Winter 2010/11 TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY REVIEW Science and the Sacred Explosives Detection Digitizing Architectural Design Israel-India Ties Information Overload 9 New faculty member Prof. Ronitt Rubinfeld uses advanced math- ematical techniques Cover story: to make sense of the The Science of data deluge. Judaism 2 From digitizing the Cairo Geniza to studying biblical weather, TAU Honing Israel’s scholars are offering fresh scientif- Security Edge 10 ic perspectives on Jewish culture The Yuval Ne’eman Workshop in and religion. Science, Technology and Security influences Israel’s national security policy. Closing a Circle 14 A community TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY REVIEW outreach program Winter 2010/11 Winter helps children cope with the loss of a relative from cancer. Issued by the Strategic Communications Dept. Development and Public Affairs Division Tel Aviv University Ramat Aviv 69978 Tel Aviv, Israel Prizes 37 TAU physicist Prof. Yakir Aharonov Tel: +972 3 6408249 sections Fax: + 972 3 6407080 receives the US National Medal of Science from President Barack E-mail:
[email protected] Obama www.tau.ac.il innovations 16 Editor: Louise Shalev Contributors: Rava Eleasari, Pauline Reich, Ruti Ziv, Michal Alexander, Sarah Lubelski, Gil Zohar leadership 20 Graphic Design: TAU Graphic Design Studio/ Michal Semo-Kovetz; Dalit Pessach Dio’olamot Photography: Development and Public Affairs Division initiatives Photography Department/Michal Roche Ben Ami, 24 Michal Kidron Additional Photography: Ryan K Morris Photography and the National Science & Technology Medals associations 26 Foundation; Yaron Hershkovic; Avraham Hay, from the Wolfe Family Collection, courtesy of the Bible Lands Museum, Jerusalem; Yoram Reshef digest 34 Administrative Coordinator: Pauline Reich Administrative Assistant: Shay Bramson Translation Services: Sagir Translations, Offiservice newsmakers Printing: Eli Meir Printing 39 Officers of Tel Aviv University a Harvey M.