This week, three scientists and technologists will receive the Encouragement of Creation Award for Scientists, named after the scientist and poet, Prof. Ofer Lider
This week, three scientists and technologists will receive the Encouragement of Creation Award for Scientists, named after the scientist and poet, Prof. Ofer Lider. The prize will be awarded at the "Poetry of Science" evening that will be held at the Weizmann Institute of Science, on Thursday, January 4, at 19:30 pm in the Wicks Hall of the Weizmann Institute of Science. The evening will be attended by artists, writers, poets and scientists, who will read the works of the winners.
The Ofer Lider Encouraging Creativity Award is awarded for the second year to writers who work in the natural sciences, medicine, engineering and exact sciences, and who also contribute by writing poetry or short stories. The award is intended to emphasize the connection between science and spirit, to perpetuate the memory of the scientist and poet Prof. Ofer Lider, and to encourage scientists to engage in artistic creation.
Ofer Lider, who was born in Tiberias, studied at the Hebrew Gymnasium in Jerusalem, served in Nahal, and then completed his bachelor's and master's degrees at the Faculty of Agriculture of the Hebrew University. Upon completion of his third degree studies in immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science, he embarked on post-doctoral research at Harvard University in Boston, after which he returned to the Weizmann Institute and joined, as a senior researcher, the Department of Immunology. His research dealing with the immune system forms the basis for the development of new drugs for incurable diseases, such as arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and degenerative diseases of the nervous system. At the same time as his successful scientific career, Ofer also tried his hand in a different field - poetry. In 2002, he submitted his first poem to the literature and art supplement of Yediot Ahronoth. Following it, many more poems were published, and Ofer was appointed poetry critic in the newspaper. A book of poems penned by Lider, "Binotyim" was published about a year ago by the "Ha Kibbutz Ma'oched" publishing house.
While he was still a PhD student, he contracted leukemia, and for 23 years, until his last day, he fought the disease. After his death, in July 2004, those who cherished his memory, scientists, writers and poets, founded the association "The Poetry of His Life - In Memory of Ofer Lider", and initiated the awarding of the creation prize, which expresses the special way of life of Ofer Lider, who saw science as creation, and the scientist as a creator. The creation prize system includes Aharon Applefeld, Haim Baer, Shulamit Gilboa, Chaya Hoffman, Prof. Shlomo Viner, Rachel Halafi, Prof. Avner Trainin, Prof. Edna Moses, Roni Somek, Irit Sela, Prof. Michael Sela, Zvi Atzmon, Prof. Ruth Carton-Bloom and Prof. Yair Reisner.
