Irene Unterman

Irene Unterman is an MD student in the Faculty of Medicine at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a PhD student in the Department of Developmental Biology and Cancer Research (IMRIC) at the Institute for Medical Research Israel–Canada. She is co-supervised by Prof. Benjamin P. Berman (IMRIC) and Prof. Benjamin Glaser (Hadassah Medical Center).

Her research focuses on DNA methylation, a chemical modification informing cell identity and function. She is developing novel computational tools to analyze methylation sequencing.

These tools correct cell composition differences and infer methylation changes in individual cell types. By applying them to pancreas samples from diabetic and healthy individuals, Irene aims to expose the genetic underpinnings of type 2 diabetes. She hopes to improve current methods for identifying the origin of DNA molecules in blood samples and contribute to cancer screening.

Irene was born in Jerusalem, where she currently lives with her husband, Ido, and their dog, Nimbus. She became fascinated with science while pursuing a high school matriculation project at the Hebrew University supervised by Prof. Hermona Soreq. Her experience as a community first responder led her to the field of medicine. During her army service, she served in the 8200 intelligence unit and participated in the Atidim program, tutoring high school students from underprivileged backgrounds in STEM. Following her discharge from the army, she helped children with special needs at Alyn (a hospital for children with a wide range of congenital and acquired conditions) and worked as a research assistant for Prof. Yuval Tabach. She completed her BSc in medicine at the Hebrew University and embarked on a joint MD-PhD program. In her spare time, Irene enjoys hackathons, where she learns coding skills and works with her team on real-life problems. She is also a certified Pilates instructor and especially enjoys working with the elderly.

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Inbal Tamir

Inbal Tamir is an MA student in the Azrieli School of Architecture at Tel Aviv University under the supervision of Dr. Roy Kozlovsky.

Her research deals with the field of industrial heritage conservation, specifically, factories built between the 1950s and 1970s in Israel’s development towns.

Inbal aims to reveal their architectural, social, and economic value and assess which buildings are worthy of conservation. Given that many factory buildings, both in Israel and across the world, have been abandoned, Inbal hopes that her research will raise awareness of the potential of conservation and adaptive reuse of industrial buildings. She also hopes that her exposure of the development towns’ industrial architecture will encourage their reuse, development, and urban renewal.

Inbal was born in Jerusalem and currently lives with her spouse in Tel Aviv. She obtained a BArch from the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, during which she studied at the Polytechnic University of Turin, Italy. In Turin, she was exposed to the fascinating world of building conservation and successful examples of buildings that had undergone adaptive reuse, including the actual Faculty of Architecture building where she was studying which had previously served as a Fiat factory. After completing her undergraduate studies, Inbal worked in architecture firms in Hamburg and Tel Aviv. In her spare time, Inbal likes travelling, discovering new cities and cultures, hiking, cycling, and attending live music concerts.

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Hermann Prodjinoto

Dr. Hermann Prodjinoto is an Azrieli International Postdoctoral Fellow in The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem under the supervision of Prof. Menachem Moshelion.

He is studying the physiological and functional phenotyping of aquaporins in the regulatory mechanism of the drought tolerance of tomatoes.

Aquaporins are the main channels for the transport of water and are involved in drought recovery; however, their involvement in the drought response of tomatoes remains unclear. Hermann therefore plans to unravel aquaporins’ functions by using the simple and efficient genome editing system, CRISPR-Cas9, as a way of improving our understanding of how to improve drought resistance in tomatoes.

Hermann was born and raised in Benin. He completed a BSc in natural sciences at the University of Abomey-Calavi and an MSc in vegetable and microbial biotechnologies at the Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar. After working as a research assistant, he moved to Belgium where he completed his PhD in agronomic sciences and bioengineering at the Catholic University of Louvain’s Earth and Life Institute under the supervision of Prof. Stanley Lutts and Prof. Christophe Gandonou. In his research, Hermann highlighted the response strategies of African rice (Oryza glaberrima) to salinity while distinguishing the effects of both the osmotic component and the ionic component of salt stress on cultivars with different mean levels of salt resistance. In addition to research, Hermann enjoys various sporting activities including running and karate.

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Gwenaël Ferrando

Dr. Gwenaël Ferrando is an Azrieli International Postdoctoral Fellow in the Raymond & Beverly Sackler School of Physics and Astronomy at Tel Aviv University under the supervision of Prof. Amit Sever.

Gwenaël’s work deals with theoretical problems in high energy physics, particularly models for which an exact analytic solution is believed achievable.

Gwenaël hopes to gain insights into more general issues, such as non- perturbative aspects of quantum field theory or the so-called AdS/CFT correspondence. The latter is a promising conjecture that certain quantum field theories are equivalent to some string theories, which are themselves the best candidates for theories of quantum gravity.

Gwenaël was born in France and studied at the École normale supérieure in Paris where he obtained undergraduate degrees in both physics and mathematics and a master’s degree in theoretical physics. He then went on to complete a PhD under the joint supervision of Prof. Vladimir Kazakov at the École normale supérieure and Dr. Didina Serban at the Institut de Physique Théorique in Saclay. In his free time, Gwenaël enjoys reading, watching movies, hiking, and travelling.

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Gal Bitton

Gal Bitton is a political scientist in the direct PhD track in the School of Political Science, Government and International Affairs at Tel Aviv University under the supervision of Prof. Tal Sadeh.

Gal’s field of study is international political economy, and her main interests are global monetary and financial relations, currency internationalization, and cultural finance.

Gal developed a culture-based theory that seeks to examine the effect of cultural factors on policymakers’ financial decisions through macro (government policy) and micro (individual preferences) levels of analysis. Her findings demonstrate that in financial decision- making individuals have strong incentives to bias interactions toward in-group members while introducing indifference, hostility, or distrust toward out-group members. Hence, in-group favouritism decreases the cooperativeness and harmony that are essential for any functioning society; understanding the roots of cooperation, or lack thereof, is, therefore, of great significance.

Gal was born and raised in Kiryat Shmona and currently lives there with her two dogs. She has a BA and an MA in political science from Tel Aviv University. Gal teaches at both Tel Aviv University and Reichman University and provides academic assistance to undergraduate students from the Arab population. In the coming years, as part of the Azrieli Fellowship, Gal intends to use her academic skills and volunteering experience to help improve the welfare of citizens in Kiryat Shmona. In her free time, Gal loves practising yoga and playing board games.

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Evgenia Mitsou

Dr. Evgenia Mitsou is an Azrieli International Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Molecular Chemistry and Materials Science at the Weizmann Institute of Science under the supervision of Prof. Jacob Klein.

In the Soft Matter and Surface Forces Lab, Evgenia focuses on the study of lubrication under water in, especially, biological systems such as major joints.

She also aims to develop nanoscale formulations which will serve as both biolubricants and drug delivery systems. Her overall aim is to contribute to our understanding of the origins of friction- associated pathologies, such as osteoarthritis, and develop novel treatments to alleviate them.

Evgenia grew up in Athens, Greece. She studied biology at the University of Ioannina and completed her PhD in biotechnology from the same university in collaboration with the National Hellenic Research Foundation under the supervision of Prof. Aristotelis Xenakis and Prof. Haralambos Stamatis. She studied the development of biocompatible nanodispersions as hosts for bioactive compounds with therapeutic interest, such as antioxidants and enzymes for oral and intranasal administration. As part of her research, Evgenia collaborated with various research groups at, for example, the CBMN – University of Bordeaux, University of Parma, and University of Belgrade in the fields of colloidal science and drug delivery and was also involved in industrial-driven projects. Outside the lab, Evgenia loves travelling, learning new languages, and listening to good music, especially in live performances. She also enjoys participating in science communication activities, especially those designed for children.

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Eugenio Garosi

Dr. Eugenio Garosi is an Azrieli International Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at the University of Haifa under the supervision of Dr. Uriel Simonsohn.

Eugenio specializes in the social history of the early Islamic Empire, with an emphasis on the role of languages and scribal practices in constructing social identities.

The main focus of his work lies in early Islamic documents on papyrus, paper, parchment and ostraca. Unlike the later Islamic literary tradition and the narratives of non-Muslim denominations living under Muslim rule, these documents were not redacted with posterity in mind and thus offer a comparatively unbiased perspective on their environment. Eugenio’s current research engages with expressions of religious identities through the lens of Arabic, Greek, and Coptic everyday writings in seventh to tenth-century Egypt. He is planning to explore the relationship between onomastic patterns and other social identifiers and subsequently inject empirical insights, gained from thousands of original documents, into debates on the related processes of Arabization and conversion to Islam, during the crucial first centuries following the Arab conquests.

Eugenio was born and raised in Italy before moving to Germany to complete an MA in Arabic and Islamic studies at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU). He then obtained a PhD in Arabic studies and ancient history from LMU and the University of Basel, researching two projects, “Change and Continuities from a Christian to a Muslim Society” and “The Arabic Papyrology Database,” under the supervision of Prof. Andreas Kaplony and Prof. Sabine Huebner. During postdoctoral fellowships at the Hebrew University’s Israel Institute for Advanced Studies and the University of Hamburg’s RomanIslam – Center for Comparative Empire and Transcultural Studies, Eugenio also explored the construction and negotiation of religious and cultural boundaries in pre-modern Islamicate societies. When not engaged in research, Eugenio enjoys reading, travelling, skiing, and going to the opera.

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Eran Blacher

Dr. Eran Blacher is a new faculty member in the Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Eran studies the gut–brain communication in aging and neurological disorders.

By integrating novel imaging methods, multi-omics techniques, advanced computational analyses, and clinical observations, he creates an interactive merging point between the realms of neuroscience, immunology, microbiome, and metabolism. As an Azrieli Fellow, Eran aims to achieve in- depth understanding of the intestinal processes affecting brain dysfunction that will support the development of better treatments, prolonged lifespan, and healthier aging.

Eran completed a BSc with distinction in life sciences and a PhD in neuroimmunology in the direct PhD track for outstanding students at Tel Aviv University under the supervision of Prof. Reuven Stein from the Department of Neurobiology. He studied the brain’s immune responses in cancer and Alzheimer’s disease and, in collaboration with Prof. Micha Fridman from the School of Chemistry, identified and tested a novel immune-metabolic modulator as a therapeutic approach to these conditions. His first postdoctoral position was in the laboratory of Prof. Eran Elinav in the Department of Systems Immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science, where he was the first to study the role of the microbiome–gut–brain axis in the context of neurodegenerative diseases. For his findings in this field, Eran was awarded the Grand Prize in the inaugural NOSTER & Science Microbiome competition. He conducted a second postdoctoral training as a Marie Curie Fellow in the laboratory of Prof. Katrin Andreasson in the Department of Neurology & Neurological Sciences at Stanford University, where he studied maladaptive metabolism in aged immune cells and the gut– brain axis in stroke and aging. Eran grew up in Holon and enjoys reading literature, writing, hiking, and spending time with his spouse, Maya, and their two sons, Eli and Jordan.

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Elad Horn

Elad Horn is an architect and a PhD student in the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. His research in the Big Data in Architectural Research Lab (BDAR), under the supervision of Dr. Or Aleksandrowicz, combines the fields of architectural history and digital humanities.

Elad is examining Tel Aviv-Yafo during the 1980s, when Israel’s economy underwent rapid neoliberal restructuring and the city’s architectural style was significantly altered.

His specific interest is in how economic trends, especially those affecting construction and real estate development, helped generate new architectural idioms. To better understand the mechanisms that drive architectural change, Elad employs computational methods such as big data analysis and machine learning for historical research. At a time when cities are undergoing rapid development, Elad hopes to contribute to the academic and public discourse on built heritage and preservation.

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Einav Gozansky

Einav Gozansky is a PhD student in in the School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Haifa under the supervision of Prof. Hadas Okon-Singer and Prof. Irit Weissman-Fogel.

Her research combines knowledge from the fields of cognitive psychology, pain physiology, and data science.

She employs advanced machine learning methods to examine the effects of cognitive-emotional computerized trainings on experimental pain outcomes. In her research, Einav trains healthy individuals using different methods and examines changes in cognitive, emotional, and autonomic physiological factors following her interventions. Her research aims to enhance our understanding of basic pain modulation mechanisms and thus facilitate more personalized training interventions that address individual differences in pain perception. This line of research is based on Einav’s expertise in advanced analysis of connections between variables. Previously, she used modelling approaches to explore factors predicting the development of depression symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Einav grew up in Ramat Gan and currently lives in Haifa. She received her BA in psychology and cognitive sciences from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and her MA in clinical neuropsychology from the University of Haifa. Einav is also interested in social and environmental activities and has volunteered in a number of social organizations, such as the Green Course, the Summit Institute, and a social development project in Mexico. In her spare time, she enjoys travelling both in Israel and abroad, cooking, yoga, and hanging out with friends.

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