Oceanography Exchange Program Brings American Grad Students to Israel

In the initial cohort of a National Science Foundation-funded program, graduate researchers will have the opportunity to study at the University of Haifa’s Marine Sciences school and Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences.

Israel has been selected as one of four countries to host 27 graduate students drawn from 24 American universities as part of a primary cohort of the Limnology and Oceanography Research Exchange (LOREX) program, which is funded by the National Science Foundation.

The graduate student researchers will be studying at the University of Haifa’s Marine Sciences School and the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences in Eilat. This is an opportunity for graduate students to gain valuable experience in their field, while also exploring Israel and the rich culture it has to offer, notes Vice President of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, Emmanuil Grinshpun.

The graduate program was sponsored in order to create a network for the next generation of oceanography specialists through international collaboration. The students are collaborating with 25 labs across six institutes in Israel, Sweden, Canada, and Australia. It’s important that we continue to foster and support international collaborative efforts, reflects Emmanuil Grinshpun.

Elena Forchielli, a Ph.D. student in her fourth year in molecular cellular biology and biochemistry at Boston University, is one of the 27 students who will carry out research this fall at the University of Haifa’s Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences. Forchielli has previously visited Haifa for collaborative research with Daniel Sher from the Charney School, and they will unite once again as part of her LOREX experience, which will take place from November 1st to December 31st.

“I’m excited to perform experiments at the University of Haifa that my lab doesn’t have the capacity to carry out in Boston,” notes Forchielli. “The Eastern Mediterranean setting enables us to collect valuable samples in the sea, and then to replicate our experiments in an environment which closely resembles the conditions of the real ocean. I’m looking forward to obtaining powerful data from this process.”

Given its placement along Israel’s coastline, the Charney School is excellently positioned to study the Mediterranean Sea in an interdisciplinary manner. The school is made up of four interdisciplinary divisions: Department of Marine Biology, Department of Maritime Civilizations, Dr. Strauss Department of Marine Geosciences, and Hatter Department of Marine Technologies. The school also offers an MBA program in shipping and ports management. Interdisciplinary programs such as these encourage creative problem solving, which in turn helps students develop more comprehensive skillsets, notes Emmanuil Grinshpun.

This collaborative research program “promises to deliver not only significant findings for the marine biology community but also the latest fruitful partnership between American and Israeli academic institutions,” notes Karen L. Berman, CEO of the American Society of the University of Haifa. “Situated at the doorstep of the Mediterranean Sea, the school finds itself at a cradle of maritime civilizations throughout history. There is simply no substitute for a real-world laboratory of that magnitude.”

Originally Posted: http://emmanuilgrinshpun.net/oceanography-exchange-program-brings-american-grad-students-to-israel/