Celebrating the start of the 2016/2017 Academic Year at BIU, students excitedly gather to snap a selfie. Bar-Ilan University’s vibrant campus is home to 21,000 students, among them 1,250 Israeli Arabs (a 20% increase from last year!), about 140 members of the Ultra-Orthodox community, hundreds of French and Anglo Olim, and more than a dozen doctoral and postdoctoral candidates from China.
Also in this issue:
President's Message - December 2016 »
Solving a Cryptic Puzzle with a Little Help from a Hologram
Scientists from Bar-Ilan University and Harvard have cracked the code of several enigmatic experiments — performed over the past 15 years on superconductors — by developing a mathematical tool to find the shape of the electrons in these materials. Their recent discovery published in Nature Physics provides an innovative technique for calculating the shapes of electrons. This finding will help scientists gain a better understanding of the properties of complex materials, said Dr. Emanuele Dalla Torre of BIU's Dept of Physics.
A Life-Saving Israeli App
Reporty, the world's first free and easy-to-download video emergency app, was developed and is produced and marketed by a team of experts including a number of BIU grads.
BIU Alumna Empowers Social Change in Arab Sector
As a certified family and couples therapist in her native Nazareth, and a lecturer and Dean of Students at Sakhnin Academic College, Dr. Amal Fahoum-Taha is an agent of change in Israel's Arab sector. With a PhD in psychology from BIU and training in its Psycho-Cardiology Lab, she is making her mark, serving as a model for young Arab women.
The Biblical Judges: Flesh and Blood Heroes
Unlike heroic leadership stories in other cultures, the Book of Judges presents the leaders of Israel following Joshua's conquest of Canaan (ca. 1150 – 1025 BCE), with all their strengths and weaknesses. "We learn about their greatness, and of their major downfalls — often resulting from excessive of pride," notes BIU Bible Prof. Elie Assis, Dean of the Faculty of Jewish Studies.