it is humanity’s next arena of activity, and we are proud to be among those shaping its future.”

A small step for humanity, a giant leap for Tel Aviv University.

The Iby and Aladar Fleischman Faculty of Engineering this week inaugurated the Space Engineering Center (SEC), a new initiative that will bring together research, development, and training in the fields of space and satellite engineering, while serving as a focal point for collaboration between academia, industry, and the defense sector.

The launch comes amid rapid growth in Israel’s space industry and increasing demand for engineers and researchers in the field. According to the center’s director, Prof. Meir Ariel, its mission is “to make a significant contribution to Israel’s security, the Israeli space industry, and the advancement of human knowledge.”

Bringing Together Science, Engineering, and Technology

The inauguration ceremony was attended by Tel Aviv University President Prof. Ariel Porat; Dean of the Faculty of Engineering Prof. Noam Eliaz; and the Space Engineering Center research team, including Prof. Meir Ariel, Prof. Ofer Amrani, Prof. Viacheslav (Slava) Krylov, Dr. Lior Medina, and Prof. Ronen Verker.

In his remarks, Prof. Porat praised the Faculty of Engineering and its contributions to Israel’s security, emphasizing the importance of the new center to the university as a whole.

“There is no field on campus that cannot, in some interesting way, connect to space,” he said.

Alongside his remarks on the future of Israel’s space sector, Prof. Porat also reflected on a personal connection to the center’s founding. He spoke about Dan Ariel, the son of Prof. Meir Ariel, who was murdered at the Nova music festival on October 7.

“He loved space and was fascinated by it,” said Prof. Porat. “It is possible that he himself would have become a researcher in the field.”

In his address, Prof. Eliaz highlighted the center’s activities and ambitions.

“The common denominator of all this research is its potential to transform groundbreaking ideas and discoveries into actual space systems and satellites built here at the Faculty of Engineering,” he said.

Prof. Eliaz also noted that former NASA astronaut and current NASA Deputy Administrator Robert Cabana recently described the Faculty of Engineering as “among the leaders in the field in global academia.” He added that Uri Oron, Director General of the Israel Space Agency, has emphasized that many countries still lack technological capabilities that have already been developed in Israel.

“We do not conduct research for the sake of research alone,” Prof. Eliaz said. “The outcomes of our work ultimately find their way into operational systems.”

Prof. Meir Ariel, Head of the Space Engineering Center, and Prof. Noam Eliaz, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering

No Shortcuts in Space

According to Prof. Ariel, the new center, described as “a very important institution within Israel’s space sector”, includes advanced infrastructure that provides a complete academic and technological ecosystem, supporting projects from the earliest research concept all the way to operational space systems.

“The standards we, as an academic institution, must meet are no lower than those of a company like SpaceX, because in space there are no shortcuts.”

Some of the satellites and technologies developed by the Space Engineering Center

In addition to testing space systems and nanosatellites, the center enables researchers to carry out most stages of development and validation under one roof. Its capabilities include:

• Building satellites up to ten times larger than those previously constructed at Tel Aviv University.
• Simulating extreme space environments, including severe temperature and pressure fluctuations.
• Operating an independent ground station that communicates with satellites, sends commands, and receives scientific data.

The center emphasizes multidisciplinary research spanning electrical engineering, computer science, mechanical engineering, materials science, and related fields. Current research includes:

• Advanced communication and cybersecurity technologies, including encryption systems designed to withstand future computing capabilities.
• In-space manufacturing and large-scale 3D printing of structures directly in orbit—a unique area of expertise at Tel Aviv University.
• Smart sensor systems capable of processing data before transmission to central computing systems.
• Sensing technologies that capture and analyze the electromagnetic spectrum—including visible, infrared, and ultraviolet light—for applications ranging from pollution detection and precision agriculture to space exploration.

“The laboratory’s motto is: things are impossible, until they aren’t.”

From the Periphery to Mars

Beyond research, the Space Engineering Center plays a central role in education, supporting students from high schools across Israel through advanced academic training.

As part of the Faculty of Engineering’s mission to make science and technology more accessible, Tel Aviv University has established approximately 15 clean rooms and ground stations in communities across the country, including Sha’ar HaNegev, Ma’ale Adumim, Givat Shmuel, Tayibe, Kafr Qara, Ein Mahil, and Yarka.

At these centers, outstanding high school students build nanosatellites as part of the Israel Space Agency’s Tevel 2 initiative, developing systems for both scientific and operational purposes. As part of the project, students successfully built an observation satellite capable of capturing images of Earth from space.

On the international stage, students participating in the center’s TAUverIL program are currently competing in a global rover-design competition in Poland that simulates the terrain and challenges of Mars exploration.

Prof. Ariel and Prof. Amrani also announced the launch of a new Space Engineering specialization within an interdisciplinary research-based master’s degree program. The specialization will integrate studies in electrical and computer engineering, mechanical engineering, and materials engineering.

Students in the program will complete dedicated space-related coursework and conduct a research thesis in the field. Upon graduation, they will receive both their master’s degree and a certificate recognizing their specialization in space engineering.

Together, these initiatives position the Space Engineering Center not only as a platform for research and innovation, but also as a national center of excellence in science, engineering, and technology.

As Prof. Eliaz concluded:

“Space is no longer a distant destination. It is humanity’s next arena of activity, and we are proud to be among those shaping its future.”

Watch highlights from the Space Engineering Center over the years:

Prof. Judith Berman joins one of the world’s most prestigious scientific institutions, becoming the sixth Tel Aviv University researcher to receive the honor

The U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has announced the election of Prof. Judith Berman of Tel Aviv University as a member. The Academy currently comprises 2,750 American scientists and an additional 557 international members representing all scientific disciplines. Prof. Berman is the 47th Israeli researcher to be elected to the NAS, and the sixth from Tel Aviv University over the past 50 years. The Academy’s membership includes some of Israel’s most distinguished scientists, including approximately 200 Nobel Prize laureates.

Advancing Our Understanding of Drug Resistance

Prof. Judith Berman, of the Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research at George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, is a leading scientist in the fields of microbiology and genetics. Her research focuses on cellular response mechanisms to drug treatment and the effects of genetic mutations on these mechanisms, which enable drug tolerance in the pathogen Candida albicans, a yeast that causes infections in humans. Prof. Berman has published extensively in leading international scientific journals. She also was elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AmAcadA&S) this year and was elected a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) in 2019. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and has been a member of the American Society for Microbiology since 2007 and is an Emeritus Professor of the University of Minnesota in the US and an Honorary Professor at Exeter University in the UK.

One of Science’s Highest Honors

Established under a congressional charter signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences advises the American government and nation on matters of science, engineering, and medicine. Membership in the Academy is for life, and each year up to 120 new scientists from the United States and up to 30 foreign scientists from around the world are elected to its ranks. The U.S. National Academy of Sciences is also the publisher of the prestigious scientific journal PNAS.

Prof. Judith Berman said: “I am grateful for this recognition of the importance of my research and contributions.”

Prof. Dan Peer, Vice President for Research and Development at Tel Aviv University, said: “Prof. Judith Berman is an outstanding researcher in the fields of microbiology and genetics. Her election to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences is a source of great pride for Tel Aviv University and a recognition of her achievements at the highest international level.”