Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (
BGU) is a university in
BeershebaBeersheba is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the seventh-largest city in Israel with a population of 194,300....
,
IsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, established in 1969. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev has a current enrollment of 17,400 students, and is one of Israel's fastest growing universities.
Development of the Negev
One of the university's goals is to promote development of the
NegevThe Negev is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The Arabs, including the native Bedouin population of the region, refer to the desert as al-Naqab. The origin of the word Neghebh is from the Hebrew root denoting 'dry'...
region, inspired by the
vision of Israel's first
Prime MinisterThe Prime Minister of Israel is the head of the Israeli government and the most powerful political figure in Israel . The prime minister is the country's chief executive. The official residence of the prime minister, Beit Rosh Hamemshala is in Jerusalem...
,
David Ben-Gurion' was the first Prime Minister of Israel.Ben-Gurion's passion for Zionism, which began early in life, led him to become a major Zionist leader and Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization in 1946...
, who believed that the country's future lay in the relatively undeveloped south. Originally named University of the Negev, the name was changed to Ben-Gurion University of the Negev after Ben-Gurion's death in November 1973.
Campuses
Other campuses include
Midreshet Ben-GurionMidreshet Ben-Gurion , also known as Midreshet Sde Boker, is a communal settlement in southern Israel. Located near Sde Boker in the Negev desert, it falls under the jurisdiction of Ramat HaNegev Regional Council. In 2010 it had a population of 1,200....
, near
kibbutzA kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism...
Sde BokerSde Boker is a kibbutz in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Best known as the retirement home of Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, it falls under the jurisdiction of Ramat HaNegev Regional Council.-History:...
where Ben-Gurion spent his retirement years, and a campus in
Eilat. The Eilat branch has 1,100 students, about 75 percent from outside the city. In 2010, a new student dormitory was funded and built by the Jewish Federation of Toronto, the Rashi Foundation, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the municipality of Eilat. The
Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert ResearchThe Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research is part of the Ben-Gurion University, and is located in the Midreshet Ben-Gurion campus in the centre of the Negev desert in Israel....
in Sde Boker awards masters degrees and
PhDsA doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
in desert-related subjects.
Academic specialities
Ben-Gurion University is a world leader in
aridA region is said to be arid when it is characterized by a severe lack of available water, to the extent of hindering or even preventing the growth and development of plant and animal life...
zone research and offers its expertise to many developing countries. In keeping with its mandate, it plays a key role in promoting industry, agriculture and education in the Negev. More recently, Ben-Gurion University has become a leader in international business with the success of the English-language Honors MBA (HMBA) program.
Ben Gurion Archive
Ben Gurion University houses the archives of David Ben-Gurion, comprising some 750,000 documents that reflect the ideology, political activities, and spiritual testament of Ben-Gurion and constitute an invaluable record of the creation of the State of Israel.
Aranne University Library
Special collections at the library include the Tuviyahu Archives of the Negev, the
Amos OzAmos Oz is an Israeli writer, novelist, and journalist. He is also a professor of literature at Ben-Gurion University in Be'er Sheva....
archive and the
Aharon Appelfeld-Biography:Appelfeld was born in the village of Zhadova near Czernowitz, Romania, now Ukraine. In 1941, when he was eight years old, the Romanian army invaded his hometown and his mother was murdered. Appelfeld was deported with his father to a concentration camp in Ukraine. He escaped and hid for...
archive.
Medical School for International Health
The
Medical School for International Health (MSIH) is an English-language collaboration between Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Faculty of Health Sciences and
Columbia University Medical CenterColumbia University Medical Center is an academic medical center that includes Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, College of Dental Medicine, School of Nursing and Mailman School of Public Health...
located in
BeershebaBeersheba is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the seventh-largest city in Israel with a population of 194,300....
,
IsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. Its stated aims are to graduate doctors with special skills in primary care and community, preventive, and population-based medicine. Established in 1996, the school enrolls more than 40 students per year. Most of the students are from the United States, with several from Canada and other countries. The director is Mark Clarfield.
A joint global health and medical care program was established in 1997.
International student programs
Most of the courses are taught in Hebrew, but the university runs several English-language programs that attract students from around the world:
- Master of Arts in Middle Eastern Studies (MAPMES).
- The Albert Katz International School for Desert Studies
The Albert Katz International School for Desert Studies is a faculty of the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research and part of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev...
at the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research at the Sde Boker campus offers graduate programs in Desert Studies.
- In collaboration with Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, a unique program in International Health is offered by the Medical Faculty.
- The School of Management offers a full-time Honors MBA Program.
- The Department of Foreign Literature and Linguistics offers BA and MA programs taught in English.
- The Ginsburg-Ingerman Overseas Student Program offers short-, mid- and long-term academic programs and Hebrew language studies.
- In addition, many departments accept exchange, internship and trainee students.
Notable faculty members
- Aaron Antonovsky
Aaron Antonovsky PhD, was an Israeli American sociologist and academician whose work concerned the relationship between stress, health and well-being....
, sociologist
- Aharon Appelfeld
-Biography:Appelfeld was born in the village of Zhadova near Czernowitz, Romania, now Ukraine. In 1941, when he was eight years old, the Romanian army invaded his hometown and his mother was murdered. Appelfeld was deported with his father to a concentration camp in Ukraine. He escaped and hid for...
, author
- Gerald Blidstein, Jewish Thought and History – Israel Prize Recipient
- Avishay Braverman (born 1948), former president of the university, economist, and politician
- Rivka Carmi
Prof. Rivka Carmi is an Israeli pediatrician and geneticist who, since May 2006, has served as President of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev...
, pediatrician
- Shlomi Dolev
Shlomi Dolev is an Israeli computer scientist best known for his contribution to self-stabilization. He is a professor at the Computer Science Department of the Ben-Gurion University, Israel. He has published numerous papers in the area of distributed computing. He is the author of a text book on...
, computer scientist
- David Faiman
David Faiman is an Israeli engineer and physicist. He is a world expert on solar power. He is the director of the Ben-Gurion National Solar Energy Center and Chairman of the Department of Solar Energy & Environmental Physics at Ben-Gurion University's Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert...
, solar engineer
- Tikva Frymer-Kensky
Tikva Frymer-Kensky was a Professor at the University of Chicago Divinity School. She received her MA and PhD from Yale University...
, biblical scholar
- Neve Gordon
Neve Gordon is a doctor of Politics and Government at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, who writes on issues relating to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and human rights. A third-generation Israeli, Gordon did his military service in an IDF Paratrooper unit, and suffered severe injuries in...
, political scientist
- Samuel Hollander
Samuel Hollander, OC, FRSC is a British/Canadian/Israeli economist.Born in London, he received a B.Sc. in economics from the London School of Economics in 1959. In 1961 he received an AM and a Ph.D. in 1963 from Princeton University...
, economist
- Etgar Keret
Etgar Keret is an Israeli writer known for his short stories, graphic novels, and scriptwriting for film and television.-Personal Life:Keret was born in Ramat Gan, Israel in 1967. He is a third child to parents who survived the Holocaust. He lives in Tel Aviv with his wife, Shira Geffen, and...
, author
- Benny Morris
Benny Morris is professor of History in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the city of Be'er Sheva, Israel...
, historian
- David Newman
David Newman may refer to:*David Newman of Loughborough since 2009*David Newman , aka David "Fathead" Newman, American jazz saxophonist*David Newman , American composer...
, political geographer
- Amos Oz
Amos Oz is an Israeli writer, novelist, and journalist. He is also a professor of literature at Ben-Gurion University in Be'er Sheva....
, author
- Renee Poznanski, political scientist and historian of the Holocaust in France
- Elisha Qimron
Dr Elisha Qimron is a leading academic in the study of ancient Hebrew, in which he took his PhD in 1976 at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, writing his dissertation on The Hebrew of the Scrolls. Currently, he is a professor in the Department of Hebrew Language at Ben-Gurion University of the...
, Hebrew scholar
- Aviad Raz
Aviad E. Raz is an Israeli sociologist and an associate professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, specializing in social organization.-Publications:...
, sociologist
- Danny Rubinstein
Daniel "Danny" Rubinstein is an Israeli journalist and author. He previously worked for Haaretz, where he was an Arab affairs analyst and a member of the editorial board.-Biography:...
, journalist
- Joshua Prawer
Joshua Prawer was a notable Israeli historian and a scholar of the Crusades and Kingdom of Jerusalem.His work often attempted to portray Crusader society as a forerunner to later European colonialist expansion...
, historian
- Richard Shusterman
Richard Shusterman is an American pragmatist philosopher, currently the Dorothy F. Schmidt Eminent Scholar in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy at Florida Atlantic University. He is internationally known for his contributions to philosophical aesthetics.-Biography and career:Richard...
, philosopher
- Carsten Peter Thiede
Carsten Peter Thiede was a German archaeologist and New Testament scholar. He was also a member of PEN and a Knight of Justice in the Order of St John. Thiede often advanced theories that conflicted with the consensus of academic and theological scholarship...
, biblical scholar
- Jacob Turkel
Jacob Turkel is an Israeli judge, and former Supreme Court of Israel Justice.His family immigrated to Israel in 1933 from Vienna, Austria. Turkel served as a judge for 38 years, a decade of that time on the Israeli Supreme Court...
, Israeli Supreme Court Justice
- Oren Yiftachel
Oren Yiftachel teaches political geography, urban planning and public policy at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.Yiftachel studied during the 1980s in Australian and Israeli universities...
, geographer
Notable alumni
- Isaac Berzin
Isaac Berzin is a chemical engineer who in 2001 founded GreenFuel Technologies Corporation, a company that aims to use algae to eat up carbon emissions and to produce renewable energy. This company has closed down in May 2009....
(born 1967), chemical engineer who founded GreenFuel Technologies Corporation
- Charles Blattberg
Charles Blattberg is a professor of political philosophy at the Université de Montréal. Blattberg grew up in Toronto and completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto, where he also served as president of its Students’ Administrative Council during the 1989–90 academic...
, professor of political philosophy at the Université de Montréal
- Amira Dotan
Amira Dotan is an Israeli military figure and a former member of Knesset for Kadima.-Biography:Dotan served in the Israel Defense Forces from 1965 to 1988, ending her career as the Head of the Women's Corps, with the rank of Brigadier General. Attaining it in 1986, she became the first woman in...
- Gila Gamliel
Gila Gamliel is an Israeli politician who currently serves as a member of the Knesset for Likud and Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Office.-Biography:...
(born 1974), member of the Knesset for Likud and Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Office
- Anastasia Gloushkov
-Biography:Gloushkov is Jewish, and was born in Moscow, Russia. Her parents were both accomplished swimmers, and when she was six the family moved to Greece, where her parents taught swimming. Three years later, they moved to Jerusalem....
(born 1985), Olympic synchronized swimmer
- Arieh Iserles
Arieh Iserles is a computational mathematician, currently Professor of the Numerical Analysis of Differential Equations at the University of Cambridge and a member of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics....
(born 1947), computational mathematician, Professor of the Numerical Analysis of Differential Equations at the University of Cambridge
- Ofer Lahav
Professor Ofer Lahav is the Perren Chair of Astronomy and Head of Astrophysics at University College London....
(born 1959), Perren Chair of Astronomy and Head of Astrophysics at University College London
- Gonen Segev
Gonen Segev in Kiryat Motzkin is a former Israeli member of Knesset and government minister and pediatrician who was convicted for an attempt of drug smuggling, for forgery and electronic commerce fraud....
- Silvan Shalom
' , born 4 October 1958) is an Israeli politician, member of the Knesset for Likud and the country's Vice Prime Minister and Minister for Regional Development. He previously served as the country's Foreign Minister and Finance Minister.-Biography:...
- Eliezer Shkedi
Aluf Eliezer Shkedi is the current CEO of the Israeli national airline, El Al. Prior to that he was a general in the Israel Defense Forces and a Commander in Chief of the Israeli Air Force. Shkedi , a resident of Yehud-Monosson, was born in Israel and after graduating from high school in...
- Yaakov Turner
- Mordechai Vanunu
Mordechai Vanunu ; is a former Israeli nuclear technician who, citing his opposition to weapons of mass destruction, revealed details of Israel's nuclear weapons program to the British press in 1986. He was subsequently lured to Italy by a Mossad agent, where he was drugged and kidnapped by...
- Shelly Yachimovich
- Agi Mishol
Agi Mishol is an Israeli poet.-Biography:Mishol was born in Transylvania, Romania, to Hungarian-speaking parents and brought to Israel as a young child. Her parents ran a grocery store in Gedera and spoke mainly Hungarian at home. Mishol holds BA and MA degrees in Hebrew literature from Hebrew...
- Isaac Berzin
Isaac Berzin is a chemical engineer who in 2001 founded GreenFuel Technologies Corporation, a company that aims to use algae to eat up carbon emissions and to produce renewable energy. This company has closed down in May 2009....
Notable awards
Professor Gerald Blidstein of the Department of Jewish Thought and Philosophy is the only faculty member of Ben-Gurion University to have received the prestigious Israel Prize.
External links