The winners of an inter-university art competition for Exact Sciences students launched by Faculty of Natural Sciences Dean Prof. Jiwchar Ganor have been announced.
Sariel Bir, from the Open University’s Department of Physics, won first place for her short story “Through the Tree of Life”. Shaked Uzi, from BGU's Department of Chemistry, won second place for her drawing “Untitled”. Amit Turner, of BGU's Department of Computer Science, and Pio Alester, of BGU's Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences shared third place: Amit for his photograph “The Blacksmith” and Pio for her song (words and lyrics) “It’s Just Me”.
151 creations were submitted by 64 students from departments of mathematics, computer science, software engineering, physics, chemistry, life sciences, geology and environmental sciences who express their creative sides. Submissions were received from universities all over Israel.
Ganor, who writes poetry himself, “We do not see any contradiction between working in science and creativity. On the contrary, many scientific achievements came about because of the imagination and creativity of scientists. It is important to us to encourage the students to protect and preserve their spirit of creativity despite the burden of their course load.”
The judging committee awarded NIS 1500 to first place, NIS 1000 to second, and NIS 500 to third. Thirteen other works received honorable mentions. There was a festive ceremony on August 8 to award the prizes, which included an exhibition of the winning works and the honorable mentions.
The judging committee was comprised of three BGU faculty members: Prof. Haviva Yishai, head of the Department of Hebrew Literature, Prof. Haim Maor of the Department of the Arts and Composer and Musician David Peretz from the Department of Hebrew Literature. The judges commented that the level of the submissions was very high making it difficult to choose the prize winners and honorable mentions.
