Building research partnerships
"There are six or seven universities with which we have active agreements across a range of disciplines ..." says Professor Milette Shamir,
During their visit, academics from Tel Aviv University (TAU) have expanded the university’s partnerships with Australian tertiary institutions and strengthened existing collaborations.
Professor Milette Shamir, TAU’s international vice-president, listed a slate of disciplines it is sharing globally, including cybersecurity, computer sciences, mathematics, archaeology, neurosciences and climate change studies.
“There are six or seven [Australian] universities with which we have active agreements across a range of disciplines, with exchanges of faculty members and students and research collaboration,” she told The AJN.
Professor Karen Avraham, dean of TAU’s medical & health sciences faculty, spoke of research in AI, machine learning, regenerative medicine and precision medicine. “Much of this is tied into genetic diseases that occur in Israel, whether in the Jewish or Arab and Palestinian population.”
The TAU team held talks with University of NSW, University of Sydney, the Children’s Medical Research Institute, La Trobe University, Monash University and University of Melbourne.
“We’re very aware of strengths the Australian scientific community has and we’re keen to work together in strengthening our research. We sit in a major innovative area in respect to bio-med, health-tech and high-tech,” said Avraham, noting TAU’s research in genomics, cancer research and hearing health.
Through TAU’s Lowy International School, it is expanding graduate student exchanges and hosting Australian students in its international summer research program. TAU’s Exploration, Leadership & Innovation program is a gap-year initiative offering English-language classes for credit across diverse fields.
Australian Friends of Tel Aviv University president David Solomon noted TAU is a formidable research university with a significant volume of doctoral and post-doctoral research.
During a March 19 information fair at University of Sydney promoting international student exchanges, Shamir and her colleague Sharon Ziv-Kafri faced rowdy pro-Palestinian demonstrators invading the expo. Shamir told The AJN, “This one was particularly unpleasant because it was very close to where we were. There was no buffer between us and demonstrators.”
Contacted by The AJN, a University of Sydney spokesperson said, “We remain absolutely committed to freedom of speech and academic freedom during this troubling time but do not tolerate any form of racism, threats to safety, hate speech, intimidation, threatening speech, bullying or unlawful harassment, including antisemitic or anti-Muslim language or behaviour.”
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