WELCOME BACK

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We are delighted to welcome new and returning students and faculty to a new academic year on our Mount Carmel and City campuses, and our marine facilities by the Sea.

This year marks a deepening of our commitment to research and teaching in areas of environmental and social sustainability, and an expansion of our social impact within Israeli society. As Israel's first university to align with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, this year University of Haifa established three new multidisciplinary research centers: Climate and Environmental Sustainability Hub, Brain and Behavior Hub, and The Hub for the Study on Politics and Inequality.

This week our city campus in Haifa's bustling high-tech district opened its doors to more than 1,500 data science students. The Lorry I. Lokey City Campus, the new academic home to the Departments of Computer Science and Information Systems, boasts the newly renovated buildings: Dylan Tauber Educational Complex, Herta and Paul Amir Technology Complex, and Dr. David Drahi AI Academic Complex.

We are also excited to inaugurate the Bloom School of Advanced Studies which welcomes the first cohort of Bloom scholars, generously supported by the Bloom Family Foundation.

First year students majoring in computer science and information systems usher in the new academic year at the Lorry I. Lokey City Campus. 

University of Haifa community mourns the loss of Lorry I. Lokey

The late Lorry Lokey (1927-2022), Founder and CEO/Chairman Emeritus of Business Wire, was a successful journalist, publicist, and businessman, a generous and visionary philanthropist, lover of science and staunch friend of the State of Israel. His philanthropic endeavors focused on supporting educational programs in schools and colleges in the US and Israel. In 2010, he joined the Giving Pledge, committing to donating 99% of his wealth to charitable causes. 

Mr. Lorry I. Lokey, a University of Haifa Honorary Doctorate recipient (2019), helped secure the construction of the new City Campus focused on data science and technology in 2018. "This gift is an affirmation of the University's mission to improve access to education and bring more job stability and security to northern Israel." READ MORE

May his memory be a blessing.

UNIVERSITY OF HAIFA TO AWARD HONORARY DEGREES IN TWO UPCOMING CEREMONIES

Marina Abramović, world famous performance artist   

Moshe Safdie, renowned architect and urban planner

President Bill Clinton, 42nd President of the United States 

Prof. John Sexton, 15th President of New York University (NYU)

The ceremony honoring Marina Abramović and Moshe Safdie will be held on the Mt. Carmel campus in Haifa on November 10, 2022.

On December 12, 2022, a ceremony will be held at an NYU venue in New York City honoring President Bill Clinton and Prof. John Sexton.

(l-r) Senior representatives from Cadi Ayyad University and Abdelmalek Essaâdi University, Rector Gur Alroey and Gabriel Malka (Head, School of Tourism).

University of Haifa recently signed academic agreements with universities in Morocco: Abdelmalek Essaâdi University and Cadi Ayyad University. Rector Gur Alroey led a 20-member delegation to Rabat, Morocco with researchers from the Charney School of Marine Sciences and the School of Tourism to finalize the agreements and take part in the official signing ceremony. UofH is working towards expanding research collaborations in the field of marine sciences and strengthening Jewish studies in North Africa through study tours in cooperation with the Jewish community in Morocco. 

(l-r) Sharon Zaid and Michael Wainer

Sharon Zaid is the University's new CEO. A member of the University’s Executive Committee since 2018, Mr. Zaid has served in leading senior managerial positions in Israeli industry for over three decades. Over the course of his career, he held senior positions including CEO of Baran Group, and Managing Partner at SR Enterprise & Engineering Ltd. He replaces Michael Wainer, who held the position since 2021 and served as CFO of the University from 2017-2021. The University of Haifa community wishes him all the best in his retirement. 

Prof. Meir Hemmo (Vice Rector) was recently inducted into The European Academy of Sciences. A professor of philosophy at the University of Haifa, Hemmo has published extensively on the conceptual foundations and interpretation of quantum mechanics; classical and quantum statistical mechanics; relativity theory; the concept of probability in physics and the hypothesis of physicalism in the special sciences and in philosophy of mind.

Prof. Israel Finkelstein (Head of the School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures) was recently inducted into The American Academy of Arts and Sciences in the fields of archaeology and the exact sciences. Prof. Finkelstein joined the University of Haifa in 2021 to establish the first-of-its-kind school of archaeology in Israel, integrating all of the University's archaeological activities and endeavors on land and at sea - under one roof. 

Prof. Assaf Distelfeld (Head, Institute of Evolution) was awarded the prestigious 2022 Rita Levi-Montalcini Award for Scientific Cooperation, for outstanding achievement in the development of genomic technologies for sustainable agriculture.

Prof. Dorit Pud (Cheryl Spencer Department of Nursing) is the recipient of the 2022 Landau Science and Arts Award in the field of nursing. The prestigious prize, supported by the The Mifal Hapayis National Lottery Association, recognizes Pud's groundbreaking research in pain management and treatment.

The European Research Executive Agency awarded Prof. Roee Diamant (Hatter Department of Marine Technologies) an ERA Chair. In this capacity he will lead  a branch of his Marine Acoustics Lab within the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the University of Zagreb in Croatia. 

New research led by Dr. Shani Stern (Sagol Department of Neurobiology) and international researchers from the Weizmann Institute, Salk Institute in San Diego, the Paris Brain Institute and the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany, recently identified a number of neural processes that are common to different types of Parkinson's disease. The researchers used an innovative cell reprogramming technique to identify malfunctioning neural processes common to both types of the progressive brain disease. They hope that this discovery could lead to treatments which will stop the spread of Parkinson's disease. The study was published in the scientific journal NPJ Parkinson's Diseases.

Following two consecutive studies, Dr. Hanin Karawani Khoury (Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders) and PhD student, Dana Bsharat-Maalouf concluded that bilingual speakers demonstrate more brain plasticity—the ability of the brain to modify its connections or rewire itself—than those who speak only one language. The research is based on studies documenting the differences in perception and physiological reactions in native Arabic speakers who are fluent in Hebrew as a second language and native Hebrew speakers. The first study, marking the first attempt to examine both perceptual and brain activity in bilingual populations was published in PLOS ONE, while the second study exploring speech processing under challenging listening conditions was published in the prestigious scientific journal Cognition. 

The annual Rosh Hashanah celebration was especially festive this year as we celebrated the University's Jubilee Year. The event was attended by hundreds of staff and faculty.

At a Glance Archive