On January 31st Professor Nili Cohen, the President of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, greeted the current Adams Fellows and several Alumni of doctoral students in the sciences, with a reminder of warm and generous Marcel Adams, whom she got to know personally in her capacity years ago as Rector of Tel-Aviv University. Then Professor Moti Segev, Chair of the Adams Fellowship Committee, described his view of the importance of originality in science. That turned out to be preparation for Professor Aumann's most original lecture on "Why Consciousness?" After a time for questions and answers Professor Ron Milo's spoke on "Using Evolution to Teach Bacteria to Turn CO2 into Sugars". Professor Milo, Professor of Plant and Environmental Sciences at the Weizmann Institute, gave a marvelous example of how to present science and set an example as a role model for the students to aspire to, and even to become members of the Israel Young Academy.
A lunch was followed by a poster competition, judged by the three alumni who attended the conference: Dr. Emanuele Dalla Torre, who after his PhD in physics at the Weizmann Institute and his post-doc at Harvard, joined the faculty at Bar-Ilan University; Dr. Moshe Goldstein, who after his PhD in physics at Bar-Ilan University and his post-doc at Yale, joined the faculty at Tel-Aviv University; and Dr. Avital Swisa, who after her PhD in Biochemistry at the Hebrew University's Faculty of Medicine and her post-doc also at the Hebrew University, joined Professor Yuval Dor's lab to research pancreatic cancer.
After the contest, the students went back to the meeting room to hear Professor Uri Sivan, Professor of Physics and Nanotechnology of The Technion, lecture on "Water and the Hydrophobic Interaction in 10,000,000 X Magnification". Professor Gil Troy, son-in-law of Marcel Adams and Professor of History at McGill University and Visiting Professor at the University of Haifa and the IDC Herzliya, followed with a lecture on "A Zionist Playbook for Israeli Post-Docs and Young Academics Studying Abroad". He expounded the importance of the students' awareness of their own personal identities before going abroad and entering the sometimes hostile arena of university campuses in North America and Europe.
The day closed with the announcement of the winners of the poster competition and the granting of their prizes. The winner of First Prize for 1,500 NIS was Ido Sagi and two second prize winners, Omri Azencot and Yannai Gonczarowski, received checks for 750 NIS each.