BGU’s Desert Research Institutes to Receive Cleantech 2009 Environmental Excellence Award for Outstanding Academic Institution
BGU’s Desert Research Institutes to Receive Cleantech 2009 Environmental Excellence Award for Outstanding Academic Institution
June 29, 2009
Sde Boker, ISRAEL, June 29, 2009 – Ben-Gurion University of the Negev’s (BGU) Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research (BIDR) has won the CleanTech 2009 Excellence Award in the category of Outstanding Academic Institution in the Field of Environmental Studies.
CleanTech 2009 is a premier environment event in Israel, featuring professional conferences, seminars and symposia, as well as exhibitions where companies, researchers and professionals demonstrate new technologies and research developments.
The goal of the BIDR, located at BGU’s Sde Boker campus, is to carry out research on the desert environment required for promoting sustainable uses of the Negev Desert and other drylands worldwide.
Deserts and other drylands constitute more than 40 percent of the global land area. Environmental changes such as global warming and further desertification of drylands threaten more than one billion people in some 100 countries.
Due in part to technology developed at BGU, Israel is the only country in which the desert is receding.
Nearly 300 scientists, researchers, staff and students carry out a wide range of environmental projects at laboratories, classes and other facilities at the Blaustein Institutes, as well as at research stations and field research sites throughout the Negev Desert and globally.
The CleanTech Award will be presented in Tel Aviv on June 30th at CleanTech 2009 – the 13th Annual International Summit and Exhibition for Environmental Quality, Renewable Energy, Infrastructures and Water Technologies. The event will take place at the Israel Trade Fairs and Conventions Center in Tel Aviv.
View a video of the research being done at the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research.
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
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