"If there is one generation in which excellence is not promoted, it is lost and the wisdom of the previous generation is lost"

This is what the President of Bar Ilan University, Prof. Moshe Koa, said at the ceremony of awarding the Bruno Awards by the Yad Hanadiv Foundation. "The Nobel prizes we have been blessed with in recent years, as well as the success of the Israeli high-tech industry, express the success of the education system and higher education in the past." added one of the winners of the Bruno Prize, Prof. Lior Gepstein of the Technion and Rambam

"If there is one generation where excellence is not promoted, it is lost and the wisdom of the previous generation is lost." So said last night the president of Bar-Ilan University, Prof. Moshe Koa, whose university hosted the Bruno Prize distribution ceremony.

The prizes were awarded last night to Prof. Eli Barkai from the Department of Physics at Bar-Ilan University, Prof. Uri Alon from the Department of Molecular Cell Biology at the Weizmann Institute, Prof. Lior Gepstein from the Faculty of Medicine at the Technion and Prof. Yair Weiss from the School of Computer Science and Engineering at the Hebrew University. During the coming week, we will post articles on the Hedaan website that include interviews with each of the researchers and popular explanations of their work.

The Yad Hanadiv Foundation annually awards the Michael Prizes to Israeli researchers who have demonstrated exceptional talent and creativity in their academic work and who have been identified based on their achievements as having the potential for a significant breakthrough in their field. Applicants must be under 50 years of age.

The late Prof. Michael Bruno served as Governor of the Bank of Israel between 1991-1986 and also headed the committee of the Rothschild Prize Organization. Upon his untimely death in 1996, Yad Handiv decided to establish the awards program in his memory. The amount of the personal award is 45 thousand dollars and a research grant worth 120 thousand dollars for three years.

"We stand like alms collectors to receive money for science, but it is our fault because we do not allow those treasury officials a way to understand what the scientists are doing." Prof. Kua added.

Referring to the issue of excellence, Prof. Koa said: "It is important to give an award so that there is a model that explains what excellence is and so that they understand it. The State of Israel has gone through a revolution of accessibility that should be congratulated - the colleges were created. But we must not forget the outstanding ones whose contribution is immeasurably high and they are in universities."

The heads of the four universities from which the winning scientists came participated in the panel that took place: Moshe Koa, the president of the Hebrew University Prof. Menachem Ben Sasson, the president of the Weizmann Institute Prof. Daniel Zeifman and Prof. Moshe Sidi - deputy to the president of the Technion.

The moderator, Prof. David Shulman, asked the same question to all presidents: "How can each of you as president ensure the continuation of academic excellence in the Israeli academic system as it is today?"

Prof. Koh: This is a question I have been asking myself for 13 years as the president of the university. There is no patent for it except to adhere to the program of encouraging research in all fields. In this ceremony we focus on the natural sciences, but the university conducts research in many fields. A program that will eventually bring the best researchers and the best students to replace the researchers who retire. The mechanism is a long-term mechanism. Anyone who thinks that excellence can be guaranteed with the Zebang method and we're done is wrong. Unfortunately, it is impossible to promote excellence without budgeting and setting priorities. We managed to arouse the public and make everyone aware of the importance of this."

"The president's role is not only to ensure excellence, and to bring in funds from donors and foundations, but also to ensure the arrival of the funds that are supposed to arrive from the state and amount to 70% of the budget. There will be no excellence without that 70%.

Prof. Ben Sasson: "The word prize comes from the word half (from the same source as the word slice). The prize is the first half, and we will have more halves coming soon. Continuing according to Prof. Koa, most of the public does not understand what we do, does not know the difference between teaching and research and between basic research and applied research and whether there should be a connection. That's why I deal with the issue of visibility first. I try to explain to the faculty, students and the general public what a good academy is.

"I also examine the procedures within the university. Many times procedures are stretched. It's good to keep a person in the lab for five years, it's cheap labor. The researchers come to us on average at the age of 23, we should pay attention not only to the stretching of time and the need to take them out, but also how to bring them to maturity. The second thing that is important to pay attention to is the need to clearly and constantly raise the bar of requirements, both the requirements for admission to the institution and the requirements for moving from degree to degree and so'."

"The third and last issue is the need to engage in inter-institutional planning. It doesn't make sense for us to build expensive enterprises when it comes to limited resources in a parallel way in each and every one of the institutions, it doesn't make sense for us to study the same programs in an exact way. It is expensive and does not fill the classrooms. Breaking barriers is essential to create the uniqueness of Israeli research."

"The next point - arrangement of priorities. The kibbutz system was good for creating Israeli society in its early years. The last point is painful because you have to set priorities.

Prof. Zeifman: "My experience shows that moderation must be treated differently from the developed countries. Excellence is a people thing. You can ask for money but there are countries not far from here that have billions but no research is done in them. The number of people from whom excellent people can be drawn is not large. We have a pool of 7 million people or 14 million if you count all the Jews. In the world there are many foreigners in every university. When MIT is looking for the next nanotechnology scientist, it turns to whoever it wants."

"We need to define excellence through people. People must be chosen. At the Weizmann Institute, we do not define a strategic plan in which fields we want to recruit someone. The window of opportunity to recruit a scientist is very narrow. As soon as there is excellence, it doesn't matter in which field, we must recruit. Therefore, if there is an opportunity, there is no obstacle to recruiting 10 people in one year for neuroscience. In order to maintain excellence, which is not a goal but our way of life, if there is someone who is on the agenda and we can recruit him, we must not let go and must not miss because later we will not find him back. The collection of people from whom we can recruit is very limited."

Prof. Sidi: I agree with Prof. Zeifman who said that it is about people. The way we try to go is to locate those people at the beginning of their journey - even during their undergraduate studies. When people join us, we try to locate those outstanding and excellent people between with the establishment of patrol programs - a small group of people around a certain topic, the competition is very great to be accepted into that group. Episode program - 18-year-old children who arrive at the Technion and start raising them from that stage. We are building programs where those talented people can start research already during their undergraduate studies. Then they can continue their studies for higher degrees more quickly."

"Even this is not enough because everyone is chasing the excellent people, not only universities in Israel but also excellent universities around the world and should invest most of our resources in recruiting young faculty members. This is the field I am in charge of at the Technion. The problem is almost always not a financial problem but finding the people and convincing them that the academic career is the right career and their place is at the Technion. An extensive active effort is also invested in this and I am sure, the human material exists and we need to bring it in and I am sure we will."

Prof. Shulman's second question dealt with the question of whether the fact that in the last two years all Bruno Prize winners were researchers in the natural sciences - Israeli humanism is threatened, is it in danger?

Prof. Keva: The problem exists more in universities where a large part of the faculty members deal with the human sciences. Excellence is something that needs to be developed in every field, and it should not be the property of a specific field. A country that does not cultivate things of culture and spirit is not a good country.

From a statistical point of view, I would not divide the importance according to the awards given in a certain year, the students are excellent in the humanities. There are not enough scholarships to cultivate the field. At Bar Ilan, most of the President's doctoral scholarships are given in Jewish sciences and humanities because there are no research grants. The budgeting of the humanities in Israel is sick, not true, there is a danger that these fields, which do not bring a living like in high-tech and nanotechnology, a policy of encouraging the field is required.

Prof. Ben Sasson: "I am in the minority at this table - I come from the humanities. The humanities are not threatened more than any other subject in the State of Israel. On the other hand, when you look at the results - while universities in general are between 100 and 200 universities in the world, humanities - the Hebrew University is in 25th place."

"There are criteria that can be used to test the quality of excellence. I saw the list of humanities winners in previous years. It is possible to offer a double and triple number in universities. The knowledge of languages ​​is excellent, the production is very high. Maybe there is a problem - to get a doctorate in the humanities, finish it and finish a doctorate and do a postdoc - at least 2 languages ​​if not three,"

Prof. Zeifman: As you can see, the closest thing to the Weizmann Institute for the Humanities is the ability to extract energy from the spirit. There seems to be a distance between science and spiritual science and social science. When our scientists at the Weizmann Institute look at neurobiology and try to understand how the brain works, psychologists do the same thing only in a completely different language, social scientists who try to identify the behaviors of a society and genetic scientists who try to understand the genetic origin of behavior. Linguistics and computer science - two different languages ​​that try to deal with a similar problem.

As someone who used to have science divided between physics and biology and today they were taught about interdisciplinary. Today we can help, for example, archeology through DNA sequencing and dating. In the near future we want to introduce a certain amount of spiritual science and humanities into the institution in a way that will allow us to talk about certain problems with the help of 2 languages. Science does not solve all problems. Philosophy, psychology, history are also important. We want to get closer through science."

Prof. Sidi: "There are no scientists in these fields at the Technion either, and the truth is that I am more concerned about the fact that there are no engineers and technologists among the Bruno Prize winners than researchers in the field of humanities. It seems to me that in the humanities the maturation time is longer, the time it takes to complete the doctorate and create an international status for yourself and if the Bruno Prize is intended for scientists up to the age of 50, it is possible that those brilliant people in the field of the humanities reach maturity a little later. There is compensation for this in other prizes, the Israel Prize for example, about 20 Israel Prizes are awarded every year, something like three quarters of them in the humanities. It might be more appropriate at these ages."

On behalf of the winners, Prof. Gepstein congratulated:

"On this evening, my learned colleagues and I receive a rap for what we love to do the most - for our ability to ask, to investigate, for the curiosity inherent in us and for the privilege that has fallen into our hands to learn and develop while interacting with the best of our students, but we are asked the most challenging questions, the questions that have not yet been asked We have the full answer for them. Our desire to explore the world led us to become scientists and researchers. The tree of knowledge is adjacent to the tree of life in our paradise.

The scientific-technological strength of the State of Israel is what can place us in the front row of the countries in the world. However, the Nobel prizes we have been blessed with in recent years, as well as the success of the Israeli high-tech industry, express the success of the education system and higher education in the past. It is clear to all of us that the identity of the State of Israel depends on human capital. However, following the discussion held earlier, I regret to point out that the personal values ​​of Israeli society (the focus on economic establishment and the admiration of celebrities rather than scientists) as well as the state's investments have changed. I am not repeating that we suffer less investment and not enough depth for excellence in education on all levels (including higher education). Although the percentage of investment in research and development in Israel is among the highest in the world, the main investment is in research and development in industry and less in basic research, which forms the infrastructure for all long-term development. To explain our ears, I will say that I was amazed to discover recently that in the entire State of Israel, only seven people completed a doctorate in mechanical engineering, four in chemical engineering, and thirty in electrical engineering.