French Associates Institute for Agriculture & Biotechnology of Drylands
Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research
My life before BGU:
I was born in Siberia and came to Israel as part of the Naale Elite Academy Program (Youth Making Aliyah before Parents) and completed my high school studies at the academy school in the north. My parents never did come to Israel, but I was fortunate to have an amazing host family in Carmiel. I completed all three degrees at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, with my graduate degrees focusing on ecology and marine microbiology under the guidance of Anton Post. During my studies I divided my time between the labs in Jerusalem and the Inter-University Institute for Marine Sciences in Eilat. I did my first postdoc at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in California, where I worked with cyanobacteria on biotechnology applications. My second postdoc was at the National Oceanography Centre Southampton in the UK, where I returned to the ocean and focused on the physiology of cyanobacteria and their predators. I returned to Israel on a Ministry of Science fellowship, to run an independent project in which I developed a method to change the surface qualities of cells, which serves as a useful tool in investigating predation and other interactions among tiny organisms.
"The Sde Boker campus is a perfect place for ecological studies of creatures that consume sunlight in their natural environment, from deserts and seasonal water holes to oceans"
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My research:
My research focuses mainly on cyanobacteria, the only bacteria that utilize solar energy to produce organic matter and oxygen. The very long evolutionary history of cyanobacteria enables them to thrive in almost any environment with light. In my research I study how cyanobacteria deal with their environment, neighbors and predators and try to translate those research insights into applied uses.
Why BGU?My story in Israel may have begun in the north, but I feel more connected to the south: to the paths winding between petrified coral reefs, to water holes that fill up in winter, and of course to the Red Sea. The Sde Boker campus is a perfect place for ecological studies of creatures that consume sunlight in their natural environment, from deserts and seasonal water holes to oceans.
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An insight from my research:
There is no single right way to get from point A to point B
Something that doesn't appear on my CV:
If one relates to my hobbies in terms of sea-level, they span -42 to +4,800 meters.
A source of inspiration:
Stanislav Kurilov, an oceanographer who escaped from the Soviet Union by jumping overboard from a cruise ship and swimming in the ocean for three days, until he reached the Philippines. After coming to Israel, he worked at the Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research institute in Haifa.
When I grow up:
As a child I dreamed of becoming a dentist, like my mother
If wasn't a researcher:
I would be a teacher
In Brief:
» Ocean or pool? The ocean
