|
June 12, 2009
Be'er Sheva high-tech
BGU works to bring more people to the region.
RHONDA SPIVAK
Nanotechnology, the study of the control of matter on an atomic and molecular scale, will be the driving engine of the 21st century, according to Dr. Ron Folman, head of the nanotechnology department at Ben Gurion University (BGU) in Be'er Sheva.
The 44-year-old Folman spoke about the development planning of a high-tech park that is being built next to BGU, "as necessary infrastructure" for the advances being made in nanotechnology, at a luncheon at Winnipeg's Shaarey Zedek Synagogue in May. The event was sponsored by the Winnipeg chapter of the Canadian Associates of BGU.
Quantum technology "has a lot of applications in navigation systems, detection of magnetic fields and also military applications," said Folman, who heads the first and only atom chip lab in Israel. He noted that nanotechnology includes both biotechnology and quantum technology.
"Developments in nanotechnology will enable the detection of minerals and water underground, and also of underground tunnels and other underground structures," he explained. "It will change the face of medicine.... We'll be able to put a drop of blood on a little chip and get 1,000 different measurements."
He added, "Only recently, last December, we supplied our first atom chip to the most significant laboratory in the United States."
The face of Be'er Sheva is going to change, once the $200 million Nano-Quantum Technology Park that is slated to become "Israel's Silicone Valley" is completed, said Folman. "The idea is that BGU researchers will be able to work in their labs at the university and then, in the afternoon, they'll be able to go to the high-tech park and work there, this is the goal."
Folman said he turned down an opportunity to work in Tel Aviv so that he could help strengthen the Negev and because working at BGU offered him a "Zionistic challenge."
He said, in his view, Israel's survival is dependent on the country "not losing its educational edge." He said that BGU, with its
18,000 students is viewed as an academic centre of excellence, particularly in the fields of nanotechnology, water desalination and solar energy.
The university "is crucial to making the Negev an attractive place to live" and the building of the new high-tech park "will create high paying jobs in the Negev" and strengthen the region, said Folman. Additionally, the project will include a new hotel in Be'er Sheva, which Folman said was also needed.
In the field of biotechnology, Folman said that soon there will be tiny robots developed that will have air-to-air missiles that can be put inside a person's blood stream. According to Folman, these "missiles will hone in on cancer cells and release a potent drug that will kill cancer cells.... Today, the drug is too potent and kills off other cells."
Folman pointed out that BGU has had some co-operative arrangements with Jordan, which help foster a climate of tolerance. For example, he noted that, in Jordan, there are virtually no paramedics and, beginning this September, 20 Jordanians will be coming to study paramedics at BGU.
In an interview after the event, Folman said that about five per cent of the students at BGU are Beduoin and half of that five per cent are women. A former chairperson of Amnesty International in Israel, Folman has volunteered to be on the board of the Centre for Bedouin Studies at BGU.
"The centre researches the needs of Bedouin society and Bedouin academics are conducting the research," he said.
"A Jewish donor from New York, Robert Arnow, gave money for full scholarships for Bedouins to study at the University.... There are lots more Bedouin who want to study at the university but they all need financial help.
"That's a problem that must be solved," he said, noting that this is why he volunteered to be on the board. "Up until now, Bedouin students have mostly gone into the humanities and engineering. Almost none went into sciences."
Rhonda Spivak is a Winnipeg freelance writer and the editor of the Jewish Post and News.
^TOP
|
