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Doctoral Students Win Goldsmith Prize for Research

Doctoral Students Win Goldsmith Prize for Research

January 18, 2016

Leadership, Awards & Events

Zaineb Tayeh and Helena Furman are this year’s recipients of the Prof. John R. Goldsmith Memorial Prize for student research and environmental activism at BGU.

The prize, which has been awarded for the past 10 years, includes substantial funding for the students’ Ph.D. studies.

Helena Furman is from the Department of Geography and Environmental Development and is studying the health effects of dust storms, an increasingly important topic in global climatology and especially in the Middle East. She is conducting her research under the supervision of Dr. Itzhak Katra and Prof. Michael Friger.

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Zaineb Tayeh (left) and Helena Furman (right)

Zaineb Tayeh, who is Jordanian, is the first Arab woman to receive the prize. She has just completed her M.Sc. under Prof. Rivka Ofir of the Shraga Segal Department of Microbiology and Immunology, and is working on isolating a particular plant compound to study its application as a potential cancer treatment.

The late Prof. John R. Goldsmith, for whom the prize is named, was one of the founders of the Department of Epidemiology at BGU and the father of Prof. Julie Cwikel of BGU’s Charlotte B. and Jack J. Spitzer Department of Social Work.

“Both topics – climate and dust in the environment and using Negev-based agriculture to improve cancer treatment – are on the cutting edge of science, and therefore the two are most worthy to receive this award in memory of my father,” says Prof. Cwikel.