​​Department of Computer Science
Faculty of Natural Sciences



My life before BG​U:


I was born in Israel and grew up in Rishon Lezion. I did my first degree in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at BGU. I then continued in the direct PhD track at BGU's Department of Computer Science. For my postdoc I spent a year at Harvard and a further year at the Weizmann Institute of Science. I returned to BGU as a faculty member in October 2018.​


"Look at your iPhone. Does Apple collect information about you? Do you care?
I research the possible ways for organizations to collect and analyze
​statistical data on users in a way that doesn't compromise their privacy."

​

My research: 

Look at your iPhone. Does Apple ​collect information about you? Do you care? I research the possible ways for organizations to collect and analyze statistical data on users in a way that doesn't compromise their privacy.

Imagine an organization that has a large database with personal data of people, a hospital for example or the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. On one hand, the organization wants to allow a certain degree of access to this information (for example, to researchers investigating new illnesses). On the other hand, the organization wants to guarantee that this access does not compromise the privacy of those people whose information is stored in the database. The main question here is how do we define what constitutes a compromise of privacy in this context. Even though the question seems simple at first, it is actually very loaded. After agreeing on a definition, the next question is: Under which conditions can privacy variants be cr​​eated for existing data analysis algorithms, and what is the price of this? In my research, I investigate these questions from a theoretical perspective and focus on the definition of privacy called "differential privacy," which is a strict mathematical definition of privacy.​

Why BGU? 

I completed all my degrees here. I have many friends here and I love the University.



An insight from ​​my research: 

Research is fun.

Something that doesn't appear on my resume: 

Fifteen years ago, I worked in carpentry.​

A source of inspir​ation: 

My family. ​


When I gro​w up: 


From a young age, I knew I would work in something connected to computers. It's the same today.  If I was not a researcher, I would work in hi-tech.

In Brief​:


» ​Night or Day? Night. There's nothing like the quiet of the night.