JERUSALEM - June 1, 2022 –The Blavatnik Family Foundation, the New York Academy of Sciences, and the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities invite the public to lectures from the forefront of Israeli research. These lectures will be given at the 2022 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in Israel Symposium, which will take place on Tuesday, June 7, 2022 at the Israel Academy in Jerusalem. The symposium will be in both English and Hebrew, with Hebrew-to-English translation available for English-speaking in-person and virtual attendees. 

The three 2022 Award recipients will present their research at the symposium. Professor Noam Stern-Ginossar of the Weizmann Institute of Science received the Blavatnik Awards for developing groundbreaking analytical tools to study viral gene regulation in cytomegalovirus; she will show how viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) “capture” healthy cells. Chemistry Laureate, Professor Menny Shalom of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, is developing new types of advanced materials for alternative energy sources. He will share his research on how these low-cost materials, which are stable under harsh conditions, can be used in the development of solar cells, batteries, and fuel cells. Professor Ronen Eldan of the Weizmann Institute of Science, Physical Sciences & Engineering Laureate, will present his groundbreaking contributions to high-dimensional probability, a mathematical subject that deals with datasets with a very large number of variables. He will demonstrate how the use of data science and machine learning (the development of algorithms that enable the computer to learn from examples) helps to formulate objects in a high dimension as a mathematical problem. 

The symposium will begin with welcome remarks by Professor David Harel, President of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and Professor Nicholas B. Dirks, President and CEO of the New York Academy of Sciences. The keynote address will be given by Professor Moran Bercovici of the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and a 2019 Blavatnik Awards recipient. He will present his latest research being conducted on the international space station in conjunction with NASA, to revolutionize space optics by fabricating giant lenses for space telescopes. There will also be a panel discussion entitled “The Role of Science in Today’s Society”, which will address the social responsibility of scientists and how society’s trust in science can be increased. The panelists will include Academy President Professor David Harel, writer and columnist Meir Shalev, and Dr. Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler, a researcher of the Israel Democracy Institute. 

The Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in Israel are given every year to three early-career Israeli scientists aged 42 and younger for their groundbreaking research, their extraordinary achievements, and their demonstrated potential for future scientific discoveries. Each Laureate in the categories of life sciences, chemistry, and physical sciences & engineering is awarded with $100,000. The Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in Israel are given alongside the international prizes that are awarded each year in the United States and the United Kingdom. For more information on the Blavatnik Awards, please visit the website.