PRESIDENT'S REPORT 2020 | OUR FIRST 50

BGU PRESIDENT'S REPORT 2020

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NEW & NOTEWORTHY

ACADEMIC COLLABORATIONS The Israeli government, in collaboration with BGU, is investing NIS 200 million in a new Quantum Institute , which will be part of the Soreq Nuclear Research Center . BGU and Northwestern University will lead a U.S.-Israel consortium - Collaborative Water Energy Research Center (CoWERC) - with a total budget of $21.4 million. As part of a national academic delegation led by Israeli President Reuven Rivlin , VP of Regional Development Prof. Dan Blumberg signed an MOU with Hanyang University and Konkuk University in South Korea​.  BGU and the University of Bristol, UK , signed an MOU to collaborate on cybersecurity and artificial intelligence research. BGU will partner with The State University of NewYork at Albany (SUNY Albany) to promote cybersecurity research, education and industry. BGU and Thomas Jefferson University  in Philadelphia, PA signed a Memorandum of Collaboration to expand research into health disparities, bioethics and autism research. A group of scientists from BGU and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies were awarded $14.3 million over five years by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH)  to create a high-resolution atlas of how the mouse brain generates and controls skilled forelimb movements.

The Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research dedicated the archives of Prof. Sidney Loeb , pioneer of reverse osmosis desalination. Entrepreneurship and Tech Management , a new program in the Dept. of Management , introduces students to the world of entrepreneurship and includes internship opportunities and collaborations with BGU’s Advanced Technologies Park . Four new specialization tracks are now offered in the Dept. of Chemical Engineering : Management and Innovation; Energy, Water and Hi-Tech; Bio-Substances; and a research track. The Digital Humanities Laboratory , which utilizes computational techniques for the study and research of humanities, was launched. Ben-Gurion University and Microsoft Israel launched two AI tools that will “bring to life” the Ben-Gurion Archives by revealing hidden relationships and themes in its documents.

 The Sidney Loeb Archives at Sde Boker