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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Noam Siegelman

Dr. Noam Siegelman is a new faculty member in the Departments of Psychology and Cognitive and Brain Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Noam’s research is concerned with how high-level behaviours are determined by individuals’ learning abilities and the structure of the input to which they are exposed.

His recent research has focused on the intersection between reading and learning, looking at the immense variability between individuals’ literacy skills in light of their learning capacities and the properties of their native language’s writing system. As an Azrieli Fellow, he will continue and expand this line of research, tracking children as they learn to read to examine how they gradually assimilate the regularities characteristic of their writing system and how success or failure in this process predicts their emerging reading skills. To achieve this aim, Noam plans to establish cognitive science laboratories in schools in Israel, tracking beginning readers “in the wild.”

Noam completed his BA, MA, and PhD at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His PhD dissertation under the supervision of Prof. Ram Frost focused on individual differences in statistical learning, namely, the mechanism underlying the human ability to extract regularities from sensory inputs. He conducted postdoctoral work at Haskins Laboratories, a non-profit research institute affiliated with Yale University and the University of Connecticut, with funding from the Rothschild Foundation and the Israel Science Foundation. This is where Noam became fascinated with reading and the prospect of understanding reading from a learning perspective. Noam lives in Tel Aviv with his spouse, Maya. In his spare time, he enjoys music and learning to play unconventional instruments like the accordion and the banjo.

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Monika Witzenberger

Dr. Monika Witzenberger is an Azrieli International Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the Weizmann Institute of Science, where she studies RNA modifications under the supervision of Prof. Schraga Schwartz.

Since the development of new sequencing technologies over the last few decades, the detection and mapping of RNA modifications has leaped forward, uncovering an additional layer of gene regulation in human cells.

In her current research, Monika plans to explore the working principles of the enzyme machinery that installs RNA modifications in the hope of leveraging these findings to develop biotechnological tools or therapeutic approaches.

Monika was born in Germany and obtained her BSc and MSc in molecular biotechnology at the Heidelberg University, with research visits to the University of Cambridge and Tel Aviv University. She then pursued her PhD at Helmholtz Munich under the supervision of Prof. Dierk Niessing. While exploring an underexplored RNA modification enzyme, using structural biology and biochemistry tools, she also worked on a novel drug target for the treatment of Huntington’s disease. Outside the lab, Monika volunteers for an NGO that aims to connect young researchers and professionals with current leaders in the biotech industry. Besides science, Monika enjoys swimming, yoga, learning new languages and playing the guitar.

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Milica Denić

Dr. Milica Denić is an Azrieli International Postdoctoral Fellow in the Linguistics Department at Tel Aviv University under the supervision of Prof. Roni Katzir.

In her current research, Milica is working on a central question about human cognition: what are the building blocks of human thought?

To answer this question, she is developing novel approaches, combining tools from linguistics, cognitive science, and computational modelling and applying them to numerical and logical concepts.

Milica was born in Serbia and moved to Slovenia, where she studied for a BA in linguistics at the University of Ljubljana. She pursued her MSc and PhD in cognitive science at École normale supérieure in Paris under the supervision of Dr. Emmanuel Chemla and Dr. Benjamin Spector. She then held a postdoctoral position at the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation at the University of Amsterdam under the supervision of Prof. Jakub Szymanik. Besides research, Milica enjoys inline skating, films, and chess.

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Meital Pascal

Meital Pascal is a PhD student in the Constantiner School of Education at Tel Aviv University under the supervision of Dr. Orly Lahav.

Her research takes a capacity building approach and focuses on the strengths of adults on the autism spectrum – a field which remains under-researched.

Meital aims to develop a practical online learning program to improve current intervention programs for this target group. Her strength-based learning program strives to promote awareness among adults on the autism spectrum of their own strengths, increase their self-esteem, and contribute to their well- being. Meital hopes that her research approach will help change dominant perceptions about autism and thereby contribute to the integration of adults with autism into society.

Meital grew up in Holon and currently lives with her spouse and two children in Kibbutz Nahsholim in the Hof HaCarmel region. She received a BA in education and MA in learning disabilities from Tel Aviv University. She has extensive experience working with children on the autism spectrum both as an educator in a school environment and on an individual basis. Her work in the field led her to research challenging notions concerning the empowerment of adults on the autism spectrum. In addition to her research, Meital teaches in the Department of Special Education at Kibbutzim College. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with family and friends, reading, practising yoga, and hiking in the woods near her home.

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