A center for youth seeking physics named after Ilan Ramon was inaugurated at Ben Gurion University

The Ilan Ramon Center for Youth Seeking Physics, located in the Sakta-Rashi physics building at Ben-Gurion University, is part of the Maderum project to promote excellence in science education

In the photo: Prof. Rivka Karmi and Rona Ramon

לMarking four years since the crash of the space shuttle Columbia, the Ilan Ramon Center for Youth Seeking Physics at Ben-Gurion University was inaugurated on Tuesday, January 30.1.2007, XNUMX.

 The center's dedication ceremony was attended by a NASA delegation, including two astronauts, Joseph Tanner from NASA, Dr. Stephen McLean from the Canadian Space Agency, as well as Dr. Benjamin Neumann, one of NASA's senior officials. The ceremony was also attended by the widow of Ilan Ramon, Rona, the president of the university, Prof. Rivka Karmi, Eli Alalof, vice president and CEO of the Sakta-Rashi Foundation and the mayor of Beer Sheva, Ya'akov Turner.

 The Ilan Ramon Center for Youth Seeking Physics, located in the Sakta-Rashi physics building at Ben-Gurion University, is part of the Madaram project to promote excellence in science education. The center will offer applied studies in physics to all high school students in the south who aspire to academic studies in this field. The center will even encourage students to lead personal projects in physics, diagnose gifted students and help them prepare for academic studies, with the help of instructors from the physics department at the university and the use of sophisticated laboratories. The building houses modern and computerized laboratories for studying mechanics, electricity and optics, a planetarium and a sophisticated observatory.

"It is a great honor to name this important center, at Ben-Gurion University in Be'er Sheva, the city where Ilan grew up, after his name, and we have decided to dedicate all the projects to perpetuate his name in the field of education," said Rona Ramon. The president of the university, Prof. Rivka Karmi, stated that the naming of the center after Ramon is in the sense of closing another circle. "The previous president of the university, Prof. Avishai Braverman, suggested that Ilan receive an honorary doctorate from the university, before his fateful flight into space. Ilan asked to postpone the ceremony until after completing his mission in space. After the disaster, we awarded his widow the 'Lifetime Achievement Award', in his memory. Therefore, the inauguration of this center closes another circle," said Prof. Karmi.