Ronen Gottesman

Dr. Ronen Gottesman is a new faculty member in the Institute of Chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Ronen specializes in physical chemistry, material science, and the application of solar energy conversion materials.

Ronen’s research focuses on the intersection of plasma-based materials’ synthesis and fundamental studies of novel functional materials. He is currently researching heteroanionic semiconducting chemical compounds containing multiple anions. These materials may be used for solar energy-driven conversion of cheap, abundant resources, like water, into chemical fuels. As an Azrieli Fellow, Ronen will explore oxynitrides, a sub-class of heteroanionic materials that exhibit significantly enhanced properties, high performance, and increased stability under photoelectrochemical water splitting. He aims to develop innovative experimental systems to study oxynitrides’ structural properties, leading to scientific breakthroughs in sustainable development.

Ronen completed a BSc in biophysics at Bar- Ilan University. Before continuing with his PhD in physical chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Arie Zaban, he interned in South Korea with Prof. Nam-Gyu Park (a co-inventor of the perovskite solar cells). In his ensuing PhD research, he worked on perovskite-based solar cells – one of the first students in Israel to work on these captivating semiconductor materials. He continued in the field of solar energy conversion during his postdoctoral studies at the Institute for Solar Fuels at the Helmholtz Center for Materials and Energy in Berlin, where he established a specialized team for the development of “green” hydrogen. Ronen is married to Efrat, and they enjoy an active life with their two children, Yanai and Goni.

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Rolando Carbonari

Dr. Rolando Carbonari is an Azrieli International Postdoctoral Fellow in the Fredy & Nadine Herrmann Institute of Earth Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem under the supervision of Prof. Simon Emmanuel.

His central research interest is the application of machine learning and deep learning solutions to geological problems.

As part of his Azrieli- sponsored research, Rolando is working on automating digital rock analysis: a crucial step in subsurface characterization, which helps quantify rock porosity, permeability, and mineralogical composition. This is currently performed by analyzing digital data from microscope images and X-ray computed tomography. As this process is time-consuming and costly, Rolando is hoping to develop an automatic image analysis tool that will help to assess the mineralogy and quantify the quartz cement and porosity in sandstones and will be accessible as an open source software for all earth scientists.

Rolando was born and raised in Naples, Italy. He completed a BA and MA in geology with a specialization in geophysics at the University of Naples Federico II, where he then went on to pursue his PhD under the supervision of Prof. Rosa Di Maio, focusing on the application of electromagnetic geophysical methods. After a brief period as a data scientist in Milan, Rolando embarked on a two-year postdoctoral position at Oregon State University under the supervision of Prof. Adam Schultz, exploring the application of machine learning techniques to optimize geothermal drilling efficiency. When not engaged in research, Rolando enjoys reading, travelling, and cooking.

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Roee Leder

Roee Leder is a PhD student in the Einstein Institute of Mathematics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. While Roee’s research is supervised by Prof. Raz Kupferman, he also works closely with the experimental physics research group led by Prof. Eran Sharon – a cooperation that facilitates synergetic interaction between mathematics and its applications.

Roee’s research focuses on the mathematical foundations of powerful models that aim to explain complex mechanical systems.

Such models serve innovative theories within material science and are thus expected to yield new applications. The geometric and analytical foundations of these theories are lacking, however, which limits their scope and insight. Therefore, in addition to the intrinsic mathematical aspects of his research, Roee hopes to help solve a number of open problems in application.

Roee lives in Givatayim with his wife, Miriam. He earned a BSc and MSc in mathematics at the Hebrew University. When not researching, Roee enjoys crossfit and weightlifting, partying with family and friends, reading books, and quoting films. Each summer, he picks a mountain range for a hiking trip abroad, from which he returns rejuvenated and full of new ideas.

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Remi Casier

Dr. Remi Casier is an Azrieli International Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Chemical and Biological Physics at the Weizmann Institute of Science.

Under the supervision of Prof. Gilad Haran, Remi employs single-molecule spectroscopy to study the ultrafast conformational dynamics of proteins.

Protein disaggregases are molecular machines that reverse protein aggregation, making them a vital component of cells and enabling their use in the development of therapeutics to combat neurodegenerative disorders. Remi aims to apply his background knowledge in polymer physics to study the dynamic interaction between a disaggregase and its substrates and thus enhance our understanding of their disaggregation mechanism on the molecular level.

Born and raised in Canada, Remi obtained his BSc and MSc in chemistry from the University of Waterloo. During his MSc under the supervision of Prof. Mario Gauthier and Prof. Jean Duhamel, Remi began his studies in polymer science developing a new technique to quantify the diffusion of polymer chains during the coalescence of latex films. Continuing with Prof. Duhamel for his PhD studies, Remi shifted his focus to the internal dynamics of biological macromolecules, particularly polypeptides. Employing the relationships he discovered between amino acid composition and local chain dynamics, he developed a blob-based model to provide experimentally supported insight into the complex phenomena of protein folding. When not working on his research, Remi enjoys travelling, spending time in nature, and trekking adventures

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Refael Kroizer

Refael Kroizer is a PhD student in the School of Jewish Studies and Archaeology at Tel Aviv University under the supervision of Prof. Maoz Kahana.

His research focuses on Jewish perceptions of the urban space in European cities in the early modern period as portrayed in the rabbinic literature.

Through his research, Refael hopes to contribute to our understanding of the lives of Jews and Jewish culture and the coexistence of Judaism and other faiths in Christian Europe.

Refael was born in Jerusalem and currently lives there with his wife, Sari, and their four children. He received his BA in philosophy and Jewish thought from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and his MA in the history of the Jewish people at Tel Aviv University. He began his academic journey in secret, taking courses at the Open University in parallel to his Torah studies as a young yeshiva student. Over the years he has advanced in both worlds and was ordained as a rabbi by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. In his free time, Refael likes to play chess and read books.

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Ray Schrire

Dr. Ray Schrire is a new faculty member in the Department of General History at Tel Aviv University.

His research focuses on the intellectual and cultural history of Renaissance and early modern Europe, fusing methods from book history with models from cognitive science.

As an Azrieli Fellow, Ray will look at the social, mental, and material lives of a multitude of historical agents who depended on manipulating numbers to make their living: merchants, accountants, and housewives. While the numerical practice of these early modern groups is largely obscure, popular numeracy is often regarded as a precondition for a capitalist economy and mentality, the trigger for modern mathematics, and the engine of colonialism and slavery. Ray’s research thus aims to examine how “big” historical shifts relate to the “small” everyday lives of individuals, whose shopping bills and accounting books are often their only mark in history.

Ray received his PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he enjoyed the close mentorship and inspiring teaching of Prof. Dror Wahrman, Dr. Ayelet Even-Ezra, and Prof. Raz Chen-Morris. As an exchange student at University of California, Berkeley, Ray came across the blotted schoolbook of a seventeenth- century schoolboy doing his best to learn Latin. This odd finding led him to devote a decade to studying the history of grammar school education through hundreds of manuscripts and printed books in dozens of libraries across the world. During his postdoctoral studies at the Polonsky Academy for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, another curious manuscript shifted his attention from literacy to numeracy. Ray lives in Jerusalem with his partner, Ella, and their two daughters: Naomi, who is confounded by numbers, and Layla, who is puzzled by language.

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Patricia (Pati) Mora-Raimundo

Dr. Patricia Mora Raimundo is an Azrieli International Postdoctoral Fellow in the Wolfson Department of Chemical Engineering at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology under the supervision of Prof. Avi Schroeder.

Her main area of research is drug delivery to the brain as a means for the potential treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.

Patricia’s research focuses on the design of brain-targeted lipid nanoparticles and the use of music to enhance their uptake and accumulation in the targeted tissue. She hopes to contribute to the understanding of how music is involved in nanoparticle uptake and can thus enhance the efficacy of nanotherapeutics. Patricia believes that the use of music as a non-invasive approach will open new possibilities in the field of nanomedicine.

Patricia was born and raised in Madrid and completed her BSc in pharmacy at the Complutense University of Madrid, where she also pursued her PhD under the supervision of Prof. María Vallet-Regí and Dr. Miguel Manzano. Her research focused on developing new nanomedicines based on mesoporous silica nanoparticles for osteoporosis treatment. Outside the lab, Patricia loves art, yoga and dancing ballet and flamenco. Through her research, she is fulfilling her dream of combining the two fields for the well-being of humanity.

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Oryan Zacks

Oryan Zacks is a PhD student in the Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas at Tel Aviv University under the supervision of Prof. Eva Jablonka.

Oryan researches cognition and consciousness from an evolutionary perspective, relating current philosophical questions to findings in neuroscience and animal behaviour studies.

The focus of her research is the evolution of imagination and its relationship to episodic memory. As part of her research, Oryan is currently comparing the brains of different animals, trying to build a more coherent picture of the relationship between an animal’s brain, behaviour, and subjective experience of the world. Through her research Oryan hopes to contribute to a better understanding of the human mind and the internal worlds of other animals. She also hopes that her findings will have implications for people with mental illness and influence the treatment of animals from an ethical perspective.

Oryan grew up in Omer, a small town near Be’er Sheva, and currently lives with her spouse in Jersusalem. She completed her BSc and MSc in the Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University. Inspired by her background as a dancer and acrobat, she devoted her masters to studying how imagination can affect human movement. At the same time she was a dancer and creator of Feedback – a live performance combining biofeedback, psychology, music, and dance – and taught movement, biology, and neuroscience. In her free time, Oryan enjoys wandering the streets of Jerusalem and discovering the beauty and diversity of this unique city.

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Or Hadas

Or Hadas is pursuing a PhD in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the Weizmann Institute of Science under the supervision of Prof. Yohai Kaspi. His research focuses on mid- latitude storms, which are the main driver of extreme weather outside the tropics and in Israel in particular. Using a wide range of data sources, from atmospheric observations to idealized numerical simulations and advanced data analysis tools, Or is searching for the mechanism underlying two abnormal phenomena in the Earth’s climate: the Pacific midwinter suppression and the hemispheric albedo symmetry. Understanding these phenomena will contribute to our understanding of the interaction between storms and the Earth’s climate and improve our ability to anticipate mid-latitude weather and climate change which have a substantial impact on communities worldwide.

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Omri Carmon

Omri Carmon is an urban planner and PhD student in the Department of Geography and Environmental Development at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He is under the supervision of Dr. Naama Teschner and Prof. Meidad Kissinger from Ben-Gurion University and Prof. Yael Parag and Dr. Shiri Tzemach-Shamir from Reichman University.

Omri focuses on the increasing adoption of the decarbonized, decentralized, and digitalized technologies transforming the energy sector.

He is developing a socio-techno-economic perspective for researching such technological transitions within future energy systems to emphasize new energy security, equity, and environmental concerns (i.e., “the energy trilemma”). To this end, Omri has developed an integrative evaluation framework that presents optimal power system transformation pathways to help energy leaders and planners promote effective policy design and planning.

Omri grew up in Mevaseret Zion and Savyon. He now lives with his spouse and two children in Tel Aviv. He received a BA in management and geography and environmental development from Ben-Gurion University and an MA in environmental and resource management and policy with a concentration on urban and regional planning from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In addition to his research, Omri is involved in various energy and climate initiatives, having previously served as the deputy chief resilience officer for the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality, and is a teaching assistant in the School of Sustainability at Reichman University. In addition to spending his free time with his family, he also loves different sports activities, such as running and cycling.

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