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03/08/2011

The Authority of Research and Development wishes to congratulate the grantees of research awards:Prof. Victor Kagalovski, Dr Yoram Shotland and Dr. Michal Shachar Goldenberg


The Authority of Research and Development wishes to congratulate the grantees of research awards:

 

Prof. Victor Kagalovski from the Physics Unit for being granted the BSF research fund for the second time.

 

Dr Yoram Shotland from the Department of Chemical Engineering for being granted the ISF fund together with the Hebrew University.

 

Dr Michal Shachar Goldenberg from the Department of Chemical Engineering for being granted the GIF fund in the young scientists program.
 

Prof. Victor Kagalovski from the Physics unit at SCE- Shamoon academic College of Engineering has received a research grant from the prestigious BSF foundation.

The bi-national science foundation promotes scientific cooperation between Israel and the USA and has granted 480 million Dollars to about 4000 researchers since its establishement.

Prof. Kagalovski has received the grant of 112,000$ for four years together with two researchers from the universities of Utah and Chicago. Their research focuses on the motion of electrons in the presence of a weak Magnetic field. The goal of the research is to create a theoretical picture suitable to describe the effects of electron motion, which would lead to a better understanding of the properties of electric conductivity of gasses in weak magnetic fields and low temperatures. The results of this work can be linked to modern experimental research on Graphene and topological insulators (materials which are electric insulators but enable the motion of electric charges such as electrons on their surface) which are of great importance in advanced technologies and have many applications.
 

Dr Yoram Shotland, a senior lecturer from the Department of Chemical engineering at SCE- Shamoon Academic College of Engineering, was given a research grant by the prestigious ISF foundation, together with two researchers from the Hebrew University. The Israeli Science Foundation is the main figure supporting basic research in Israel today. The foundation's grants are distributed on a competitive basis, decided on according to common indices of scientific excellence. The foundation operates a unique international system of judgment and evaluation including over 10,000 leading Israeli and international scientists.

The grant was given to researchers Prof. Aharon Kaplan and Prof. Itzhak Ohad from the Hebrew University and Dr. Yoram Shotland from SCE- Shamoon Academic College of Engineering. They received a grant of 253,500 NIS for a period of four years, for the subject: "A new Chlorophyte, isolated from desert sand crusts: what enables field survivability on one hand and exceptionally high growth and photosynthesis rates in the laboratory on the other hand?". As a part of a research on Biological crusts in the desert (a thin layer coating the ground), the researchers have isolated an algae which performs photosynthesis in laboratory conditions at an exceptionally high rate, perhaps the highest reported so far. The fast photosynthesis rate naturally has implications for the field of production of renewable energies.

The researchers intend to decode the algae's genome in order to investigate the inter-cellular mechanisms enabling such fast photosynthesis rates in laboratory conditions on one hand and a high resistance to aridity (with a reduction in the photosynthesis rate) on the other hand.

 

 

Dr Michal Shachar Goldenberg from the Department of Chemical Engineering at SCE-Shamoon College of Engineering was recently given a prestigious grant of 40,000 Euro for one year from the GIF program for young scientists on the subject of in vitro cultivation of immature ovary follicles and the generation of artificial ovary tissue. Dr Goldenberg is testing a strategy from the field of tissue engineering for this purpose in cooperation with the "fertility and stem cell laboratory" at the Shiba Hospital in Tel- Hashomer. The knowledge and technology taken from the field of tissue engineering includes the use of "smart" Bio-Materials, and the use of three dimensional scaffoldings to image the ovary system while supplying the environmental stimulations to which the follicle is exposed in its natural environment.

The research also focuses on the development of assigned systems for the external cultivation of follicles, incorporating the immersion of mechanical forces similar to those applied on the follicle in its natural environment together with already existing systems to maintain a monitored and dynamic cultivation environment. This work may answer the need of cancer patients to maintain their fertility before undergoing chemotherapeutic treatments which often damage it. The options for fertility maintenance are today still scarce and not suitable for every patient and may, in some cases, hold the danger of returning cancerous cells into the body with the frozen ovary tissue. The technology aimed at in Dr Goldenberg's work will address a wider range of patients and will not endanger them with the possibility of reoccurring cancer.