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  • June 27, 2024
  • Tel Aviv

Luncheon with the German Federal Minister of Education and Research on the occasion of the German Studies Conference 2024

On Thursday, June 27, 2024,  German Federal Minister of Education and Research, Ms. Bettina Stark-Watzinger and her delegation visited Israel on the occasion of the German Studies Conference hosted by the Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem.

GIF Director, Dr. Eric Zimmerman, had the great honor to be invited to a luncheon with the ministerial delegation at ANU Museum in Tel Aviv. Minister Stark-Watzinger expressed her solidarity with Israel and her appreciation of German-Israeli research cooperation.

Dr. Zimmerman greeted the guests with the following remarks:

Good afternoon, Madam Minister,

My name is Eric Zimmerman, Director of GIF. We are grateful for your visit yet again. We do not take your personal ongoing demonstrative show of solidarity lightly. 

I have met you on a few occasions, here twice, always accompanied by the top academic leadership of Germany – today with our dear friends Gerald Hauge and Georg Schütte, last time with Profs Wiestler and Hanselka. This is a testament to your courageous leadership and to the vitality and importance of our partnership. 

There is much more we need to do to ensure future generations of meaningful and impactful collaboration in science and innovation. We need to hold a frank conversation, confront our challenges, and develop a roadmap with the necessary resources invested. 

With GIF as the recognized centerpiece of this academic and research partnership, you may be assured of a relationship based on full reciprocity, integrity, scientific excellence, and mutual respect.

 

The further participants of the delegation included:

Mr. Georg Schütte, Secretary General and manager of the Foundation Volkswagen

Prof. Gerald Haug, President of the Leopoldina

Mr. Nils Droste, Press Officer

Ms. Viktoria Venus, Personal Assistant of the Minister

Ms. Verena Kölsch, Policy Officer

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Emma Link

Grants Manager

ISRAEL

GIF STAFF

Emma joined the German Israeli Foundation (GIF) team in 2014. She is the Grants Manager and is responsible for the life cycle of our grants, working with grantees from pre-grant to closing.

Prior to joining GIF, Emma worked in resource development for non-profit organizations in Israel.  She was responsible for grant writing, and designed campaigns and events for worthy causes.

Emma completed her studies at Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia.  She worked in graduate recruitment and human resources before moving to Israel with her family in 2000.

Emma is committed to the goals of GIF and takes pride in the research collaborations and friendships created between scientists in Israel and Germany.

t.b.a.

 

ISRAEL

GOVERNOR

Professor Dan Meyerstein

Ariel University

ISRAEL

GOVERNOR

Dan Meyerstein, born in 1938 in Jerusalem, Israel, earned his M.Sc. in Physical Chemistry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem between 1956 and 1961. He then worked at the Soreq Nuclear Research Center from 1961 to 1965, during which he pursued his Ph.D. studies at the Hebrew University under the supervision of Prof. M. Anbar. After completing his studies, Meyerstein spent a year as a Research Fellow at Argonne National Laboratory in the U.S. He began his long academic career in 1968 at the Chemistry Department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, where he served until 2004, including a joint appointment with the Nuclear Research Centre Negev from 1968 to 1983. He later became Professor Emeritus at Ben-Gurion University in 2004 and has held a position at Ariel University since 2012.

Throughout his career, Meyerstein has made significant contributions to the scientific community, serving as President of both the Israel Chemical Society (1988-91) and the Ariel University (1995-2012). He also chaired the Israel Society for Oxygen and Free Radical Research from 1998 to 2000. Meyerstein’s achievements have been recognized by numerous honors, including the Meitner-Humboldt Research Prize in 1997, the Kolthoff Prize in 1998, and election to the Academia Europaea in 2011. His accolades also include the Israel Chemical Society Prize of Excellence in 2017, a special issue of the Journal of Coordination Chemistry in 2018, and a Dr. Honoris Causa from the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2019. In 2024, he will be honored with both a symposium at the ACS Spring Meeting and the Dionysiou Advanced Oxidation Technologies Award.

 

Professor Sarit Kraus

Bar-Ilan University

ISRAEL

GOVERNOR

Sarit Kraus (Ph.D. Computer Science, Hebrew University, 1989) is a Professor of Computer Science and Dean of the Faculty of Exact Sciences at Bar-Ilan University. Her research is focused on intelligent agents and multi-agent systems integrating machine-learning techniques with optimization, logic and game theory methods. In particular, she studies the development of intelligent agents that can interact proficiently with people and with robots. She has also contributed to the research on machine learning, XAI, agent optimization, decision support systems, robustness,  automated negotiations, autonomous vehicles, homeland security, adversarial patrolling, social networks and nonmonotonic reasoning.

For her work, she received many prestigious awards. She was awarded the IJCAI Computers and Thought Award, the IJCAI Research Excellent Award, the ACM SIGART Agents Research Award, the ACM Athena Lecturer, the EMET prize, and was twice the winner of the IFAAMAS influential paper award. She is an ACM, AAAI and EurAI fellow and a recipient of the advanced ERC grant. She also received a special commendation from the city of Los Angeles, together with Prof. Tambe, Prof. Ordonez and their USC students, for the creation of the ARMOR security scheduling system. She has published over 400 papers in leading journals and major conferences, co-authored five books and was IJCAI-2019 program chair and was elected as IJCAI-2027 conference chair.  She is an elected member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

Professor Yoram Weiss

Hadassa Medical Organization

ISRAEL

GOVERNOR

Dr. Yoram Weiss was appointed Director General of Hadassah Medical Organization, following his tenure as Director of Hadassah Medical Center, Ein Kerem (2014 – 2021). He previously held the position of Medical Director of Hadassah Ein Kerem (2013 – 2014), Chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology (2009-2014) and Director of the Center for Surgical Critical Care Medicine (2006-2009).

 

Dr. Weiss received his MD degree from the Israel Institute of Technology – Technion, Haifa, Israel in 1990, following which he trained in Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at Hadassah and the University of Pennsylvania.

 

Dr. Weiss has more than 20-years’ experience treating patients undergoing major surgical operations and patients suffering from complex multi-organ failure in the ICU. He has extensive experience in both basic and clinical research including the design and execution of large-scale clinical trials.

 

In recent years, Dr. Weiss has served on the Board of Directors of several biotech companies. Dr. Weiss twice won the prestigious research grant of the National Science Foundation and the European Critical Care Research Network Basic Science Award from the European Association for Intensive Care Medicine.

Elke-Vera Kotowski

Dr. Elke-Vera Kotowski

Moses Mendelssohn Foundation

GERMANY

GOVERNOR

Dr. Elke-Vera Kotowski studied political science, literature, philosophy and cultural studies in Duisburg and Berlin.

She has been researching and teaching at the University of Potsdam since 1994 and was involved in the establishment of the “Jewish Studies” course at the University of Potsdam.

Her research areas are European-Jewish literary, cultural, and social history with a focus on the history of identity and mentality of German-speaking Jewry in the 19th and 20th century.

A special area of research that Ms. Kotowski has been conducting since 2012, in cooperation with the German Foreign Office and German embassies, among others, is the cultural heritage of Jewish emigrants worldwide.

From 2009-2016, she was the academic coordinator of the Walther Rathenau Graduate School in the network of Berlin and Brandenburg universities.

She has been a member of the Selma Stern Center for Jewish Studies Berlin Brandenburg since its founding (2011). She has also been chief curator of the Moses Mendelssohn Foundation and executive director of the Moses Mendelssohn Institute since 2020.

She is currently developing a documentation center on the history of the Berlin deportation site “Platform 17” as well as a student living and working campus for the development of new concepts of commemoration and remembrance in the German-Jewish context (www.else-ury-campus.de).

Gila Gamliel

Gila Gamliel

Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology.

ISRAEL

CO-CHAIRPERSON

Gila Gamliel is an Israeli politician who currently serves as a member of the Knesset for the Likud party, and as Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology.

Gamliel is the first woman to serve as the chairperson of The Israeli Student Union, and served as a member of the World
Economic Forum.

During her first term in the Knesset starting in 2003, she chaired the committee of the Status of Women, and in March 2005 was appointed Deputy Minister of Agriculture.

In April 2009, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed Gamliel as Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, with the portfolio of the Advancement of Young People, Students, and Women.

In 2013, Gamliel was appointed as the Coalition Coordinator in the Finance Committee and was one of the leaders of The Centralization Law.

After the 2015 elections, Gamliel was appointed Minister for Senior Citizens in the new government. Her ministry was then reconstituted as the Ministry for Social Equality in August 2015.

In May 2020, Gamliel was appointed as Minister for Environmental Protection, and led significant programs in dealing with the climate changes.

In 2023 Gamliel served as the Minister of Intelligence, the first female in the position and a participant in the Security Cabinet of the government.

In March 2024, Gamliel was appointed as the Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology.

Gamliel is married, with two daughters, and lives in Tel Aviv.

Prof. Avi Rivkind

Hadassah Medical Center

ISRAEL

GOVERNOR

Professor Avraham Rivkind, M.D., F.A.C.S. Professor of Surgery, former Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine and Head of the Shock Trauma Unit in the Department of the General Surgery at Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem. He received his Doctorate in Medicine from the Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School in 1980. Personal physician to the late President of the State of Israel, Mr. Ezer Weizman, as well as advisor to the Surgeon General of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on general surgery, trauma and ethics. Professor Rivkind completed a Fellowship in traumatology and critical care at the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services System (MIEMSS), Baltimore, Maryland, and was a visiting Associate Professor in Trauma and Fore-gut surgery at the University of Southern California. He is Chairperson of the Israel Committee on Trauma, and Director of the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) Program, Jerusalem, Israel.
Professor Rivkind was awarded the Karl Stoll Chair in Surgical Trauma and was recently honored by the State of Israel as a torchbearer for Israel’s 75th Independence Day ceremony. Professor Rivkind is a widely recognized expert in natural disaster management, motor vehicle accidents, and identifying and treating blast injury as a result of shock waves. His research interests include hemorrhagic shock, fluid re-suscitation and all aspects of trauma care; primary interests in fore-gut surgery, gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD), esophageal and stomach diseases and cancer.

Katharina Even

Germany Liaison and Program Manager

ISRAEL

GIF STAFF

Katharina joined the German Israeli Foundation (GIF) for Scientific Research and Development as Germany Liaison and Program Manager in June 2024. In her recent position at the Free State of Bavaria – Israel Office (2019-2024), she oversaw the organization of cultural and educational collaboration projects promoting Bavarian-Israeli relations and cooperated with various institutions in the field of youth exchange. During her work at the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Israel (2017-2019), Katharina managed a range of projects focusing on European-Israeli relations as well as Israeli public opinion polls. Katharina obtained her university degree in Latin and French Studies at the University of Regensburg, Germany. With a background in cultural diplomacy and international relations, Katharina is passionate about fostering the scientific cooperation between Germany and Israel.

t.b.a.

Scientific Director

ISRAEL

GIF STAFF

Verena Shifferman

ISRAEL

GIF DIRECTOR

Prof. Yehuda
Skornick

Tel Aviv University

ISRAEL

GOVERNOR

Born in Israel Board certified surgeon since 1978.

Served in IDF as chief surgeon of The Army Frontline Field Hospital.

Basic Research at the Membrane department of the Weitzman Institute of Science (1978-1980).

Visiting Scientist at the Surgery Branch, National Cancer Institute, the National Institute of Health (NIH) Bethesda Maryland, USA 1980-1982, 1988.

Full Professor of Surgery at the Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University. Served as the head of Surgery Department at the Tel Aviv Medical Center (Ichilov Hospital).

Former President of Magen David Adom (MDA), the Israel Pre-hospital emergency services.

Currently, board member of the friend organization of MDA.

Active in the “Advanced Surgery Group”, Assuta Medical Center, Tel Aviv.

Served as the Chairman of the Committee for the Early Cancer Detection at the Israel Cancer Association.

Served as member in the Research committee of the Israel Cancer Association and at the Research committee of the Israel Ministry of Health.

Member of the American Society of Surgical Oncology.

Member of the Board of Trustees, The Bar-Ilan University Ramat Gan.

Board member of the Israel Opera. Board member of the Israel Culture and Art Council and chairman of its Music Section committee.

Publications: More than 150 original articles published in international professional journals and as chapters in books.

Active participation in more than 400 international scientific conferences.

Professor Dr. Eva Unger

Humboldt University of Berlin / Helmholtz Centre Berlin (HZB)

GERMANY

GOVERNOR

Experience & Education

January 2022 – Present: Professor, Humboldt University of Berlin 

January 2016 – Present: Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin

November 2020 – Present: Senior Lecturer, Lunds University

August 2014 – Present: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Lunds University

July 2012 – June 2014: Postdoctoral Fellow, Stanford University

May 2007 – March 2012: PhD Physical Chemistry, Uppsala University, Sweden

2005 – 2006: Inorganic Chemistry, Stockholm University

2003 – 2006: Dipl. Chem./ Chemistry, Philipps University of Marburg, Germany

Professor Monika
Wohlrab-Sahr

University of Leipzig

GERMANY

GOVERNOR

Monika Wohlrab-Sahr was born in 1957. She studied Protestant Theology and Sociology from 1976 to 1985.

She holds a doctorate in sociology from Philipps-University Marburg (1991) and a Habilitation from Free University in Berlin (1998). From 1999-2006. Monika Wohlrab-Sahr has been professor of Sociology of Religion at the University of Leipzig, since 2006 she is professor of Cultural Sociology there. She was a research fellow at UC Berkeley, the European University Institute in Florence, the Centre for Advanced Study at JNU in New Delhi and at the University of Montréal. She has done research on conversion to Islam, Islam in Europe and – over many years – on secularity, at first related to the East German secularization process, and then expanding globally and historically. At present she is heading a big research project on “The Contested Legacy of 1989. Appropriations between Politicization, Popularization and Historical-Political Education”, and she is one of the directors (with Christoph Kleine) of the Centre of Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences on “Multiple Secularities: Beyond the West, Beyond Modernities” (funded by the DFG since 2016).

She has been on the Review Board for Social Sciences of the German Research Council (DFG) for 8 years, for 4 years she served as the spokesperson of this board. She also has been the director of the Leibniz-program at the University of Leipzig, and is member of several Scientific Advisory Boards and Editorial Boards.

Maximilian Metzger

Consultancy Activities

GERMANY

GOVERNOR

Professional Career

  • Since 01/2015 Retirement; Consultancy Activities
  • 08/2010 – 12/12014 Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Deputy Director General for International Cooperation in Education and Research
  • 08/2009 – 07/2010 Deputy Director General for Information and Communication Technologies; New Services at the BMBF
  • 06/2009 – 07/2009 Head of Division; Policy Issues of International Cooperation at the BMBF
  • 2004 – 2008 Secretary-General at CERN 2001 – 2004 Head of Division for European Research Organisations (CERN, ESO, ESRF, ILL. ETIN, DNW) at the BMBF
  • 1996 – 2001 Head of Division for Education, Science, Research, Technology and Nuclear Affairs at the Permanent Representation of Germany to the EU in Brussels
  • 1980 – 1996 Administrator and Head of Division in various divisions at the BMBF
  • 1978 – 1980 Judge at the Administration Court in Munich​

 

Education

  • 1977 2nd State Examination in Law
  • 1974 – 1975 Research Assistant in History of Law at the Universities of Munich and Augsburg
  • 1974 1st State Examination in Law
  • 1969 – 1974 Studies in Law and Philosophy at the University of Munich

Claudia Müller

State Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education

GERMANY

ACTING CHAIRPERSON

Claudia Müller, born in 1981 in Rostock, graduated from high school (Abitur) in 2002 and completed a degree in International Business Administration at the University of Applied Sciences Stralsund in 2007. In 2011, she entered politics, becoming a member of the District Council of Vorpommern-Rügen. She served as the chairperson of Bündnis 90/The Greens MV from 2012 to 2017 and was a member of the Supervisory Board of SWS Natur GmbH between 2014 and 2019.

Claudia has been a member of the German Bundestag since 2017, where she has held several significant roles, including serving on the Committee on Economic Affairs and Energy, the Committee on European Union Affairs, and the Subcommittee on Regional Economic Policy and ERP Economic Plans. Between 2021 and 2023, she was a member of the Committee on Defence and served as a substitute on the Committees on Transport and Digital Infrastructure, as well as the Budget Committee. Additionally, Claudia was a member of the Supervisory Board of the Seaport of Stralsund from 2019 to 2022 and acted as the Federal Government Coordinator for the Maritime Industry and Tourism in 2022-2023. Since 2023, she has held the position of Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture.

Cem Özdemir

Federal Minister of Education and Research

GERMANY

CHAIRPERSON

Cem Özdemir was born in Bad Urach on 21 December 1965. He is an educator by profession and graduated in social pedagogy from the Evangelische Fachhochschule für Sozialwesen in Reutlingen, Germany, in 1994.

In 1994, he was elected to the German Bundestag for Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (the German Green Party), becoming its first-ever member of Turkish descent. From 2004 until 2009, Mr Özdemir was a Member of the European Parliament, where he served as Spokesperson for Foreign Policy for his political group.

Between 2008 and January 2018, he served as Chair of his party, and was part of the lead candidate duo for the German Green Party in the 2017 general elections. From 2017 to 2021, he served as Chair of the Committee on Transport and Digital Infrastructure in the German Bundestag.

In the 2021 general elections, he was elected directly to the German Bundestag in the constituency of Stuttgart I. He has been part of the Federal Government in his capacity as Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture since December 2021. He has also been Federal Minister of Education and Research since 7 November 2024. Cem Özdemir is the father of two children.

©Janine Schmitz