“GROWING OUR FUTURE – THE CHALLENGE AND PROMISE OF THE DESERT”
JNF together with FOIWA and the Centre for Water Research UWA
Present this vital and informative
PUBLIC LECTURE BY PROFESSOR PEDRO BERLINER
Director - Blaustein Institute for Desert Research of Ben Gurion University.
When: 4.00 pm Monday, 27th February 2012
Where: Blakers Lecture Theatre UWA
Off Fairway, Nedlands
Donations to a joint JNF-BGU project on desert afforestation will be most welcome. Donations above $2 in favour of the JNF Environment Gift Fund are fully tax deductible
Download a brochure here.
Ben-Gurion’s famous dictum that “In the Negev will the people of Israel be tested” has never been more appropriate and relevant than now and the great challenge that faces the present generation is how to ensure that the development of the Negev is sustainable both in its physical and human dimensions. The scarcity of water, food and energy in arid regions in general and of the Negev in particular are the focus of the research efforts of the faculty of the Blaustein Institute for Desert Research (BIDR). The problems facing the development of the Negev are however not unique, but are shared by other countries in arid or semi-arid regions of our planet and BIDR’s research efforts have therefore global relevance.
The motto of BIDR is to “turn curses into blessings”. High solar radiation, high temperatures and brackish water are usually perceived as negative features typical of deserts, but the researchers at BIDR have developed techniques that make use of these resources in order to produce energy, food and fodder thus promoting the sustainable settlement of the Negev. The latest developments in the various areas related to the research activities and their implications for the development of the Negev will be presented in the lecture.
About the Speakers:
Prof. Pedro Berliner BSc, MSc and PhD
Director of the Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Dr Berliner’s main research interest is the efficient use of water in rain-fed agricultural systems and planted forests in drylands.
Drylands have been settled since time immemorial and in order to be able to do so desert-dwellers developed ingenious techniques.
Dr Berliner has studied and developed the techniques that make use of flood waters for the irrigation of orchards and forests planted in arid zones, with a focus on the evaporation of water from the surface of bare soils and between the rows of crops.
He is involved in the development, testing and modeling of agricultural techniques that increase the water use efficiency of crops and planted forests.
President, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Professor Rivka Carmi was elected to serve as President of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev by the University’s Board of Governors in May 2006. She is the first woman to serve as president of an Israeli university.
Professor Carmi was born in Israel and is a graduate of Hadassah Medical School of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She completed a residency in pediatrics, a fellowship in neonatology at the Soroka University Medical Center and an additional two-year fellowship in medical genetics at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard University Medical School.
Professor Carmi served as Director of the Genetics Institute at the Soroka University Medical Center and held several important academic administrative positions in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Promoted to full professor in 1995, she is the incumbent of the Kreitman Foundation Chair in Pediatric Genetics. In 2000, she was elected Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at BGU – also the first woman to hold this position in Israel – and served in that position for five years. Between 2002 – 2005, she also served as the Chairperson of the Israeli Association of Medical Deans.
Prior to her entry into the administrative arena of the University, Professor Carmi’s research focused mainly on the delineation of the clinical manifestations and molecular basis of genetic diseases in the Negev Arab-Bedouin population. Author of over 100 publications in medical genetics, her research included the Identification of 12 new genes and the delineation of 3 new syndromes, one of which is known as the Carmi Syndrome. Her community projects were aimed at preventing hereditary diseases in the Bedouin community. She was deeply involved with the establishment of major biotechnology initiatives at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, primarily serving as the Acting Director of the nascent National Institute for Biotechnology in the Negev.
In addition to her duties as President, Professor Carmi remains a member and serves as a consultant of national, professional and public committees and organizations, is a scientific reviewer for various international journals and funding agencies and serves on the editorial board of prestigious scientific journals. Recent noteworthy honors she has received include: the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Yated organization for children with Downs Syndrome; the Achievement in Medicine Award by the Municipality of Beer-Sheva; the 2002 Award for Peace from the Canada International Scientific Exchange Program (CISEPO), to which she served as representative of the Israeli Medical Deans; the 2008 Women of Distinction Award of the Hadassah Women’s Zionist Organization of America; and in 2009, an award in excellence from the Israel Ambulatory Pediatric Association (IAPA).
In August 2010, Carmi also became the first woman to serve as the Chairperson of the Committee of University Heads in Israel.