Dr. Maayan Agmon (The Cheryl Spencer Department of Nursing) and Stav Bar-Shany will lead the new Kayma Executive Education Center for Social Innovation and Impact Entrepreneurship. The Kayma Center (Hebrew for sustainability) will support student led initiatives in the areas of environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting and climate. The program will offer a curriculum geared to dealing with the climate crisis. The new Center is another example of the University's commitment to the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that aim to create a better future for the planet, humanity and Israeli society.

Prof. Oren Gazal-Ayal, Dean of the Faculty of Law, is named Law Academic of the Year by Israel's leading law publication Court Magazine. The judges noted: "Alongside his extensive academic work, Prof. Gazal-Ayal is involved in impressive public activities and a long list of legal reforms." Prof. Gazal-Ayal is an expert in criminal law and procedure, in sentencing law and in law and economics. His interdisciplinary research focuses on plea bargains, alternatives to criminal proceedings and sentencing, as well as empirical examination of cognitive biases in legal proceedings. He is regularly published in leading international journals, and his papers are frequently cited in decisions of the Israeli Supreme Court.

The Strage Foundation and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev announced that Prof. Andrea Ghermandi and Michael Sinclair (Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management) are the winners of the 2021 Award for Excellence in Environmental Sciences. The award is given annually to Israeli researchers who have published papers that had a significant impact in the field of environmental sciences. In their article entitled "Passive crowdsourcing of social media in environmental research: A systematic map", Ghermandi and Sinclair identified opportunities and challenges that researchers need to take into account when utilizing data from social media and social networking sites, which improve our understanding of human-environment interactions and influence conservation and environmental management.

UofH signed an MOU agreement with Zayed University in the United Arab Emirates in November, 2021.

University of Haifa President Ron Robin and Prof. Dan Tchernov, founder and scientific director of University of Haifa’s Morris Kahn Marine Research Station, penned an Op-Ed in the Jerusalem Post, suggesting the water-for-energy deal made between Israel, Jordan and the UAE illustrates how collaboration can solve the planet's greatest problems. "A problem such as climate change is too dramatic for political considerations to get in the way. Existential issues like climate change can only be addressed through the determination to work together in new ways, in the face of all perceived obstacles. This model for game-changing collaboration must be replicated around the world."

(left) Prof. Shaul Chorev and President Ron Robin.
(right) Prof. Ami Ayalon, Eran, Dov and Tal Shafir.

The Maritime Policy and Strategy Research Center (HMS) held a ceremony honoring Capt. (ret.) Dov Shafir who twice commanded Shayetet 13 (Flotilla 13 – the elite naval commando unit). Shafir was instrumental in establishing HMS in 2016 and has served on its Executive Committee continuously since then. A plaque in his name was unveiled at the ceremony, and a documentary was screened highlighting his contributions to Israel's security in the Navy's Naval Commando Unit and his activities towards the establishment of HMS. The festive event was attended by President Ron Robin, HMS Director Prof. Shaul Chorev, HMS Executive Committee Chairman Admiral (ret.) Ami Ayalon, as well as members of the IDF Command and Staff College, family and friends.

Credit: Getty Images

Prof. Fuad Fares, Dr. Lital Sharvit and Prof. (Emeritus) Solomon Wasser (Faculty of Natural Sciences) have developed a novel cancer treatment that utilizes extracts of Cyathus striatus mushrooms to reduce tumors in animals without damaging healthy tissues. CanCurX, a startup founded by Carmel* together with the researchers, has partnered with the Israeli biomedical company Cannabotech to develop plant-based cancer botanical drugs based on fungal extracts. The agreement allows the use of a patent for developing drugs that are fungal based. Cannabotech will fund the development, which will be conducted in part at University of Haifa labs. The companies hope that their combined products will help treat cancer patients in the future.
*Carmel is the University of Haifa's economic company and founder of Carmel Innovations Funds I and II.

Animals use color for camouflage, to send warning signals, attract mates, send social signals, and regulate their body temperature. UofH researchers have now discovered that in songbirds, the most colorful species of birds, the male species determines feather coloration and ornamentation. "Our findings show that the more colorful the species, the less feathers are replaced by the males in the first moult after leaving the nest," explained Prof. Nir Sapir (Department of Evolutionary and Environmental Biology) who co-authored the paper with research fellow Yosef Kiat. "However, among females of the same species we found evidence suggesting that their coloration has no influence on molting and that they molt according to the coloration of the males." Over 8,000 birds from more than 80 songbird species were examined in the study, published in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology. Future research will examine whether any evolutionary mechanisms have evolved to compensate for the non-colorful females following the fashion trends set by the male. READ THE PRESS RELEASE.

A groundbreaking study led by Prof. Shai Gabay (Head, The Institute of Information Processing and Decision Making) and researchers from Carnegie Mellon sheds light on the evolution of complex cognition. The research suggests that primitive brain regions, collectively called the subcortex, are also involved in 'higher' cognitive processes such as facial recognition. "This implies that humans share this ability with other species," Gabay explains. "Mammals, reptiles, fish, and frogs have primitive subcortical structures, which developed hundreds of millions of years ago." The research findings have been published in a series of articles including Neuropsychologia.

Dr. Beverly Goodman-Tchernov examines soil layers exposed by the retreat of the Dead Sea.
Credit: Hagai Nativ/Morris Kahn Marine Research Station

Dr. Beverly Goodman-Tchernov (Head, Strauss Department of Marine Geosciences and a National Geographic Explorer) was interviewed by Haaretz following the recent underwater volcano eruption in the South Pacific that caused tsunamis to hit Hawaii, Japan and Tonga. She explained that tsunamis can be triggered by a variety of natural and human activities – volcanoes, mud slides, meteorites, or bombs. “The reality is that anything that causes significant-enough water displacement can result in a tsunami." Goodman-Tchernov added that a "monster" wave is believed to have hit Dor on the Israeli coast about 4,500 years ago. And, while there is no way to predict the next tsunami in Israel or around the world, "as sea levels rise, more and more (coastal) communities are at risk."