Summit Program
The Dead Sea Research Institute
Second global scientific summit
Life in Extreme Conditions – A Lesson from Nature
March 11-13, 2019
Monday, March 11th
10:00 – 10:30 Greetings & Opening Remarks
Dov Litvinoff - Mayor, Tamar Regional Council in Israel’s Southern District
Prof. Joseph Klafter - President, Tel Aviv University (TAU)
Prof. Yona Chen - ICA Board of Directors
Porter Foundation - Dame Shirley Porter, Founder
10:30 – 12:30 Opening session:
Chair: Prof. Ehud Gazit - Faculty of Life Sciences, Academic Director of the BLAVATNIK CENTER for Drug Discovery, Head of the Laura Schwartz-Kipp Institute for Biotechnology, TAU
The Dead Sea: from the past to the future
Prof. Colin Price - Department of Geophysics, Head of the Department of Environmental Studies, Porter School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, TAU
Treasures & Uniqueness of the Dead Sea region
Dr. Mira Marcus-Kalish- Director, International Research Affairs, TAU, VC Medical Informatics HBP
Keynote
Advances in Soft Materials and their Impact on Aging Population and the environment
Prof. Samuel I. Stupp – Departments of Chemistry, Materials Science & Engineering, Medicine, and Biomedical Engineering Simpson Querrey Institute for Bio-Inspired Science and Technologies
Keynote
Microbiome - a New Frontier That Might Just Affect Everything
Prof. George Weinstock - Evnin Family Chair and Director of Microbial Genomics, Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, USA
12:30 – 13:30 Lunch
13:30– 15:30 Session II: Microbiome
Chair: Prof. Eliora Ron - President Elect of IUMS (International Union of Microbiological Societies), George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, TAU
Effect of exposure to sun on skin microbiome
Dr. Nurit Harel - School of Molecular Cell Biology and Biotechnology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, TAU
From halophilic viruses to antibiotic resistance
Prof. Uri Gophna - School of Molecular Cell Biology and Biotechnology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, TAU
The Terrestrial Holobiont: Ecological, agricultural and medical research
Dr. Amir Szitenberg - Dead Sea & Arava Science Center
Effect of E. coli vaccines on the microbiome
Dr. Mariagrazia Pizza - Discovery Project Leader R&D Centre GSK Vaccines
Microbial Variety in Desert Trees
Dr. Ashraf Al Ashhab - Dead Sea & Arava Science Center
15:30 – 16:00 Coffee Break
16:00 - 18:00 Session III: Geophysics / Climate
Chair: Prof. Michael Krivelevich, Dean Faculty of Exact Sciences
Lessons from the longest earthquake record in the world
Prof. Shmuel Marco - Department of Geophysical, head of the Porter school of the Environmental and Earth Sciences, TAU
Scientific, Political, and Ethical Challenges Facing a Sustainable Anthropocene
Prof. Jagadish Shukla - The Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies, George Mason University USA
Depletion, degradation, diversion – the death and life of inland seas as global policy challenge
Prof. David L. Feldman - Urban Planning and Public Policy, School of Social Ecology University of California, Irvine, USA
The Dead Sea rift as a unique site for sensor calibration from orbit
Prof. Eyal Ben-Dor - Department of geography, Porter school for environment study and earth science, TAU
First High-resolution Dead Sea Studies employing remote sensing and Meteorological model
Prof. Pinhas Alpert - Atmospheric Sciences, the Mikhael M. Nebenzahl and Amalia Grossberg Chair Professor in Geodynamics, Porter school for environment study and earth science, TAU
Pushing the limits of Earthquake Early Warning Systems: Is it time for A paradigm shift?
Dr. Hillel Bloch - Department of Geophysical, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, TAU
19:00 Dinner
Tuesday, March 12th
09:00 – 10:30 Session IV: Health – Extreme Responses to Extreme Conditions
Chair: Prof. Oliver Gunter - President, Potsdam University
Evidence-based therapeutic properties of the Dead Sea
Dr. Marco Harari, MD - Joint Research Institute on Climatotherapy for Skin Diseases at the Dead Sea, Hadassah Medical Center and Dead Sea & Science Center
Apple of Sodom (Calatropis procera) callus, a novel skincare active compound
Dr. Zeev Ma’or - CTO R&D, AHAVA - Dead Sea Laboratories
Expanding the Horizon for skin Restoration
How to battle UV-induced damage: a lecture from Nature
Dr. Guy Cohen, Dead Sea & Arava Science Center
10:30 – 11:00 Coffee Break
11:00 – 12:30 Session V: Health
Chair: Prof. Karen B. Avraham- Vice Dean, Sackler Faculty of Medicine
A novel platform for manipulating genes in health and diseases.
Prof. Dan Peer - Managing Director, Center for Translational Medicine, Department of Cell Research & Immunology, Chair, Cancer Biology Research Center, Faculty of Life Science, TAU.
Prof. Frank-Norbert Bittmann- Head of the Department of Regulatory Physiology and Prevention, Potsdam University
Desert Chemistry for Drug discovery targetting Cancer and Brain Research
Dr. Rivka Ofir- The Dead Sea & Arava Science Center
Pathways to a Cure: Space Age for the Aging Space
Mr. Homer Quintana (MCTM), Methodist Research Institute, USA
12:30– 13:30 Lunch
13:30 – 15:30 Session VI: Zoology – Adaptation to Extreme Conditions
Chair: Prof. Yoav Henis - VP R&D TAU
Are you a morning or an evening person? The adaptive significance of chronotypes
Prof. Noga Kronfeld-Schor - Head, School of Zoology, Head of Ecological and Evolutionary Physiology Laboratory, Faculty of Life Sciences, TAU
Using computer simulations and experiments to predict biological impacts of Climate change
Dr. Ofir Levy - School of Zoology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, TAU
Prof. Fritz Geiser - Director, Centre for Behavioral and Physiological Ecology (BPE), School of Environmental and Rural Science, New England University, Australia
Surviving the long, cold, and dark: Animal strategies for overwintering in the Arctic
Prof. Brian Barnes - Director, Institute of Arctic Biology, Professor of Zoophysiology, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Sugar as a source for antioxidant for nectarivores
Prof. Eran Levin - Zoology school, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, TAU
15:30-16:00 Coffee break
16:00 – 18:00 Masada Excavation
A guided tour with Dr. Guy Stiebel- Institute of Archeology, Lester and Sally
Entin Faculty of Humanities, TAU
18:00 – 19:00 Session VII: Humanities
Chair: David Benshabat - Director Dead Sea Research Institute, Head of Center for Regional Thinking
Prof. Jonathan Price - The Fred and Helen Lessing Chair of Ancient History, Lester and Sally Entin Faculty of Humanities, TAU
Transboundary Environmental Research- Nature knows no Borders
Dr. Tareq Abuhamed – Director of Academic Studies, Head of renewable energy, The Arava Institute
Regional Peace Activities in Extreme Conditions – From Owls to Space
Prof. Yossi Leshem – Department of Zoology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, TAU
20:00 Dinner at Ein Gedi Outdoors
Wednesday, March 13th
09:00 – 10:30 Session VIII: Botanic/Ecology/Energy
Chair: Prof. Abdussalam Azem - Dean, George Wise Faculty of Life sciences, TAU
How hydrogen production can be used to study and engineer photosynthesis to the extreme
Dr. Iftach Yacoby – Head of the laboratory for renewable energy studies, School of Plant Sciences and Food Security, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, TAU
Inorganic life of plants
Dr. Ofir Katz - Dead Sea & Arava Science Center
Mechanisms that monitor the development of plants in response to heat stress, drought and salt
Prof. Shaul Yalovsky - School of Plant Sciences and Food Security, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, TAU
Keynote: The Taken-for-granted Supply Chain
Prof. Jonathan Trent - Director, OMEGA Global Initiative; Biomolecular Engineering, UC Santa Cruz, NASA, USA
10:30 – 11:00 Coffee Break
11:00 – 12:10 Session IX: Humanities
Chair: Prof. Raanan Rein - Vice President, TAU
Prof. Noam Mizrachi – Acting Chair, Department of Biblical Studies, Faculty of Humanities
Millefiori - the reconstruction of Herod's royal horticulture
Dr. Dafna Langgut - Head of the Laboratory of Archaeobotany and Ancient Environments at the Institute of Archaeology, TAU
Keynote: The Globalization of Science
Prof. Alan I. Leshner - Chief Executive Officer, Emeritus, AAAS and former Executive Publisher, Science, USA
12:10 – 13:30 Panel Discussion - Joint Collaboration Opportunities
Prof. Alan I. Leshner - Chief Executive Officer, Emeritus, AAAS and former Executive Publisher, Science, USA
Prof. Theng Yin Leng - Research Director, Research Strategy & Coordination Unit, President's Office, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Dr. Rino Rappuoli - Chief Scientist & Head of External R&D GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Vaccines
Prof. Dana Burr Bradley - Dean, Erickson School of Aging Studies, Professor of Social Gerontology, University of Maryland, USA
Concluding Remarks
13:30 – 14:30 Lunch
Return to Tel Aviv
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