Ben-Gurion University of the Negev conferred six honorary doctorates on outstanding individuals (pictured above) on Tuesday evening on the Marcus Family Campus in Beer-Sheva: : Elena Dmitrievna Bashkirova, Germany and Russia; Prof. Edvard I. Moser, Norway; Janet Napolitano, USA; Prof. Cary Nelson, USA; Prof. Colin Ratledge, UK; and Prof. Dame Carol Robinson, UK.
BGU President Prof. Rivka Carmi lauded the recipients and welcomed them to the BGU family.
"From four different countries, the individuals we have chosen to honor here this evening have made their own profound and enduring contributions to academia and culture each in their own way and in their own field.
"Aristotle said: 'Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives - choice, not chance, determines your destiny.'
"The people who accept our honor here this evening are some who clearly made excellent choices."
Elena Dmitrievna Bashkirova (pictured above) is a Russian-born pianist and musical director, Bashkirova founded the prestigious Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival in 1998 and she continues to serve as its Artistic Director. Since its establishment, the festival has become an important part of Israel's cultural life. She studied at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow with her father, the celebrated pianist and teacher, Dmitri Bashkirov. She is a regular guest with well-known orchestras such as the Munich Philharmonic, NDR Hamburg, DSO Berlin, the Vienna Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, the IPO and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She is also the founder of the Metropolis Ensemble in Berlin, Germany.
Elena Dmitrievna Bashkirova Scroll.pdf
Prof. Edvard I. Moser (pictured above) is a Norwegian neuroscientist best known for his role in the discovery of grid cells in the brain and the identification of their function in generating spatial coordinates used by animals to navigate their environment. Moser's research has important implications for scientists' understanding of spatial representation in the mammalian brain and offers insight into spatial deficits in neurological disease, such as Alzheimer's. For his contributions, he received the 2014 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. He shared the award with his then-wife, Norwegian neuroscientist May-Britt Moser, and their mentor John O'Keefe. He is a member of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters, the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and the Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences. He is also an Honorary Professor at the Centre for Cognitive and Neural Systems at the Edinburgh University Medical School.
Prof. Edvard I. Moser Scroll.pdf
Janet Napolitano (pictured above) is an American politician, lawyer, and university leader who served as the 21st Governor of Arizona from 2003 to 2009 and United States Secretary of Homeland Security from 2009 to 2013 in President Barack Obama's administration. She has served as President of the University of California since September 2013. Napolitano is the first woman to serve in several offices, including Attorney General of Arizona, Secretary of Homeland Security, and President of the University of California. Forbes ranked her as the world's ninth most powerful woman in 2012. Under President Napolitano's leadership, the University of California has signed a memorandum of understanding with Israel's National Technological Innovation Authority to increase cooperation between the two entities.
Janet Ann Napolitano Scroll.pdf
Prof. Cary Nelson (pictured above) is a leading figure in the fight against the BDS movement. He has been fighting the movement since 2007—in public lectures, in books and essays, and through consulting both in the US and Israel. In recent years, he has written and published more than three dozen essays and books about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the two-state solution, and about the BDS movement in Britain, Israel, and the US. In 2014 and 2016 he met with the Ministry of Strategic Affairs in the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem to consult about strategies to counter the BDS movement. Nelson is a professor of English and Jubilee Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Affiliated Professor at the University of Haifa. He was president of the American Association of University Professors from 2006 to 2012.
Prof. Cary Nelson Scroll.pdf
Prof. Colin Ratledge (pictured above) is recognized as a world authority on the production of single cell oils, particularly the production of polyunsaturated fats by yeast, fungi and algae. He has worked extensively on the genetic control of key genes involved in lipid accumulation and the biochemistry and regulation of acetyl-CoA in microorganisms. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and a Fellow of the Institute of Biology. He has been a member of the Science Advisory Committee of the European Federation of Biotechnology (1983-87), Vice Chairman of the British Coordinating Committee for Biotechnology (1986-91, including Chairman 1989-91), and a member of the Management Committee of the Advanced Centre for Biochemical Engineering, University College London (1996 to present).
Prof. Colin Ratledge Scroll.pdf
Prof. Dame Carol Robinson (pictured above) is the first female Professor of Chemistry at the University of Oxford and was previously the first female Professor of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. She is renowned for pioneering the use of mass spectrometry as an analytical tool and for her ground-breaking research into the 3D structure of proteins. Robinson is a Commander of the Order of the British Empire and in 2015 she received the L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science. In 2017, she was elected a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences.
Dame Prof. Carol V. Robinson, DBE Scroll.pdf
