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On Behalf Of Michelle_Nevada
Sent: Sunday, May 31, 2009 14:43
To: BetarZOA; ChozrimExiles
Subject: [ChozrimExiles] $130 million brain research center to be built at
HebrewUniversity
May 31, 2009 20:34 | Updated May 31, 2009 20:46
$130 million brain research center to be built at Hebrew University
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
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Israel's largest brain research center will be built at the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem at a cost of $130 million, funded jointly by Lily
Safra - president of the Edmond J. Safra Foundation- and by HU.
She will announce the project officially during her visit to Israel this
week. Planned to be the most ambitious initiative of its kind in Israel's
history and one of the most important in the world, it will be called the
Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC).
The decision to invest in a center for brain sciences is based on the
findings of an international monitoring committee, whose members include two
Nobel laureates, Prof. Bert Sakmann and Prof. Richard Axel.
The committee determined that the level of research in the field of brain
sciences at HU is among the highest in the world, and that a newly equipped
center will enable the university to be ranked among the top five in the
world in this field. It will open immediately in existing facilities on the
Givat Ram campus, with dozens of staffers, and be announced officially at
the 72nd meeting of HU's board of governors meetings next week.
In addition, there will be lectures on the brain by leading researchers from
the university and overseas.
HU president Prof. Menachem Magidor said that thanks to the leadership
foundation, the university would be able to help solve one of the key
scientific questions of the 21st century - how the human brain works - by
discovering new medical approaches for treating neurological disorders and
applying new technologies that imitate the activity of the human brain."
According to the acting director of the ELSC, Prof. Eilon Vaadia, "With an
increasing aging population and a rise in the prevalence of neurological
disorders in old age, brain research should be a key issue in modern
society. In another 15 years or so, we as a society won't have the financial
capacity to support all the health problems for the growing ageing
population, and so we must quickly find solutions."
Lily Safra said before her departure from her home in Geneva, "Understanding
the brain is the premier challenge of our time, and I am confident that the
Hebrew University's investigators and students will make a profound impact.
My husband Edmond [who established the Edmond J. Safra Foundation] would
have been so proud that his name is linked to an initiative that brings new
hope to families around the world suffering from Parkinson's, Alzheimer's
and other devastating brain diseases."
The ELSC will pursue five different inter-cooperative fields of brain
research: Genes, molecules and nerve cells in the brain; the structure and
function of local neuronal circuits; electrical activity and the
communication between brain areas, with the aim of understanding how senses,
movement and thoughts are created; cognitive processes and will focus mainly
on aspects of human brain function; and theoretical fields, computational
aspects and building models of the nervous system, proposing new experiments
and predicting their results. It will recruit an additional 15 members of
staff to undertake the research.
"The foundation's projects in Israel form one part of our activities that
span over 50 countries," said Safra. "Our commitment to supporting our
partners in Israel, as in other countries, remains the same, especially
during these hard times, when so many foundations are being forced to reduce
the scope of their work. My inspiration has always been my husband Edmond,
who considered philanthropy to be a duty and devoted his legacy to helping
the less fortunate now and for generations to come."
The foundation will donate an unprecedented $50m. towards the project - the
largest gift of its kind ever made for establishment of an Israeli research
center. HU is seeking additional funding from its friends in Israel and
around the world.
It is estimated that, among its grants worldwide, the foundation will invest
over $30m. in Israeli non-profit organizations in 2009 alone. During the
last decade, it has provided over $250m. in assistance to educational,
medical, scientific, cultural and community projects in Israel. In the
summer of 2007, in commemoration of what would have been her husband's 75th
birthday, the foundation made special donations of $180,000 to each of 75
organizations in Israel, totaling $13.5m., in addition to its regular grant
making program.
Lily Safra also will also inaugurate the Edmond J. Safra Center for the
Study of Learning Disabilities at the University of Haifa. The foundation
recently made a supplementary grant to this center for an educational
enrichment program benefiting Israeli Arabs. This additional donation
supplements a previous grant made to the University of Haifa as part of the
foundation's $31m. program addressing the "brain drain" problem in which
Israelis who studied here remain abroad after finishing their post-doctoral
work abroad rather than returning to Israel universities.
Edmond J. Safra, one of the 20th century's most accomplished bankers and a
dedicated philanthropist, established a major philanthropic foundation to
ensure that needy individuals and organizations would continue to receive
his assistance. Following his death in 1999, and now under the chairmanship
of his widow, the foundation has assisted hundreds of organizations in over
50 countries.
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