| | 08 June, 2012
| | Hebrew University convocation: awards, prizes and a record 366 Ph.D.s | |
 | | Nobel laureate and honorary doctorate recipient Prof. Dan Schechtman |
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Prizes will be awarded to Bedouin rights activist Amal Elsana Alh’jooj and pioneering psychologist Reuven Feuerstein
Ceremony will be held as part of the 75th Session of the Board of Governors of the Hebrew University, on Sunday June 10, 2012
Leader of French academia Monique Canto-Sperber, Canadian Paralympics athlete and rights activist Rick Hansen, playwright and director Michael Gurevitch, Nobel Laureate Dan Shechtman and geologist Edward Stolper and are among the distinguished figures who will receive honorary Doctor of Philosophy degrees on June 10, at the opening session of the 75th meeting of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Board of Governors.
During the ceremony, the Solomon Bublick Prize for 2012 will be awarded to Amal Elsana Alh’jooj in recognition of her longstanding activism on behalf of the rights of the Bedouin in Israel, and the Samuel Rothberg Prize for Jewish Education for 2012 will be awarded to Professor Reuven Feuerstein for his extraordinary achievements in the treatment of children and adults with special needs.
A record 366 students will also receive their Ph.D.’s at the convocation ceremony.
The convocation will begin at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 10 at the Rothberg Amphitheatre, Mount Scopus campus. The full program of events can be seen at http://www.hubog2012.com.
About the Honorary Doctorates (listed in alphabetical order):
Monique Canto-Sperber
President of the Paris Sciences et Lettres research university, Monique Canto-Sperber is a prominent intellectual authority, leader of French academia and scholar of philosophy. A prolific author, she has held key positions on several of France’s leading academic institutes and public committees. She remains resolute in her commitment to Israel, raising her voice in opposing to ongoing calls in France to impose an academic boycott. She is a sincere advocate of the Hebrew University who has played a key role in furthering its ties with France’s leading academic institutions. She was pivotal in forging the groundbreaking 2011 partnership agreement between École Normale Supérieure and the Hebrew University, and is a regular guest speaker at the University’s European Friends association.
Michael Gurevitch
One of Israeli theater’s most important playwrights and directors, Michael Gurevitch has left an inimitable imprint on his craft as well as on his audience. Following his military service with the Northern Command Entertainment Troupe, he studied at the Nissan Nativ Acting Studio and then pursued further studies in directing and theater education in London. After serving as Habima’s house director for six years, he directed works at every theater in Israel, from the Cameri Theater to the Beer-Sheva Theater. Since 2001 he has been artistic director of Jerusalem’s Khan Theater, which he has transformed by setting new artistic heights and creating a highly popular venue that is regarded as one of Israeli theater’s leading and most thought-provoking showcases. In addition to his many prizes and awards, he has been “Director of the Year” at the Israeli Theater awards three times.
Rick Hansen
Advocate and athlete Rick Hansen has devoted his life to making the world more accessible and inclusive for people with disabilities. He has been a driving force in the creation of international research collaboration in spinal cord injury in which scientists from the Hebrew University are included. When a car accident left promising Canadian athlete Rick Hansen a paraplegic at the age of fifteen, he became the first student with a physical disability to graduate in physical education from the University of British Columbia, a champion wheelchair marathoner and six-time Paralympic medalist. In 1985 he led the two-year Man in Motion World Tour, which effected a collective shift in awareness of the needs of those with disabilities, and generated significant support for spinal cord injury research. His Rick Hansen Foundation was pivotal in the creation of the International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries research facility in Vancouver and Canada’s Rick Hansen Spinal Cord Injury Registry database. In recent years, Rick Hansen has joined forces with the Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University and the University of British Columbia to support spinal cord research, including the signing of a cooperative research agreement between the Rick Hansen Foundation and the Hebrew University’s Institute for Medical Research Israel-Canada.
Harry Hoffman
Respected businessman and leading member of Perth’s Jewish community, Harry Hoffman is a role model of charity who has extended longtime support to educational, social welfare and cultural causes in Western Australia and Israel. A Czech-born survivor of the Holocaust, Hoffman overcame the tragedies of his early years and eventually established the Ardross Group, one of Australia’s leading development concerns. Harry Hoffman is a life governor of the United Israel Appeal in Western Australia and chairman of the Korsunski Charitable Trust. Determined to provide others with the educational opportunities of which he was deprived, Harry Hoffman has supported many organizations and scholarships for Jewish students to study in Australia and at the Hebrew University. Harry and Sylvia Hoffman are loyal supporters and Honorary Fellows of the Hebrew University, and in 2007 they established the Harry and Sylvia Hoffman Leadership and Responsibility Program for graduate students at the Hebrew University, which is at the vanguard of the University’s efforts to cultivate leadership, social responsibility and intellectual curiosity among Israel’s future leaders. Their generosity has changed the lives of many young Israelis.
Dr. Bernardo Kligsberg
Dr. Bernardo Kligsberg is a renowned economist whose depth of vision is important in understanding socio-economic issues in Latin America. A prominent intellectual figure, he has trained future generations of researchers at universities in Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela and Spain. His writings on public administration, social development, public health, ethics and economics are required reading in many universities in Latin America. He has held positions and served as a consultant to international organizations such as the UN and the Inter-American Development Bank. An active supporter of Israel, Jewish communities and Jewish life in general, he has played a key role in helping Jewish communities and organizations in Latin America to deal with issues such as growing poverty. A loyal friend to the Hebrew University and Israel, his deep commitment is evident in his ongoing collaboration with several Friends associations in Latin America and especially with Argentinian Friends, as well as his work to strengthen ties between the Hebrew University and major academic institutions abroad.
Susan Koret
Susan Koret is a philanthropist, humanitarian, and patron of the arts. She serves as Lifetime Chair of the Koret Foundation, which her late husband Joseph Koret established in 1979 to realize his mission of giving back to the community and supporting Israel. She pays the highest tribute to her husband’s memory with her ongoing endeavors to benefit society, improving and enriching the lives of others. For over thirty years, she has perpetuated and enhanced his philanthropic legacy by extending aid to numerous local and international causes in the San Francisco Bay Area and Israel, including educational, welfare and community programs in the Jewish community, as well as substantial, broad support for San Francisco’s civic and cultural organizations. A loyal friend of the State of Israel and the Jewish people, she has been an ardent supporter of the Hebrew University for over thirty years. Her extraordinary generosity has been instrumental in the creation and growth of the University’s Koret School of Veterinary Medicine, Israel’s only veterinary school, which attracts veterinary students and professionals from around the world. She has inspired many others to follow her example, notably through her longtime involvement with the American Friends of the Hebrew University.
Professor Sir Fergus Millar
World-renowned historian Sir Fergus Millar, the Emeritus Camden Professor of Ancient History at the University of Oxford, has revolutionized our understanding of the Greco-Roman world and opened up new perspectives on our understanding of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. In his pioneering studies of largely neglected materials from the provinces, he laid the foundations for today’s dominant scholarly model of the Roman Empire and the Greco-Roman world. A prolific author, he was knighted in recognition of his services to scholarship in 2010. Sir Fergus Millar has been a frequent visitor and lecturer at the Hebrew University and other Israeli research institutes for over fifty years. He was a member of the Hebrew University’s Institute for Advanced Studies and is a frequent contributor to the journal of the Israel Association of Classical Studies Scripta Classica Israelica. His longstanding friendship with the Israeli academic world, and in particular with the Hebrew University, has been valued by generations of Israeli scholars.
Eitan Raff
An influential figure in Israel’s economic, leadership and public spheres, Eitan Raff is a devoted and longstanding friend of the Hebrew University. After earning degrees at the Hebrew University, he served as director of the Foreign Ministry’s Department of Foreign Transactions, economic advisor at the Israel Embassy in Washington, and accountant general at the Ministry of Finance. He held a series of key economic positions in Israel as chairman and director of several commercial companies. His longtime voluntary involvement with the community includes the non-profit Atidim organization which makes higher education accessible to youth from peripheral areas, and Youth Leading Change, which develops leadership and social involvement among young people. He has maintained a special relationship with the Hebrew University through his longstanding involvement with its Israel Friends association. He is a governor of the Hebrew University, has served on its Endowment Funds Committee and was chairman of the University’s Board of Managers for seven years.
Professor Dan Shechtman
Dan Shechtman is the Philip Tobias Professor of Materials Science at the Technion’s Department of Materials Engineering and Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Iowa State University. His groundbreaking discoveries have impacted materials science, physics, chemistry and the worlds of architecture and art. In the early 1980s, his discovery of a new world of crystals that lacked regular order was rejected by the scientific community, and he was expelled from a research group for fear that his claim would compromise its reputation. Professor Shechtman remained firm in his research approach, attaining far-reaching results which culminated in his being awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry in recognition of his achievements. Professor Shechtman is a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and of the American National Academy of Engineering. He is the recipient of numerous prizes and awards, including the 2011 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
Professor Janice Gross Stein
Political scientist and public activist Janice Gross Stein is a major figure in conflict management, decision-making studies, and humanist thought and action. As the Belzberg Professor of Conflict Management and Negotiation at the University of Toronto and the Founding Director of its preeminent Munk School of Global Affairs, she has pioneered several fields of political science including negotiation theory, foreign policy decision-making and international conflict management. She has authored ten books and over sixty articles, and provided valuable insights into the patterns of conflict and cooperation between Israel and Egypt. Throughout her career, Janice Gross Stein has taken the closest interest in the advancement of the Hebrew University. She was a guiding force in the establishment of the Halbert Centre for Canadian Studies at the Hebrew University and has been tireless in her efforts to forge strong and long-lasting academic ties between the Hebrew University and the University of Toronto, chairing several committees that promote collaborative ties between the two institutions, including the Halbert Foundation’s faculty exchange program.
Professor Edward M. Stolper
Edward Stolper has contributed greatly to our knowledge of igneous rocks on Earth and other planetary bodies. A professor of geology at the California Institute of Technology, he has played a leading role in ensuring Caltech's academic preeminence. He was among the first to confirm that meteorites found on Earth had originated from Mars, and he went on to show others to be of asteroid origin. He also advanced our understanding of the processes involved in the production of igneous rocks from molten magma and the role of water and other volatiles in melt formation and in the evolution of Hawaii and other volcanic hotspots. A committed friend of the Hebrew University, he has given his time and expertise to his colleagues, in particular those at the Fredy and Nadine Herrmann Institute of Earth Sciences. In 2005, he headed the first international academic review committee at the Hebrew University’s Faculty of Science, charged with assessing the activities of the Institute of Earth Sciences, and his thoughtful recommendations have proven instrumental in the Institute’s development.
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Downloadable File: hu120606_bog_hon_docs.pdf |
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