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Artificial Reef Installed in Red Sea

Artificial Reef Installed in Red Sea

July 11, 2008

Press Releases

NEW YORK, NEW YORK — May 31, 2007 — The Marine Biology and Biotechnology Laboratory at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) has installed an artificial reef in the Gulf of Eilat, a collaboration between Israelis and Jordanians to restore local reef culture.


Ultimately, there will be two artificial reefs placed in the Israeli side of the Gulf, and two in the Jordanian area. Students and professors from both countries will work together to study the artificial reef and how it affects marine life.


The Marine Biology and Biotechnology Laboratory opened last winter on BGU’s Eilat Campus,   enabling students and professors to deepen and extend projects underway with local biotechnology companies. It will allow for the expansion of basic research into coral growth and bleaching, and applied research into the use of microalgae. “This state-of-the art facility will serve to accelerate science and produce new knowledge for the benefit of students, researchers around the country and the worldwide scientific community,” explains the dean of the Eilat campus, Prof. Shaul Krakover.


Prof. Amir Sagi, the head of the marine biology department at BGU’s Faculty of Life Sciences, has been working on the planning and execution of the lab for nine years, long before BGU opened its Eilat Campus in 2002. Students who concentrate in marine biology and biotechnology will now spend their first two years of university at BGU’s Beer-Sheva campus, and their third year in Eilat working at the new lab. The lab’s first group of 14 students, who Sagi calls “pioneers,” just completed their year of courses in Eilat.


BGU has been involved in recruiting new students into the Marine Biology and Biotechnology Program over the past few years and expects to have approximately 20 to25 students in the next academic year. The Faculty of Life Sciences also hopes to attract more marine biology and biotechnology faculty members to the lab.

ABOUT AMERICANS FOR BEN-GURION UNIVERSITY

By supporting a world-class academic institution that not only nurtures the Negev, but also shares its expertise locally and globally, Americans for Ben-Gurion University engages a community of Americans who are committed to improving the world. David Ben-Gurion envisioned that Israel’s future would be forged in the Negev. The cutting-edge research carried out at Ben-Gurion University drives that vision by sustaining a desert Silicon Valley, with the “Stanford of the Negev” at its center. The Americans for Ben-Gurion University movement supports a 21st century unifying vision for Israel by rallying around BGU’s remarkable work and role as an apolitical beacon of light in the Negev desert.

About Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev embraces the endless potential we have as individuals and as a commonality to adapt and to thrive in changing environments. Inspired by our location in the desert, we aim to discover, to create, and to develop solutions to dynamic challenges, to pose questions that have yet to be asked, and to push beyond the boundaries of the commonly accepted and possible.

We are proud to be a central force for inclusion, diversity and innovation in Israel, and we strive to extend the Negev’s potential and our entrepreneurial spirit throughout the world. For example, the multi-disciplinary School for Sustainability and Climate Change at BGU leverages over 50 years of expertise on living and thriving in the desert into scalable solutions for people everywhere.

BGU at a glance:  

20,000 students | 800 senior faculty | 3 campuses | 6 faculties: humanities & social sciences, health sciences, engineering sciences, natural sciences, business & management, and desert research.

 

For all press inquiries, please contact:

James Fattal, J Cubed Communications

516.289.1496

[email protected]