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Professor Alon Tal Receives Lifetime Achievement Award for Role in Creating Israel’s Environmental Movement

Professor Alon Tal Receives Lifetime Achievement Award for Role in Creating Israel’s Environmental Movement

September 23, 2008

Alternative Energy, Press Releases

BEER-SHEVA — September 18, 2008 — Prof. Alon Tal of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev received a Lifetime Achievement Award for Environmental Protection from Israel’s Ministry of Environmental Protection. The award, which was granted to 12 recipients, recognized the honorees for their work on behalf of safeguarding Israel’s environment and was granted as part of the country’s 60th anniversary celebrations.





University President Prof. Rivka Carmi praised the recognition, noting that Prof. Alon Tal is “both an exemplary academic and an environmental leader, who transformed Israel’s environmental movement and its approach to ecological challenges.” 


A member of the Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology of BGU’s Jacob Blaustein Institutes of Desert Research in Sde Boker, Tal is the founder of the Israel Union for Environmental Defense (Adam, Teva v’Din) and of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies.


His primary research focus is in water management and policy, with an emphasis on joint Israeli-Palestinian environmental projects. This spring he co-authored and signed a model for an agreement on environmental cooperation with Dr. Mohammad Said Al-Hmaida from Bir Zeit University.


Tal is currently finishing a new book titled, Water Wisdom – Cooperative and Sustainable Water Management in the Middle East, co-authored with Dr. Alfred Abed-Rabbo from Bethlehem University, which looks at final status possibilities for resolving the water conflicts with the Palestinians.


He is among the BGU faculty members that represent Israel’s Foreign Ministry at the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification and an organizer of the biannual international conference, “Deserts, Drylands and Desertification,” which takes place at the Blaustein Institutes.


He also chairs the Jewish National Fund’s international committee that oversees forestry, reservoirs and river restoration. Born and raised in the United States, Tal holds a law degree from Hebrew University and a doctorate from the Harvard School of Public Health. He received the Charles Bronfman Prize in 2006.


The Achievement Award ceremony took place on September 16 in Caesarea, Israel, in the presence of President Shimon Peres and Minister of Environmental Protection Gideon Ezra. The winners were chosen by a selection committee headed by former Supreme Court Justice Jacob Türkel.


Click here to learn more about the second conference on “Deserts, Drylands and Desertification,” taking place December 14-17, 2008.

 

ABOUT AMERICANS FOR BEN-GURION UNIVERSITY

By supporting a world-class academic institution that not only nurtures the Negev, but also shares its expertise locally and globally, Americans for Ben-Gurion University engages a community of Americans who are committed to improving the world. David Ben-Gurion envisioned that Israel’s future would be forged in the Negev. The cutting-edge research carried out at Ben-Gurion University drives that vision by sustaining a desert Silicon Valley, with the “Stanford of the Negev” at its center. The Americans for Ben-Gurion University movement supports a 21st century unifying vision for Israel by rallying around BGU’s remarkable work and role as an apolitical beacon of light in the Negev desert.

About Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev embraces the endless potential we have as individuals and as a commonality to adapt and to thrive in changing environments. Inspired by our location in the desert, we aim to discover, to create, and to develop solutions to dynamic challenges, to pose questions that have yet to be asked, and to push beyond the boundaries of the commonly accepted and possible.

We are proud to be a central force for inclusion, diversity and innovation in Israel, and we strive to extend the Negev’s potential and our entrepreneurial spirit throughout the world. For example, the multi-disciplinary School for Sustainability and Climate Change at BGU leverages over 50 years of expertise on living and thriving in the desert into scalable solutions for people everywhere.

BGU at a glance:  

20,000 students | 800 senior faculty | 3 campuses | 6 faculties: humanities & social sciences, health sciences, engineering sciences, natural sciences, business & management, and desert research.

 

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