Recipients 2004

Future Time Dimension - Brain Sciences

 

Barzilay Eran

Department of Cell and Development Biology, Tel Aviv University
'Geldanamycin and Its Derivatives - Effect on Intracellular Transport'

 

 

Biron Kaan

Department of Microbiology/Immunology, University of British Columbia, CANADA
'Characterizing the Iron Uptake Ability of Melanotransferrin/Transferrin Receptor 2 in Brain-Iron Homeostasis'

 

 

Boyden Edward

Personal Details:
Department of Neurobiology - Stanford University, USA
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Title of Research:
"The Role of Multiple Plasticity Mechanisms in Cerebellum-Dependent Learning"
July 2006
Since winning the Dan David Prize Scholarship in 2004 in Brain Science, I've made a lot of progress in the development of new tools for probing the function of neural circuits - including the discovery of a new way to stimulate neurons with light, in a safe, fast manner. This may have profound implications for medicine and neuroscience.
I am now on the faculty job market, applying for bioengineering professor jobs; my hope is to create new technologies that make possible the systematic understanding and engineering of the brain.

 

 

Gorfine Tali

Personal Details:
Department of Neurobiochemistry, TAU
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Title of Research:
"Brain Imaging Studies on the Interaction between the Sleep Homeostat and the Circadian System"
Summary of Research, January 2006

 

 

Katzav Aviva

Personal Details:
Dept. of Physiology & Pharmacology - TAU

Title of Research:
"Behavioral Changes and the Pathogenesis of Neural Injury in Animal Models of the Antiphospholipid Syndrome"
Summary of Research & List of Publications, January 2006

 

 

Keinan Alon

Personal Details:
Department of Computer Science - TAU
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Title of Research:
"Localization of Function via Multi-Lesion Analysis: Theory and Applications"

CV, December 2005
Since winning the Dan David scholarship in 2004 I have completer my PhD in Computer Science, Tel Aviv University (with excellence). I am now a postdoctoral fellow at the Genetics Department, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, equipped with the Rothschild postdoctoral fellowship.

 

 

Makovski Tal

Personal Details:
Department of Psychology - TAU
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Title of Research:
"Attention to Dimensions"
December 2005
I have submitted my PhD dissertation for a review in August and I have recently started my Post-Doc training at Harvard University with Dr. Yuhong Jiang . My current research develops some of the issues I investigated during my doctoral studies and it mainly concerns the relationship between Visual Attention and Visual Short Term Memory. Furthermore, I am studying here important novel Neuro-Imagery technics that will expend my abilities as a Neuro-cognitive researcher. I intend to stay here for at least two-years then I will try to apply for a University position in Israel.

 

 

MANDEL Shmuel

Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Tel Aviv University
'The Characterization of the Activity-Dependent Neuroprotective Protein (ADNP), a Novel Gene Possessing Neuroprotective P'

 

 

Niv Yael

Personal Details:
Department of Psychology and The Princeton Neuroscience Institute Princeton University, USA
Website: http://www.princeton.edu/~yael

Title of Research:
"Reinforcement Learning and the Basal Ganglia: Modeling Pavlovian and Instrumental Behavior"

January 2008
My research focuses on the neural and computational processes underlying learning and decision-making - the ongoing day-to-day processes by which we learn from trial and error and without explicit instructions, to predict future events and to act upon the environment so as to maximize reward and minimize punishment. The data of interest come from decades of animal conditioning literature, and the myriad of more recent investigations into the neural underpinnings of conditioned behavior and human decision-making. My approach is to use computational modeling techniques and analytical tools, specifically from reinforcement learning, Bayesian inference and machine learning, in combination with experimental investigations of human functional imaging and rat behavior. In particular, I am interested in normative explanations of behavior, ie, models that offer a principled understanding of why our brain mechanisms use the computational algorithms that they do, and in what sense, if at all, these are optimal. The main goal of computational models, in my hands, is not to simulate the system, but rather to understand what high-level computations is that system realizing, and to what purpose? That is, what functionality do these computations fulfill?

Some examples of questions I am interested in are: What is the optimal learning rule for prediction learning in a stochastic environment and what are its behavioral implications? How should motivational states (such as hunger or satiety) affect action selection and response rates? Through what neural mechanisms are these effects realized, and can this explain why dopamine influences response vigor? How does the brain identify which are the critical aspects of a task that should be represented and learned about? What are the implications of this fundamental learning process on the interactions between attention systems in the prefrontal cortex and reinforcement learning systems in the basal ganglia?

 

 

Ramot Daniel

Personal Details:
Dept. of Molecular and Cellular Psysiology - Stanford University, USA
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Title of Research:
"The Neural Basis of Memory Storage"

February 2006
Since receiving the scholarship in 2004, I have continued to make progress towards a cellular and molecular understanding of how a single, identified neuron in C. elegans is modified by experience. I have successfully recorded electrical signals from an identified thermosensory neuron, AFD, in vivo and characterized this neuron's response to thermal stimuli. By applying the same thermal stimuli to animals exposed to different conditioning temperatures I am in the final stages of characterizing how AFD's response to temperature is modulated by prior experience. I am also in the preliminary stages of testing a molecular model for how thermosensory responses are transduced by AFD, and how experience modifies these molecular pathways. It is my hope to complete a first manuscript detailing these findings by this summer.

At this point my plans for the future are to complete my PhD by the end of 2007.

 

Present Time Dimension - Leadership: Changing Our World

Casiro Jessica

Personal Details:
Department of Sociology - Boston University, USA
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Title of Research:
"Angels in Hell: Argentina's Willing Altruists"
January 2006
I conducted field research in Argentina in 2003 for five months and I spent the rest of 2003, 2004 and the first part of 2005 analyzing the data and writing up my dissertation. I successfully defended my dissertation on July 2005. My project is entitled : "Angels in Hell: A study of Argentine rescuers during the political killings of 1976-1983". I am currently working on publishing some articles from this project and the whole manuscript as a book. I have moved to Sydney, Australia and I am currently working as a Research Associate at the Australian Graduate School of Management studying in particular the field of social networks.

Kerret Dorit

Personal Details:
Dept. of Geography and the Human Environment - TAU
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Title of Research:
"Complementary Approaches to Environmental Enforcement - an Israeli Perspective"
December 2005
I accomplished my dissertation and was granted my PhD at December 2004.
I was awarded the Fulbright and the Rothschild Fellowships and spent a year at Harvard School of Public Health as a Post-Doctoral Fellow.
Some of the results of my PhD research have just been published at the Penn State Env. Law Rev. I am still working on writing some other papers as well.
I have been offered a Porter Fellowship at the Department of Public Policy at TAU where I will start working & teaching the following semester.
My plans are to continue my research at the field of environmental policy teach and start the tenure track at the School of Public Policy at TAU.

Neumann Cora

Personal Details:
Dept. of International Development Studies - University of Oxford, UK
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Title of Research:
"Curing in Crisis: Dr. Cynthia Maung, A Leader in Refugee Health"
A short summary of achievements, December 2005

Reynolds Ryan

Personal Details:
Theatre and Film Studies Department University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand
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Title of Research:
"Moving Targets: Political Theatre in a Post-Political Age"
My research continues into new methods of political theatre, both on the Left and the Right, with emphasis on interrogating the relationship between aesthetics and politics. My research comprises both theoretical and practical components, with all theoretical ideas being "field tested" through my work with Free Theatre Christchurch (www.freetheatre.org.nz) and all fieldwork being subjected to theory. I of course scrutinize the work and theory of "political theatre" practitioners such as Brecht, Meyerhold, Artaud, and Boal, but also incorporate poststructuralism (especially Baudrillard and Deleuze), legal and political theory (recently Agamben), and psychoanalytic approaches to politics (the Frankfurt School, Lacan, Zizek).

SHAKED Dafna

School of Government and Policy, Tel Aviv University
'The Second Career of High-Ranking Military Officers'

Past Time Dimension - Cities: Historical Legacy

 

Cagaptay-Arikan Suna

Personal Details:
School of Architecture - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

Title of Research:
"Visualizing the Cultural Transition in Bithynia: Byzantine-Ottoman 'Overlap" Architecture'"

December 2005
This project examines the fascinating range of architectural activity in Bithynia over the course of the fourteenth century. In specific terms, I look at the architecture of fourteenth-century Bithynia (northwestern Asia Minor) in order to evaluate how Ottoman builders reused the existing Byzantine architectural monuments, forms, construction techniques and decorative details and describe the character and context of the resulting hybrid forms. The period itself represents a transition in rule, which led scholars to view Byzantine and Ottoman as separate cultures, and their architecture as belonging to distinct traditions. Material culture in Bithynia, however, does not obey the divisions imposed by political history; in fact, there are such striking similarities in the two architectures of this region that they should be viewed together. I contend that architecture can serve as an indicator of ethnic identity and cultural exchange with regard to the political changes in Bithynia. In doing so, I demonstrate a multi-disciplinary approach using sociological and cultural studies and methodologies and display how architecture plays in a determinant fashion upon human activity and becomes a template of social and cultural identity.

 

 

ECKER Yehoshua

School of History, Tel Aviv University
'Jewish Elite in the Service of the Ottoman State - Late Seventeenth-Early Nineteenth Centuries: The Jewish Paymasters of the Janissary Corps'

 

 

ELI Yossi

The School of History, Tel Aviv University
'Meeting in Taksim - The District of Beyoglu and the New Turkish Culture (1928-91)'

 

 

Lifschitz Avi

Personal Details:
Faculty of History and Lincoln College - University of Oxford, UK
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Title of Research:
"Debating Language: Academic Discourse and Public Controversy in the Berlin Academy under Frederick the Great"
Summary of Research, June 2006

 

 

MONTERESCU Daniel

Department of Anthropology, The University of Chicago, USA
'The Limits of Coexistence in the City: Urban Space, Ethnic Relations and the State in Jewish-Arab Mixed Towns, 1948-2003'