The new members of the academy: Ruth Berman, professor emeritus of linguistics at Tel Aviv University, Daniel Weiss, research professor emeritus of aeronautics and space engineering at the Technion, Yaron Zilberberg, professor in the physics department of complex systems at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Shlomit Ramon-Kinan, professor emeritus of English and comparative literature at the university Hebrew in Jerusalem, Amnon Aharoni, Professor Emeritus of Physics at Tel Aviv University and Professor of Physics at Ben Gurion University
Five senior and elected scientists are currently joining the Israeli National Academy of Sciences. The festive traditional ceremony of awarding the Academy member's certificates will take place today, Tuesday, the eve of the seventh candle of Hanukkah, L. B. Keslo 3, December 2013, XNUMX at the Academy House in Jerusalem in the open session of the General Assembly. The meeting will be opened by the president of the academy Prof. Ruth Arnon. After that, the chairmen of the divisions will introduce the new members, and they will give their first lectures at the academy.
The five new members, senior scientists from research universities in Israel, were elected at the Academy's general assembly on the recommendation of the Academy's members from its two divisions - the Natural Sciences Division and the Humanities Division (which also includes the social sciences). The Academy of Sciences currently has 108 male and female scientists as members. The members are elected for life.
The Israel National Academy of Sciences is the highest body in the scientific community in Israel. It was founded by law in 1961 with the aim of bringing together the best scientists in Israel, fostering and promoting scientific activity in the country, and advising Israeli governments regarding research and scientific planning of national importance.
Ruth Berman, Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at Tel Aviv University
Prof. Ruth Berman is an internationally renowned linguist who deals with various aspects of linguistics. Among her areas of research: the morphology, syntax and lexicon of modern Hebrew, comparative analysis of Hebrew and English, language acquisition from a cross-linguistic perspective with an emphasis on Hebrew as a mother tongue, late language development in the school years, the development of narrative discourse skills and text production skills from childhood through adolescence. Published about two hundred articles and chapters in scientific books. Among her books: English for Speakers of Hebrew, a series of language and reading textbooks in English as a foreign language; Modern Hebrew Structure; Acquisition of Hebrew; Relating Events in Narrative: A Crosslinguistic Developmental Study (with Dan Slovin). She also edited books and special volumes of magazines. She won dozens of research grants in Israel and around the world.
Prof. Berman served as the head of the "Lifelong Language Development" chair at Tel Aviv University and as the president of the International Association for the Study of Children's Language (IASCL). She is an honorary member of the Linguistic Society of the United States (LSA) and the Spanish Association for Language Acquisition, a recipient of the AMT Prize in Linguistics (2012) and an honorary doctorate from the University of Haifa (2013).
Daniel Weiss, Emeritus Research Professor of Aeronautics and Space Engineering at the Technion
Prof. Daniel Weiss researches various fields of flow theory and aerodynamics, organismic biology, space science and applied mathematics. He dealt with animal movement, including finding a technological solution to the problem of dolphin extinction, bird and fish migration, including flying and swimming in the structure. Study of the movement of liquid jets and sprays, including the development of a method to prevent penetration of hollow charges into armored vehicles. He has been active since the 70s in the development of unmanned aerial vehicles, ranging from millimeter tools to giant solar-powered aircraft. He recently established and leads an interdisciplinary program for advanced robots, including aerial, land and sea tools and medical robots. Published about 160 articles and one book.
Prof. Weiss served as dean of the aeronautical engineering faculty at the Technion, director of a loyal institution, dean of the graduate school and provost of the Technion. He was also a member of the boards of the Aerospace Industry, Beit Shemesh Engines, the Sea and Lake Research Company and private companies and served as the chief scientist at the Ministry of Science. He is a foreign member of the National Academy of Engineering in the United States, an honorary doctor of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, a fellow of the Physical Society in the USA, chairman of the National Committee for Research and Development in the field of space and a member of the executive board of the Inter-University Institute of Marine Sciences in Eilat.
Yaron Zilberberg, professor in the Department of Physics of Complex Systems at the Weizmann Institute of Science
Prof. Yaron Zilberberg's research deals with the interaction of light and matter in the fields of ultrafast optics, quantum optics and non-linear optics. In 1994, he joined the Department of Physics of Complex Systems at the Weizmann Institute of Science, and in 1999-2002 was its head. In the years 2002-2008 he served as Dean of the Faculty of Physics. He is currently the head of the Crown Center for Photonics and holds the Weinrieb Chair in Laser Physics.
In the areas of basic research, Prof. Zilberberg's contributions on quantum control by shaped light pulses and his research on optical solitons are known. In the applied field, his research group is engaged in the development of modern macroscopy methods based on short light pulses and non-linear effects. Prof. Zilberberg is the recipient of the Landau Prize for Exact Sciences (2011) and the Max Born Award of the American Optical Society (2013).
Shlomit Ramon-Kinan, Emeritus Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Prof. Shlomit Ramon-Kinan is an internationally renowned literary theorist and narratologist. Her books The Concept of Ambiguity: The Example of James, Narrative Fiction: Contemporary Poetics and A Glance beyond Doubt: Narration, Representation, Subjectivity have been highly regarded in the academic world and the latter has even been translated into eight languages. In addition to them, she published in professional journals articles on narratological topics as well as articles on specific authors such as James, Faulkner, Nabokov and Morrison. In recent years, Prof. Ramon-Kinan has been dealing with interdisciplinary intersections: literature and psychoanalysis, law, politics and medicine (patient stories). Prof. Ramon-Kinan supervised 43 doctoral students and was a visiting professor at Harvard University and the University of Helsinki.
David Shmeidler, professor of economics at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center; Emeritus Professor at Tel Aviv University
Prof. David Shmeidler deals with economic theory. Most of his research focuses on decision-making under conditions of uncertainty. He is one of the world's leading researchers in axiomatic decision theory and the basic postulate for non-Bayesian quantification in situations of uncertainty. His works on cooperative and non-cooperative game theory, general equilibrium, incentive compatible allocation mechanisms and welfare economics are also known. Tel Aviv University has been Prof. Schmeidler's academic home since the early seventies. His position there was divided between the School of Economics, the School of Mathematical Sciences and the Faculty of Management. He is also a professor emeritus of Ohio State University in the United States.
Prof. Schmeidler is a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the Econometrics Society and the Society of Game Theory and the holder of the Laurea Honoris Causa degree from the University of Turin in Italy.
Amnon Aharoni, Professor Emeritus of Physics at Tel Aviv University and Professor of Physics at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
(Prof. Aharoni was elected in XNUMX and participates in the ceremony this year)
Prof. Amnon Aharoni is one of the leading physicists in the world in the fields of statistical physics and condensed matter physics. His works are spread over many and diverse fields of research and stand at the forefront of research in their important contributions and discoveries. Among other things, they contributed to the understanding of the critical behavior of materials near their phase transitions, the fractal geometry of random systems (eg in oil reservoirs in porous rock) and magnetic materials. His recent works on small quantum systems (in the mesoscopic field) have the potential to be useful in applications in nanotechnology and quantum calculations. Published 416 articles and several books. He was in charge of the Moshe Nuszweig Chair of Statistical Physics at Tel Aviv University. Prof. Aharoni won the Rothschild Prize, the Weizmann Prize, the Landau Prize in Israel, the Randers Prize in Norway and the Humboldt Prize in Germany. He is a member of the Academies of Sciences in the United States, Norway and Europe.
