MARCH 1st, 2000

IN ISRAEL

Prof. Asa Kasher, incumbent of TAU's Laura Schwarz-Kipp Chair in Professional Ethics and Philosophy of Practice, has received the Israel Prize. The award will be conferred on him at an event to be held on Israel's Independence Day.

The Faculty of Management - Leon Recanati Graduate School of Business Administration held an open house and presented its upgraded MBA program. Gadi Hadar, Director-General of the Israeli Internet company Walla, was guest lecturer.

CONFERENCES

US Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson delivered a guest lecture entitled "Planning for Growth: An Energy Policy for the 21st Century." Opening remarks were delivered by Prof. Itamar Rabinovich, President of TAU.

The inaugural session of the "Israel-European Union Forum" was held at TAU with the participation of Shimon Peres, Minister for Regional Development. The Forum was founded by TAU Vice President A. Primor within the framework of TAU's Morris E. Curiel Center for International Studies, headed by Prof. Gabriel Gorodetsky, and in cooperation with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and the Heinrich Böll Foundation. The Forum will examine modalities for obtaining a privileged status for Israel within the European Union.

The Department of Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer at TAU's Fleischman Faculty of Engineering hosted the 15th International Workshop on "Water Waves and Floating Bodies," which was organized by Associate Dean Prof. Touvia Miloh.

"Women and Society in the Middle Ages" was the title of a conference of the Women Studies Forum, organized by Dr. Hana Naveh, the Forum Chairperson.

The Department of Human Microbiology at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine hosted Prof. Steven Berger, who presented the software GIDEON-A, a computer program for informatics, teaching and disease simulation in the field of geographic medicine.

The Chaim Rosenberg School of Jewish Studies held the first lecture of the series "Revolutions, Revolutionaries and Innovators in the History of the Jewish People," moderated by Prof. Yair Hoffman of the Department of Bible. The first lecture, entitled "The Price of Being First - Innovators of Hebrew Literature," was delivered by Prof. Nurit Govrin of the Department of Hebrew Literature.

The second semester of the Rector's Lecture Series is devoted to "Classic Art - Its Significance, Perceptions and Heritage in Western Civilization." Lectures will be delivered by Professors Asher Ovadiah and Nurith Kenaan-Kedar. Opening remarks at the first lecture were delivered by Rector Nili Cohen.

Renowned Israeli writer Amos Oz delivered the opening lecture of the series "In the Smelt of Revolution" in memory of Prof. Aharon Katzir. Opening remarks were delivered by Rector Nili Cohen.

The Yolanda and David Katz Faculty of the Arts held the annual conference of its MOTAR journal, on "Vision and Spectacle in the Arts," organized by Prof. Nurith Kenaan-Kedar.

The Eitan Berglas School of Economics held a conference in memory of Prof. Elisha Pazner, hosting Prof. Alvin Roth of Harvard University, who delivered a lecture on "The Economist as Engineer: Game Theory, Experimentation and Computation as Tools of Design Economics." Opening remarks were delivered by Prof. Ariel Rubinstein.

The TAU Sports and Physical Education Department held the annual symposium in memory of Yitzhak Hochman on "The Olympic Games and Sports in Israel." Concluding remarks were delivered by Matan Vilna'i, Minister of Science, Education and Sports.

Ambassador Frank G. Wisner, Vice Chairman, External Affairs, American International Group (AIG), delivered the Annual Jimmy Carter Lecture, entitled "The United States, Israel and the Arab World: Enter the New Millennium," organized by the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies.

Ulrich Boes, of the European Commission DG Information Society's Activity Center in Brussels, was the keynote speaker at a meeting organized by TAU's Interdisciplinary Center for Technological Analysis and Forecasting. Mr. Boes delivered a lecture entitled "The European Way towards the Global Information Society." Dr. Dov Winer of ICTAF introduced a project in Israel of the European Survey of Information Society, initiated by the European Commission. Opening remarks were delivered by Acting Director of ICTAF Dr. Yair Sharan and TAU's Prof. Hezy Yeshurun, Chairman of the National Committee for Information Technology.

The renowned Israeli author Haim Beer delivered his first lecture in a series of ten as writer-in-residence of the Department of Hebrew Literature at TAU's Entin Faculty of Humanities. The series, held under the auspices of the Beracha Fund, is entitled "Thou Shalt Honor Your Father and Mother - Relationship Systems." Greetings were delivered by Faculty Dean Prof. Marcelo Dascal and Department Chairperson Prof. Dan Laor.

A binational UK-Israeli Symposium on Biotransformation and Biosynthesis entitled "'Enzymillennium': From 'Enzyme Evolution' to Industrial Biocatalysis" was held at TAU, sponsored by TAU's Laura Schwarz-Kipp Institute of Biotechnology and the Joan and Jaime Constantiner Institute for Molecular Genetics; the Ministry of Science; and the British Council. Guests at the opening session included TAU's Vice President and Dean for Research and Development, Prof. Yair Aharonowitz, and Prof. Ephraim Katzir who spoke in memory of Prof. Malcolm D. Lilly, to whose memory the symposium was dedicated. A roundtable discussion on Academic-Industry Cooperation - The UK and Israel Experience, moderated by Prof. Amihay Freeman, Head of the Kipp Institute, concluded the symposium.

The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences' Animals and Society Project and the Israel Air Force held a conference on using dogs to clear birds from flight runways. The guest lecture was delivered by zoologist Dr. Nicholas Carter on using border collies to scare off birds from airports. Opening remarks were delivered by Prof. Yossi Terkel, Director of the Project, and TAU's Dr. Yossi Leshem, Head of the International Ornithology Center in Latrun.

TAU hosted the annual conference of the Israeli Sociology Society on "Israel in the Land of Mirrors - Comparative Outlook of the Israeli Society."

The Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies and the Ben-Zvi Institute for the Study of Jewish Communities in the East held a joint colloquium in Jerusalem entitled "Muslims and Jews in Sudan - Perspective on the Twentieth Century." Dr. Martin Kramer, Director of the Dayan Center, chaired the session entitled "Muslim Sudan," which was organized by Dr. Yehudit Ronen.

The Department of Middle Eastern and African History at the Entin Faculty of Humanities held the annual Ilan Gal-On Scholarship awarding ceremony. Remarks were delivered by Vice President A. Primor and Department Chairperson Prof. David Menashri. TAU's Dr. Eyal Zisser delivered a lecture on "Syria and Israel on the Road to Peace."

Prof. Joseph Turow of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania delivered a guest lecture at TAU's Department of Communication on "Family Boundaries, the Internet and Commercialism: A Framework and Some Findings."

The Department of East Asian Studies opened a series of meetings entitled "Women's Literature and Women's Culture in East Asia." The first lecture was delivered Dr. Yi Zheng on "Chinese Women in History and Writing," chaired by Dr. Galia Pat-Shamir of the Department.

The MINERVA Center for Human Rights of TAU and the Hebrew University held a conference in Jerusalem entitled "Religion, Secularism and Human Rights," organized by Prof. Daphne Barak-Erez, the Academic Director of the Center at TAU.

The Geography and Human Environment Department celebrated the publication of the book Self Organization and the City, written by Prof. Yuval Portugali. Greetings were delivered by Vice Rector Prof. Shimon Yankielowicz. Prof. Herman Haken of the University of Stuttgart delivered a lecture on "A Synergetic Approach to the Self-Organization of Cities." The book is the result of joint research with Prof. Haken funded by the German-Israel Foundation (GIF.)

The Information Technology Executive Forum of TAU's Marcel and Annie Adams Institute for Business Management Information Systems, in cooperation with the Israel Information Processing Association, held its annual conference, entitled "Managing Information Technologies in the 21st Century: What Did We Learn from the Y2K Bug?" The conference was held under the auspices of the Mexico Chair in Management Information Systems and the Marko and Lucie Chaoul Chair for Research in Information Evaluation. The annual Adams Institute Award was presented by TAU Vice President and Director-General Niv Ahituv to Bank Leumi for their managerial strategic banking system BACHAN.

APPOINTMENTS AND AWARD

Prof. Rina Drori of the Department of Arabic Language and Literature was elected Head of the Shirley and Leslie Porter School of Cultural Studies, replacing Prof. Gideon Toury, who concluded his term of office.

Prof. Shimon Yankielowicz of the School of Physics and Astronomy at the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences was awarded the Meitner-Humboldt Award, of the Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation, founded by the Federal Government of Germany. The award is given to non-German scientists and includes an invitation for joint research. Yankielowicz, Vice Rector of TAU, heads the Inter-University Center of Excellence for the Physics of Basic Interactions, supported by the Israel Science Foundation.

Prof. Daniel Bar-Tal of the School of Education has been awarded the Goestan Fellowship of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences.

Prof. Shmuel Tiano of the Department of Psychiatry at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine was awarded the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by French President Jacques Chirac, for his contribution to scientific connections between Israel and France.

Prof. Gideon Toury of the Department of Hebrew Literature at the Entin Faculty of Humanities has been awarded honorary membership of the UNESCO Chair of Translation Studies at Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia.

VISITS

Prof. Dr. Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker, DFG Fund President, and a delegation visited TAU. They met with Vice President and Dean for Research and Development Prof. Yair Aharonowitz and were presented with the new research trends at TAU in bioinformatics and human genetics and with the trilateral cooperation project between scientists of TAU, Germany and the Universities of Bethlehem and Hebron of the Palestinian Authority, under the auspices of DFG.

Dr. Patermann, Director of RTD Action - Environment, European Commission, visited TAU. He was welcomed by Vice President and Dean for Research and Development Prof. Yair Aharonowitz and Dr. Yair Sharan, Acting Director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Technological Forecasting.

A cancer research delegation of the University of Vienna visited TAU. They were welcomed by Rector Nili Cohen, Vice Rector Shimon Yankielowicz and Vice President and Dean for Research and Development Yair Aharonowitz. Dean of the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences Prof. Eliora Ron and Dean of the Sackler Faculty of Medicine Prof. Menachem Fainaru hosted them for lunch. The delegation participated in the annual conference of the Cancer Biology Research Center.

A delegation of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency visited TAU. Dr. Yair Sharan, Acting Director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Technological Analysis and Forecasting, met with the delegation and offered a presentation of the Center's activities.

ABROAD

TAU held a festive lunch in New York celebrating the 80th birthday of Dr. Raymond Sackler, Honorary Chairman of the TAU Board of Governors, with the participation of TAU President Itamar Rabinovich and Rector Nili Cohen. Prof. Rabinovich presented Dr. Sackler and his family with a video produced especially for his birthday entitled "Making a Dream Happen - A Salute to Dr. Raymond Sackler."

The Melbourne Chapter of the Australian Friends of TAU held the annual Joe Vaver Memorial Oration, hosting Michael Gawenda, editor of The Age. The lecture was entitled "The Implication of On-Line News and Its Impact on the Newspapers of the Future."

The TAU Austrian Friends Association celebrated their 20th anniversary with a festive dinner at the Viennese City Hall. TAU was represented by President Itamar Rabinovich and Vice President Yehiel Ben-Zvi.

The opening event for the year 2000 of the German Friends Association took place in the Old Opera in Frankfurt and was dedicated to Literature, Music and Criticism. The event was attended by TAU President Itamar Rabinovich and Vice President Yehiel Ben-Zvi.

TAU's Institute for Latin American History and Culture received the private library of the late Prof. Woodrow Borah of Berkeley University, USA, consisting of 9,000 books on the history of conquest and the colonial era of Mexico. The Institute is headed by TAU's Prof. Tzvi Medin, President of FIEALC (the International Federation of Latin American and Caribbean Research.) The collection is housed at TAU's Sourasky Central Library.

EULOGIES

TAU deeply mourns the passing of Jack I. Salzberg of California, a member of the Board of Governors and benefactor of the Jack Salzberg Chair for Economic Theory.