Summer 2008 TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY REVIEW Releasing Energy from Nature Combat-Related Trauma New Solar System Jewish Humanitarian Aid Conference Officers of Tel Aviv University Robert Goldberg Chairman of the Board of Governors Dov Lautman Chairman of the Executive Council Prof. Zvi Galil President Prof. Dany Leviatan Rector Mordehai Kohn Director-General Prof. Hagit Messer-Yaron Vice President for Research and Development Dr. Gary Sussman Vice President for Development and Public Affairs Yehiel Ben-Zvi Vice President STOP PRESS Dr. Raymond R. Sackler, Michael H. Steinhardt Honorary Chairmen of the Board of Governors Dr. h.c. Karl Heinz-Kipp, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Governors Dr. h.c. Josef Buchmann, Stewart M. Colton, Dr. h.c. Raya Jaglom, John Landerer CBE AM, Hugo Ramniceanu, Adolfo Smolarz, Melvin S. Taub Vice Chairmen of the Board of Governors Prof. Raanan Rein Vice Rector Prof. Shimon Yankielowicz Pro-Rector Prof. Hannah Naveh Gore, Oz and Stoppard among 2008 Dean of the Yolanda and David Katz Faculty of the Arts Dan David Prize Winners Prof. Ehud Heyman Dean of the Iby and Aladar Fleischman The Dan David Prize, administered by Tel Faculty of Engineering Aviv University, has announced this year’s Prof. Haim J. Wolfson Dean of the Raymond and Beverly Sackler winners: In the Present Time Dimension, for Faculty of Exact Sciences Prof. Shlomo Biderman social responsibility with particular emphasis Dean of the Lester and Sally Entin on the environment, the prize goes to former Faculty of Humanities Prof. Hanoch Dagan US Vice President Al Gore; in the Past Time Dean of the Buchmann Faculty of Law Dimension, for creative rendering of the past Prof. Yoel Kloog Dean of the George S. Wise in literature, theater and film, the prizes go to Faculty of Life Sciences writer Amoz Oz, playwright Sir Tom Stoppard Prof. Asher Tishler Dean of the Faculty of Management—Leon and filmmaker Atom Egoyan; and in the Future Recanati Graduate School of Business Administration Time Dimension in geosciences, the prizes go Prof. Yoseph Mekori to Prof. Geoffrey Eglinton of the UK and Prof. Dean of the Sackler Faculty of Medicine Prof. Noah Lewin-Epstein Ellen Mosley-Thompson and Prof. Lonnie G. Dean of the Gershon H. Gordon Thompson of the USA. Faculty of Social Sciences Prof. Yoav Ariel Dean of Students Prof. David Menashri Dean for Special Programs Cover Story: Renewing Our Thinking about Soothing the Energy 2 Trauma 10 With concerns for global TAU leads the way in the warming on the rise, TAU development of effective and scientists are pioneering new humane psychological first aid for forms of energy that could combat veterans. overcome the limitations of current technologies. Hillel Breaks the Mold 9 As the new head of TAU’s Hillel TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY REVIEW Summer 2008 Center, Ethiopian immigrant Pnina Gaday has a vision: to help more Issued by the Marketing Communications Office Ethiopian-Israelis gain access to Development and Public Affairs Division higher education. Tel Aviv University 22 Minutes with Ramat Aviv 69978 Tel Aviv, Israel Lior Geller 13 A TAU film graduate wins prizes Tel: +972 3 6408249 for his moving film about an Israeli Fax: + 972 3 6407080 soldier and Arab boy. E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.tau.ac.il Editorial staff for TAU Review and Insider Editor: Louise Shalev Contributors: Rava Eleasari, Talma Agron, Pauline Reich, Ruti Ziv, Karin Kloosterman, Ilana Teitelbaum, Gil Zohar, Judith Sudilovsky, Shoshana Kordova For Justice’s Sake 14 Graphic Design: Dalit Pessach Dio’olamot sections A joint law program with Graphics: TAU Graphics Design Studio/ Northwestern University is providing Michal Semo-Kovetz an important step to career Photography: Development and Public Affairs Division innovations 16 advancement for attorneys in Photography Department/Michal Roche Ben Ami, public law. Michal Kidron Additional Photography: Yoram Reshef; Jennifer Taylor digest 21 Illustrations: Raffael Blumenberg Administrative Coordinator: Pauline Reich Administrative Assistant: Roy Polad newsmakers 27 Translation Services: Sagir Translations, Eva Vaintrob Printing: Eli Meir Printing books 28 TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY REVIEW Summer 2008 Renewing Our Thinking cover story Unlimited, cheap air conditioning, about biofuel grown in the desert, electricity created through photosynthesis – Energy these are a few of the unexpected advances being made by TAU scientists in the field of renewable energy. The goal: Leapfrogging over current technologies that create more problems than they solve to find truly reliable, long-term solutions. searchers at TAU are making ofThe hiking combination oil prices and fears of great strides toward developing a Prof. Avi global warming has scientists variety of new energy technolo- Kribus racing to produce a viable alter- gies that are efficient, affordable pictured with his solar native to fossil fuels that will be and practical. Their goal is noth- collector. clean, renewable and generated ing less than a technological rev- Its solar radiation by natural resources. The energy olution. The multidisciplinary re- intensity is provided by such resources is usu- search is being carried out across 500 times By Ilana Teitelbaum By Ilana higher than ally environmentally-safe and the the campus as well as under the normal resources themselves are either auspices of TAU’s Porter School sunlight. renewable – such as plant matter of Environmental Studies, Israel’s for biofuels – or unlimited, such leading think tank in environ- as wind and sunlight. mental research. Unfortunately, the renewable “With some 30 senior faculty energy-generating technologies members and dozens of doctoral that are currently in place are and master’s students all working inefficient and costly, and in the intensively on renewable energy, case of biofuels, riddled with con- TAU is already making a global troversy. name for itself,” says the TAU Driven by their passion to re- President, Professor Zvi Galil. solve this global dilemma, re- 2 Renewing Our Thinking about Energy project, which has re- the tune of $400 billion. Meanwhile ceived funding from the Kribus is working on a device that is European Union for the small, efficient and cheap. next three years. “The Kribus is using the principle of EU considers his project concentration to collect sunlight a top priority,” says Prof. from a large surface area and direct Yehuda Benayahu, Head it onto a very small area, where the of TAU’s Porter School of light is then converted into energy. By Environmental Studies. using concentration, Kribus explains, While solar energy is the photovoltaic cells can be made in already used worldwide as much smaller sizes, thereby signifi- a source of electricity, its cantly reducing the cost of manufac- use is limited for a number ture. of reasons. One is ineffi- Kribus has also found a way to ciency: Even the most ef- dramatically increase the efficiency fective photovoltaic cells of the solar device. About 70% of (the devices which con- solar energy collected usually goes to vert light into energy) are waste, in the form of heat. Kribus has only 15%-30% efficient, developed the technology to trap this with the rest of the solar heat and use it as an additional energy energy going to waste. product. Additionally, these cells “This lost part of the solar energy are extremely costly to that we capture can’t be used as elec- manufacture, since they tricity, but it can be used as heat,” are made of the same ma- explains Kribus. “It can be used for terial as computer chips. water heating and space heating, and An example that dem- more interestingly we can use this onstrates the current heat as a form of energy for air condi- Dr. Hadas New under the Sun AL GORE TO SPEAK AT TAU RENEWABLE Mamane is Imagine if air conditioning came searching ENERGY CONFERENCE for new, without the hefty price tag of electric environmen- bills – if it was, in fact, freely available The former US Vice President and Nobel laureate will be in tally friendly Israel to accept the 2008 Dan David Prize at TAU technologies on a wide scale. Now imagine that un- to treat and limited air conditioning produced by TAU is convening a high-profile international conference on re- disinfect newable energy – the first in Israel – that will promote the research water non-polluting and affordable technol- ogy is a reality that is just around the and implementation of sustainable energy solutions for the benefit corner. Prof. Avi Kribus, a mechanical of all. Environmental responsibility guru Al Gore will give the open- engineer at TAU’s Fleischman Faculty ing address. Other speakers include figures representing the scien- of Engineering, has created a solar en- tific, industrial, financial and political aspects of renewable energy. ergy device that can power air condi- A special session will address Israel’s energy policy and future ener- tioning and heating while producing gy independence. The conference is being sponsored by the Pears electricity at the same time. Israel is Foundation, the Consensus Business Group and Ampal. a world leader in solar technology, having invented solar-powered water plight of solar energy technology can tioning. When you have strong sun- heaters, and Kribus’s research signi- be found in a recent issue of Scientific light you also need air conditioning, fies a new milestone on that historic American. The cover story advocates so it makes sense.” path. a national solar energy plan which But heat can’t be transported over A flurry of international inter- would involve building a solar plant large distances, and that leads to the est has been generated by Kribus’s on 30,000 square miles of land to next stage of Kribus’s plan: to devel- 4 Summer 2008 TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY REVIEW bines require high wind speeds to op- Developing countries don’t erate.