Each year, The Academy grants fellowships to doctoral students in the natural sciences, the life sciences, engineering, mathematics, and computer science, funded by the late Mr. Marcel Adams of Montreal, Canada. This year, seven outstanding doctoral students have been chosen to receive the prestigious Adams Fellowships. Each recipient will receive a stipend of NIS 100,000 per year for three to four years of study, together with USD 3,000 per year for travel abroad for professional advancement, in addition to exemption from tuition.

 

The fellowships were awarded to the seven recipients on Wednesday, August 18, 2021, in a ceremony held during the annual Adams Seminar at the Academy in Jerusalem. Mr. Marcel Adams’s son, Mr. Sylvan Adams, took part in the ceremony, at which fellowships were also awarded to last year’s recipients. In addition, two alumnae of the program were awarded Ruth Arnon Fellowships in the framework of a program initiated by Professor Ruth Arnon, former president of the Academy, to assist outstanding young women researchers, Adams Fellowships alumnae, in acquiring post-doctoral training abroad.

 

Professor Nili Cohen, President of The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, said: “The meticulous selection process of the universities and the Academy’s professional committee for the fellowship program ensures that the recipients of the fellowships, for the seventeenth consecutive year, represent the vanguard of the State of Israel’s future researchers in the natural sciences, mathematics, computer sciences, the life sciences, and engineering.” Professor Cohen added that alumni of the fellowship program have continued their training in post-doctoral programs at the world’s most prestigious universities. “We take pride in the fact that of the 123 alumni who have completed the fellowship program, 85 have been hired in research and development in universities, hospitals, and industry in Israel. The Adams family’s investment in these young, talented scientists strengthens and advances science in Israel.”

 

Since the late Mr. Marcel Adams (1920–2020) established the prestigious fellowships that bear his name under the auspices of the Israel Academy in 2005, they have been awarded to 149 promising young Israeli researchers. Mr. Adams, a devoted Zionist, was born in Romania in 1920. He escaped from the Nazi labor camp in which he was imprisoned during World War II and immigrated to Israel, where he fought in the War of Independence. He moved to Canada in 1951 and seven years later founded his real-estate company, which grew and expanded over the years. He established the fellowships in order to give back to Israel, where he had found refuge. Mr. Marcel Adams passed away in the summer of 2020 at 100 years of age.

 

“This is the first year since my father, Marcel Adams of blessed memory, left us. My father’s most important mission was to invest in people and advance science and higher education in Israel. It is a great honor for me to stand on this stage and award the science fellowships to young Israelis who bear the future challenges of humanity on their shoulders. You all belong to the Adams family now,” Mr. Sylvan Adams, the family’s representative, told the recipients.

 

This year’s seminar hosted Professor Daniel Haimovich, President of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, who delivered a lecture on “Why We Care about What Plants Know.”

 

 

 

Ms. Dana Binyamin, Bar-Ilan University

Ms. Dalya Baron, Tel Aviv University

Mr. Yonadav Barry Ginat, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology

Mr. Gil Bashan, Bar-Ilan University

Mr. Noam Lifshitz, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Mr. Noam Shahar, Tel Aviv University

 

Dr. Anael Ben-Asher, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology

Dr. Yael Korem Kohanim, Weizmann Institute of Science