Transforming Understandings of Astrophysics

Tel Aviv University and Harvard University have launched the new Raymond and Beverly Sackler Harvard–Tel Aviv Astronomy Initiative, a collaboration between the Department of Astrophysics at TAU's Raymond and Beverly Sackler School of Physics and Astronomy and the Institute for Theory and Computation (ITC) at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Funded by renowned philanthropist Dr. Raymond Sackler (pictured below), the program will support research across all areas of astrophysics. "This important new collaboration builds on the world-renowned research infrastructures at Harvard and TAU. It provides a framework for a mutually beneficial and productive collaboration between two of the world's great universities," says Prof. Amiel Sternberg, director of the program at TAU. The initiative includes not only joint projects among the faculty, but also student exchanges, a lecture series, and workshops held in Tel Aviv every two years.

As part of the new program, TAU will also be offering a prize post-doctoral position called the Sackler Prize Fellowship in Astrophysics, with shared time at both institutions, to support and promote the independent projects of outstanding young researchers.

"We are grateful to Dr. Sackler for establishing this program," says Prof. Avi Loeb, Director of the ITC and Chair of the Astronomy Department at Harvard, "and we look forward to building a productive relationship with TAU."

The Department of Astrophysics at TAU is internationally recognized as a leading research group. Two of its faculty members were recently awarded prestigious European Council Research grants of more than $2,000,000 each, to support the studies of the physics of cosmic explosions and searches for extrasolar planets. An Israel-Germany science partnership grant, $1,500,000 for astronomers at TAU and Max-Planck-Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, supports observational and theoretical studies of galaxy formation and black hole growth in the early universe.

As originally reported by AFTAU