OCTOBER 3, 1999

IN ISRAEL

A TAU researcher has traced the history of metastatic cancer back to the Jurassic age. Prof. Israel Hershkovitz of the Sackler Faculty of Medicine’s Department of Anatomy and Anthropology published in The Lancet his team’s discovery of metastatic cancer in a dinosaur. This is the first time metastatic cancer has been recognized in extreme antiquity. Co-investigators were Dr. Bruce M. Rothschild of the College of Medicine and Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Youngstown, Ohio, and Dr. Brian J. Witzke of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Geological Survey Bureau, Iowa City.

Prof. Tsevi Mazeh and Shai Zucker of TAU's School of Physics and Astronomy presented an analysis of a planet mass, one of three planets around the star Andromeda, for the first time. The findings are based on the Hipparcos astromeric measurement, and the research was in cooperation with Dr. Floor van Leeuwen and Andrea Dalla Torre of the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge University. The findings were published in The Astrophysical Journal.

Five new graduate programs will start in the 1999-2000 school year, which will open on October 17th:

- A special high-tech track of the Master's Program for Applied Mathematics at the School of Mathematical Sciences.

- A special track in Cell Biology and Immunology at the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences.

- Continuing education in Translation and Editing in Translation, a one-year program for University graduates at the Leslie and Shirley Porter School of Cultural Studies.

- Continuing education in Fertility Science at the School of Continuing Medical Education, the Sackler Faculty of Medicine.

- Continuing education in Child Psychiatry at the School of Continuing Medical Education, the Sackler Faculty of Medicine.

CONFERENCES

Dr. Miriam Haran, Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Environment, was guest lecturer at the scholarship-awarding ceremony of the Rieger-JNF Foundation (Rieger-Jewish National Fund Program for Environmental Studies). The American Foundation awarded 25 scholarships in environmental studies for Israeli graduate students of all Israeli universities, coordinated by Prof. Marshall P. Tulin of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Prof. Touvia Miloh, Associate Dean of TAU’s Fleischman Faculty of Engineering. Greetings were delivered by Esther Weinstein of the USA Department of the Jewish National Fund.

TAU's Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences hosted a conference entitled “The Water Crisis in Israel,” organized by the Water Engineers Association and the Israeli Hydrological Association. Opening remarks were delivered by Prof. Akiva Flexer, Chairperson of the Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences at the Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences.

“The IDF towards the Year 2000” was the title of the lecture delivered by the IDF Chief of Staff Lieut. Gen. Shaul Mofaz at the annual Haim Avital memorial evening. Concluding remarks were delivered by Prof. Shai Feldman, Director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies.

The Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies’ Tshechik Prize for the study of the defense of Israel was awarded to Maj. Gen. Doron Almog, head of the Doctrine and Instruction Division in the Office of the Chief of Staff, for his research on the deterrence strategy of Israel, and to Jacob Lifshitz, Chairman of the Military Industry, for his research on the economics of defense. Guest lecturer at the ceremony was Jacob Perry, former Head of the Secret Service. Opening remarks were delivered by Prof. Shai Feldman, Director of the Jaffee Center.

A dialogue with the world-renowned Colombian artist Fernando Botero, with the participation of the audience, was held at TAU's Genia Schreiber University Art Gallery. The event was held in collaboration with the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, which opened an exhibition of Botero’s paintings and drawings. Opening remarks were delivered by Ambassador of Colombia to Israel Patricio Samper; TAU President Prof. Itamar Rabinovich; and Curator of the University Art Gallery and of the Tel Aviv Museum, Prof. Mordechai Omer.

The Israel Space Agency of the Ministry of Science; the TAU School of Physics and Astronomy; the NASA Ames Space Flight Center; and the US Air Force held a workshop in Tel Aviv to coordinate their joint observation of the Leonide meteor showers, which will take place on

November 17-18, 1999. Opening remarks were delivered by Aby Har-Even, director of the Israel Space Agency, and Dr. Noah Brosch of TAU, the mission coordinator. Among the lecturers were Dr. Peter Jenniskens, Ames Space Flight Center, who spoke on the airborne observation of meteors; Captain Steven Butow, USAF and NASA, on preparations for the airborne mission; Prof. Dina Prialnick, TAU, on comet research; and Dr. Coleen Price, TAU, on electrical bursts in the atmosphere.

TAU President Prof. Itamar Rabinovich gave a lecture entitled “The Israeli-Arab Peace Process – An Assessment" at a conference in memory of Joseph Kasierer. Concluding remarks were delivered by Prof. Itzhak Swarr, Head of TAU’s Joseph Kasierer Institute for Research in Accounting.

APPOINTMENTS AND AWARDS

Prof. Avishay A. Stark of the Department of Biochemistry, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, has been elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), which is the world’s oldest and largest life science organization and was founded in 1899.

VISITS

Dr. Ing. h.c. Uwe Thomas, State Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany, visited on campus. He toured TAU's Minerva - Dead Sea Research Center accompanied by Prof. Yair Aharonowitz, Vice President and Dean for Research and Development; and Prof. Zvi Ben-Avraham, Director of the Center. Dr. Thomas also met with TAU President Prof. Itamar Rabinovich and Vice President Ambassador A. Primor and was presented bilateral and trilateral cooperation projects by Dean of the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences Prof. Isaac Barash.

Prof. Blanka Rihova of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic visited TAU. She was hosted for lunch by Prof. Benjamin Isaac, Director of Inter-Academic Affairs and member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and Prof. Yehuda Ben-Shaul, Chairman of the Department of Cell Research and Immunology.

OBITUARIES

TAU mourns the passing of Mrs. Edita Spiegel of Los Angeles, who donated a Chair for European Jewish History at TAU together with her husband Abraham Spiegel.

COMING EVENTS

The 9th European Regional Conference of the Board of Governors of Tel Aviv University will take place at the Carlton Hotel, St. Moritz, Switzerland, on 27-31 January 2000. Chairman of the Board of Governors Benno Gitter will open the Conference which will feature Prof. Itamar Rabinovich and Prof. Shimon Shamir on the Israeli-Arab Peace Process; Prof. Nili Cohen on the role of the humanities in our technological age; entrepreneurs Eli Barkat and Zohar Zisapel on Israel's greatest success story – the high-tech industry; and an American political analyst on the most important political event in 2000 – the American elections. Two concerts by TAU's Gertler Quartet, gala diners and an excursion to the Morteratsch Glacier are part of the social activities. For registration contact: Brigitte Kirchheimer, Swiss Friends of TAU, Tel: 411-2116092; Fax: 411-2117832.