8 of Israel´s most talented doctoral students received Adams Fellowships amounting to 1 million dollars
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8 of Israel´s most talented doctoral students received Adams Fellowships amounting to 1 million dollars

The Adams Fellowships are considered the most prestigious in Israel; Mr. Marcel Adams came to Israel to grant the scholarships and celebrate his birthday
17/07/2014
The Adams Fellowships are considered the most prestigious in Israel; Mr. Marcel Adams came to Israel to grant the scholarships and celebrate his birthday
 
This year’s recipients include Einat Seidel Posner, who combines her medical studies with doctoral research on the immune system while maintaining black-belt proficiency in karate; Yannai Gonczarowski, a student of mathematics and computer science and an avid opera singer; Jonathan Mosheiff, whose involvement in computer programming from age 7 won him four silver medals in international competitions while still in high school; and five more outstanding doctoral students. They received their prestigious Adams Fellowships at a ceremony at the Israel Academy on Tuesday, July 8, with the participation of Academy member and Nobel Laureate Prof. Dan Shechtman.
 
Eight exceptional doctoral students in the natural and computer sciences at Israel's research universities received the prestigious Adams Fellowships awarded by the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Each received a stipend of over $100,000 ($30,000 per year) and a full exemption from tuition for four years of doctoral studies.
 
Their fellowships was awarded on Tuesday, July 8, 2014, in a ceremonyheld during the Annual Adams Seminar held at the Academy in Jerusalem. The program, beginning at 5 p.m., will feature a guest lecture by Professor Dan Shechtman, Academy Member and 2011 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry.
 
According to Professor Ruth Arnon, the Academy’s President, the grantees undergo a rigorous screening process by the universities and the fellowship fund’s professional committee, ensuring that they represent the top cadre of the next generation of Israel's researchers in the natural sciences, mathematics, computer science, life sciences and engineering. The program’s alumni conduct their postdoctoral research at the world's most prestigious universities. To our great satisfaction, she says, many of these exceptional alumni return to Israel to fill prominent positions in the country’s research universities and high-tech companies. So far, 95 promising young Israel researchers have been granted these prestigious fellowships.
 
Mr. Marcel Adams of Montreal, Canada, established the fellowship fund at the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities in 2005. Mr. Adams, an ardent Zionist, came to Israel especially to grant the fellowships, meet personally with the fellows and with Israeli scientists and celebrate his 94th birthday. Born in Romania in 1920, Adams spent World War II in a Nazi labor camp and later fought in Israel’s War of Independence. He arrived in Canada in 1951 as a penniless Holocaust survivor and in 1958 founded his hugely successful real estate company. Despite his advanced age, he is still active in business and is at work every morning by 8 a.m. This year he will be accompanied by his extended family, who came to celebrate the Bat-Mitzva of his youngest granddaughter Dina, daughter of Linda Adams and Prof. Gil Troy, who reside with their family in Jerusalem.
 
Among this year’s awardees is Einat Seidel Posner, 29, a combined MD/PhD student who is researching the immune system and how viruses avoid it. Einat, born and educated in Jerusalem, was drawn to science and medicine from an early age via a youth science program. She has a sister who was born blind, and her mother established the Israel Association of Parents of Blind and Visually Impaired Children. Following her army service, Einat commenced her medical studies at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Faculty of Medicine and then temporarily put them on hold to concentrate on her fascinating research on the immune system. She also holds a black belt in karate and will soon represent Israel in its official delegation to an international karate competition. Einat resides in Jerusalem with her spouse and two pet chinchillas.
 
Yannai Gonczarowski, 33, is a doctoral student at The Hebrew University's Institute of Mathematics, in the School of Computer Science and Center for the Study of Rationality. Born and bred in Jerusalem, he became fascinated with science, physics and programming as a young boy and came in fifth in the National Physics Olympiad in 1997, at the age of 16. During his army service he served as an algorithm researcher and project director in the Intelligence Corps. He completed his BSc summa cum laude in mathematics and computer science in the Amirim Science Program for Excellence at The Hebrew University. His doctoral studies focus on Game Theory, on which he has already published a number of articles. Last year Yannai won an award as the university’s outstanding lecturer in computer science. Concurrently with his mathematical studies, Yannai completed a classical music degree in vocal studies at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. He performs regularly as an opera singer with choirs and opera ensembles throughout the country.
 
Jonathan Mosheiff, 28, a computer science student at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, focuses on the study of graphs. The son of Dr. Rami Mosheiff, an orthopedist at Hadassah Hospital, and Hila Mosheiff, a lecturer in computer science at The Hebrew University, Jonathan was attracted early to the computer keyboard and was a proficient programmer by age 7. He began his BSc studies in mathematics and computer science at the Hebrew University at 15, at the end of 9th grade, and while still in high school; he won four silver medals as a member of the Israeli team in international mathematics competitions. Today Jonathan coaches and is a member of the directorate of these competitions in Israel.
 
The other fellowship recipients are Rivka Bekenstein, who is doing her doctorate in physics at the Technion; Sharon Fleischer, a doctoral student of molecular microbiology and biotechnology at Tel-Aviv University; Ouri Karni, who is doing his doctorate in electrical engineering at the Technion; Omri Ram, a doctoral student of mechanical engineering at Ben-Gurion University and Eliran Subag, a doctoral student of mathematics at the Weizmann Institute.