Prof. Aharon Friedman was elected Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture

Upon his election, Prof. Friedman said: "The vision of the Faculty of Agriculture is to act as a global research center in the fields of agriculture, food and the environment

Prof. Aaron (Ronnie) Friedman was recently elected to the position of dean of the Robert H. Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment. Smith of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and will take up his position this coming October. Prof. Friedman will replace Prof. Eli Feinerman who served as the dean of the faculty for the past four years.

Upon his election, Prof. Friedman said: "The vision of the Faculty of Agriculture is to act as a global research center in the fields of agriculture, food and the environment. In my role, I will work to fulfill the vision by strengthening the faculty's relationship with Israeli agriculture and its needs, positioning it as a global research center for agriculture, food and the environment, and creating agricultural solutions and training for a world that is becoming increasingly hungry."

According to him, there has been a change in agricultural research in recent years: "While the researchers of the Faculty of Agriculture continue to develop sophisticated measures to improve agricultural produce and its quality, the research is taking place with a growing awareness of preserving the environment in which we live. Thus, precisely the agricultural research leads a new front that seeks to satisfy the nutritional needs of man, and this with minimal damage, if any, to the environment. In modern agricultural research, you can find studies that examine the welfare of farmers in high production situations, studies that examine agricultural waste recycling methods and their utilization, or studies that look for ways to deal with environmental pollutants. These transformations find a distinct expression in the study programs of the Faculty of Agriculture, which instill in its graduates in-depth knowledge of modern agriculture that strives to preserve open spaces and the quality of the environment. These trends turn the faculty into a unique academic institution that trains graduates with extensive education with a deep awareness of the responsibility assigned to them to preserve their country and its landscape."

Prof. Aaron Friedman was born in 1951 in South Africa. He completed his master's degree studies with high honors at the Faculty of Agriculture of the Hebrew University and in 1983 received his doctorate from the Weizmann Institute of Science. After training at the Harvard Medical School in the USA in 1986, he was accepted to the Faculty of Agriculture as a lecturer in the Animal Department.

Prof. Aharon Friedman's research deals with the immunology of the digestive system and its development in newborn infants, immune tolerance, the effect of interface conditions on stress conditions in infants, and specific effects of vitamin A and vitamin E on the immune response in situations of failure.

At the same time as his research activities, Prof. Friedman served as director of the animal department at the Hebrew University, chairman of the teaching committee, coordinated the "Amirim" program for outstanding students, was a member of the appointment and promotion committees in the experimental sciences, the university committee for experimental animals, and the disciplinary committees at the School of Medicine and for veterinary medicine. He served as chairman of the scientific judging committees of the Fund for Binational Agricultural Research (Israel-USA) and the chief scientist of the Ministry of Agriculture. He was a member of the Professional Committee for Agriculture, Life Sciences and the Environment of the Ministry of Education and Culture, and the Judging Committee of MLM at the Ministry of Education. He is an active member of the management of the poultry branch of the Ministry of Agriculture.