Noy B. Nechmad (pictured below), a doctoral student in the Department of Chemistry has been awarded a prestigious Adams Fellowship from the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, for research excellence. Her research, under the supervision of Prof. Gabriel Lemcoff, Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences, focuses on organometallic chemistry and catalysts. Through her work, Noy has aided the scientific community in developing methods to prepare organic molecules by re-arranging double carbon bonds in specific new paths.
On the award of the fellowship Noy commented, "I would like to thank the Adams Fellowship program of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and to my supervisor, Prof. Lemcoff for his undending support and help. My research will continue to focus on iodine based catalysts in order to find new, specific and selective paths to be used in the production of useful molecules and in the research of new polymers."
The Adams Fellowships Program was established jointly by the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and Mr. Marcel Adams of Canada. Since its inception in spring 2005, the program has been administered by the Academy and underwritten by Mr. Adams.
The prestigious Adams Fellowships are designated for outstanding Israeli doctoral students in the exact sciences, mathematics and computer science and engineering. Thus far, they have been awarded to 135 promising young researchers in fifteen cycles.
Application is made solely through the rectors of Israel's research universities. The careful screening processes conducted by the universities and the Academy's professional committee for the program ensure that the grantees represent the elite of Israel's future scientists in their fields.
Adams Fellowships are granted each year to about eight doctoral students in the second year of their doctoral studies, for periods of up to four consecutive academic years. Candidates are submitted by the academic institutions from among their students. Fellowship recipients are exempted by their institutions from tuition.
Today each fellowship is in the amount of NIS 100,000 per year.
The Adams Fellows, a cadre of Israel's most outstanding young researchers, boast impressive achievements in research and publications in the most prominent professional journals, such as Science, PNAS and Cell. They have been accepted for postdoctoral training in the world's most prestigious institutions, such as Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Yale and the Broad Institute, and they are sought out to fill faculty positions in Israel and abroad.
In order to create a young science community, Adams Fellows and alumni are provided with the opportunity to create friendships among themselves, at meetings, lectures by world-renowned scientists, and annual conferences and seminars, all of which take place at the Israel Academy. They also participate in field trips and in Science Communication Workshops that prepare them to present their research at international conferences.
Recently, Marcel's son, Sylvan, pledged a significant contribution to renovate the University Sports Center.
