2022 HONORARY DEGREE RECIPIENTS
GEORGE WISE MEDAL
Dr. Mark Carney, Canada/UK
Mark Carney is the former Governor of the Bank of England (2013-2020), former Governor of the Bank of Canada (2008-2013) and former Chairman of the Financial Stability Board (2011- 2018). He currently serves as UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance and as Vice-Chair and Head of Transition Investing at Brookfield Asset Management. He is a trustee and member of the Group of Thirty (G30) and the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum, among others. Born in Canada’s Northwest Territories, Dr. Carney received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, and a master’s and doctorate from Oxford University – all in economics. Following a 13-year career with Goldman Sachs, he was appointed Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada in 2003 and, in 2004, he became Canada’s Senior Associate Deputy Minister of Finance.
HONORARY DOCTORATES
Prof. Cornelia (Cori) Bargmann, USA
A neurobiologist and geneticist, Cori Bargmann is the Torsten N. Wiesel Professor at Rockefeller University. Her research on the relationships between genes, motivational states and behavior has garnered her numerous accolades, among them the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences and membership in the National Academy of Sciences. Prior to joining the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Prof. Bargmann served as co-chair of the NIH working group that planned the BRAIN Initiative, and was an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She holds a PhD in cancer biology from MIT, where she also conducted her post-doctoral research, and has published extensively in top-tier journals.
Prof. Sir Michael Victor Berry, UK
Theoretical physicist Sir Michael Berry is the Melville Wills Professor of Physics (Emeritus) at the University of Bristol, UK, where he has spent his entire academic career since 1965. Prof. Berry is celebrated for his discovery of the Berry phase, a powerful, unifying concept in several branches of physics. In addition to his deeply mathematical, often geometric studies, Berry delights in finding the ‘arcane in the mundane’ – familiar phenomena that illustrate deep concepts, such as mathematical singularities in rainbows. He has published over 500 papers and is a member of 12 UK and international academies. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1996, and has received over 20 awards for his research, including the Wolf Prize in Physics and 13 honorary degrees.
Prof. Barbara Engelking, Poland
A sociologist and psychologist, Barbara Engelking specializes in Holocaust-era Polish Jewish history. She is the founder and director of the Polish Center for Holocaust Research at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw; the former Chair of the International Auschwitz Council; and former curator of the Holocaust Gallery at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. Prof. Engelking and the center she heads have faced harassment by the Polish government for exposing the culpability of Polish society in the death of Jews and plundering of Jewish property in wartime Poland. In an international demonstration of solidarity and academic recognition, Engelking and her colleague Prof. Jan Grabowski were recently appointed co-incumbents of the prestigious Cleveringa Chair at Leiden University in the Netherlands. Engelking holds a PhD in sociology from the Polish Academy of Science and an MA in psychology from Warsaw University.
Eric J. Gertler, USA
Eric Gertler is Executive Chairman of US News & World Report. From 2019-2021, he served as Acting Commissioner/President & CEO-designate of Empire State Development, New York State’s economic development agency. From 2013-15, he was Executive Vice President of the New York City Economic Development Corporation and Managing Director of the Center for Economic Transformation. Gertler is a trustee of the Zuckerman Family Foundation and Institute, and serves on the board of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He is a Governor of The Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, and the Weizmann Institute of Science. He is a board member of Columbia University’s Mind Brain Behavior Institute and a director of the Leadership Council at Harvard’s Kennedy School. He is also Chairman of the America-Israel Friendship League. He authored Prying Eyes, a critically acclaimed book that predicted the personal data crisis.
James S. Gertler, USA
James S. Gertler is President and CEO of Drew Lane Capital LLC, Vice Chairman and Senior Managing Director of Legacy Partners Inc., and trustee to the Mortimer Zuckerman Family Foundation and Institute. He is a board director of the Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute at Columbia University, the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government; a member and trustee of New York-Presbyterian Hospital; and a member of the Leadership Council of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. In the area of higher education, Mr. Gertler is a Governor of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, and Weizmann Institute of Science. He is a member of the National Leadership Council of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and of the America-Israel Friendship League. Mr. Gertler holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BSc in economics from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Prof. Bernd Friedrich Huber, Germany
A professor of public finance, Bernd Huber has been President of Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) of Munich since 2002, now serving his fifth term. Prof. Huber received his PhD in 1988, completed his post-doctoral studies in 1994, and joined LMU the same year as incumbent of the Chair in Public Finance. His research focuses on public finance, government debt, European fiscal and monetary integration, international taxation, and labor markets. Among his numerous decision-making roles, Prof. Huber is a member of the Advisory Board to the German Federal Ministry of Finance and serves on the Strategic Committees of Sorbonne University, Venice International University, and the International Advisory Committee of Renmin University in Peking. From 2008 to 2014, he was chairman of the League of European Research Universities.
Jodi Kantor, USA
Jodi Kantor is a journalist and author in the fields of technology in the workplace, culture, gender and politics. She is best known for exposing in The New York Times the sexual assault allegations brought against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, for which she won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service – and numerous other honors – together with colleagues Megan Twohey and Ronan Farrow. She is the co-author of She Said, published in 2019, which focuses on the Weinstein investigation and the #MeToo movement it ignited in the US and beyond. Kantor graduated magna cum laude from Columbia University in 1996 and, later that year, spent a year in Israel as a Dorot Fellow. She joined the New York Times in 2004 and is the author of The Obamas, published in 2012.
Prof. Katalin Karikó, Hungary/USA
Biochemist Prof. Katalin Karikó is Senior Vice President at BioNTech RNA Pharmaceuticals; an adjunct professor of neurosurgery at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania; and a faculty member at the University of Szeged, Hungary. For 40 years, Prof. Karikó has focused her research on messenger RNA (mRNA), molecules that carry the genetic information needed to make proteins. Her co-discovery with colleague Drew Weissman of a certain mRNA mechanism led to the development of the BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, and holds vast promise for future treatment of many other conditions, ranging from cancer and heart disease to asthma and congenital disorders. Previously, Prof. Karikó co-founded and served as CEO of RNARx from 2006-2013. Among numerous accolades, she is the recipient of the 2022 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences and 2021 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award. She continues to work on new applications of mRNA therapy.
Solomon Lew, Australia
Solomon Lew is an Australian businessman and philanthropist with over 50 years’ experience in the manufacture, import and retailing of apparel and general merchandise. He is the Chairman of Premier Investments Ltd and of Just Group Ltd, and Executive Chairman of Century Plaza Group. He was a director and represented the largest shareholder of Coles Myer Ltd, Australia’s largest retailer, from 1985-2002, during which time he also served as Chairman. He is a former Member of the Prime Minister's Business Advisory Council and was a director of the Reserve Bank of Australia from 1992-1997. In 2016, Lew became the first and only Australian to be formally inducted into the World Retail Hall of Fame of the World Retail Congress. He has also been Chairman or Director of a range of philanthropic organizations.
Prof. Jehuda Reinharz, Israel/USA
Jehuda Reinharz is the Richard Koret Professor of Modern Jewish History and Director of the Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry at Brandeis University, and serves as President and CEO of the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation. Born in Haifa in 1944, Prof. Reinharz moved to the US in 1961, going on to earn degrees at Columbia University, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Harvard and Brandeis. In 1972, he became the first professor of Jewish history at the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor. Ten years later, he joined Brandeis University, eventually becoming President (1994-2010). Among many accolades, he has received the President of Israel Prize and eight honorary doctorates, and is an elected fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He serves on a number of boards and advisory committees and has authored or co-authored over 100 articles and 31 books.
Prof. Jürgen Renn, Germany
Prof. Jurgen Renn is an historian of science whose interests include the works and intellectual environments of Albert Einstein and Galileo Galilei, as well as the long-term development of mechanics from antiquity up to the 20th century. Prof. Renn has been Director of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin since its creation in 1994. He is a former Silverman Visiting Professor at Tel Aviv University’s Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science. He holds honorary professorships at the Humboldt University of Berlin and the Free University of Berlin, and is a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the International Academy for the History of Science. Prof. Renn completed his undergraduate degree in physics at the Free University of Berlin and his PhD in mathematical physics at the Technical University of Berlin.
HONORARY FELLOWSHIP
Iranian American Jewish Federation of New York, USA
The Iranian American Jewish Federation of New York (IAJF) is a community-based, not-for-profit organization with a global outlook. For 20 years IAJF has enabled Iranian Jews in the Greater New York area to collectively address matters pertaining to the local community and the State of Israel. It supports over 215 organizations addressing a broad range of humanitarian, educational, Jewish and social causes in New York, Israel and worldwide. Since its inception, IAJF has raised and distributed over $63 million dollars to advance its mission of supporting education, health, social issues, IDF programming, victims of terror and more. At TAU, it has for years provided scholarships at the Alliance Center for Iranian Studies, supported the National Center for Traumatic Stress and Resilience and, most recently, dedicated the Yosef and Farang Shahery Lobby at the Check Point Building.
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2021 HONORARY DEGREE RECIPIENTS
Haim Be’er, Israel
Israeli writer Haim Be’er was born in Jerusalem in 1945 to an Orthodox Jewish family. After completing his mandatory army service, he became a copy editor for the daily newspaper Davar and later became a highly acclaimed contributor who wrote hundreds of articles, mainly on books and writers, the old Yishuv and Ultra-Orthodox society. In 1966, Be’er joined the Am Oved Publishing House in Tel Aviv, rising from proofreader to member of the editorial board. Since 1979, Be’er has penned eight novels alongside works of poetry and non-fiction. He has received numerous accolades for his works, among them the Prime Minister's Prize (twice), Bialik Prize, Brenner Prize and Agnon Prize. From 2000 until his retirement in 2012, he taught Hebrew literature and creative writing at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev as Professor Emeritus. Since then, he has been a member of the Academy of the Hebrew Language.
Hanina Brandes, Israel
A founding partner of Naschitz, Brandes, Amir & Co., Hanina Brandes heads the firm’s corporate law and high-tech practice. He initiated the firm’s involvement in the high-tech sphere many years prior to it becoming the central pillar of Israel’s economy. Among his clients are some of Israel’s leading public and private companies, alongside diverse government agencies. He is a member of the American Bar Association and the International Bar Association, and former Chair of the Israel Bar Association’s high-tech committee. From 1999 to 2008, the maximum period allowed by law, Brandes served on the Mergers and Acquisitions Exemptions Committee established following Israel’s Restrictive Trade Practices Law. Brandes is a Tel Aviv University Governor, and a member of the Board of Trustees and Board of Directors of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
Shafrira ‘Shafi’ Goldwasser, USA/Israel
American-Israeli computer scientist Prof. Shafi Goldwasser holds several academic appointments. She is the RSA Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, where she co-leads the Cryptography and Information Security Group; a professor of computer science and applied mathematics at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel; and Director of the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing and the C. Lester Hogan Professor in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, both at the University of California, Berkeley. She is also co-founder and chief scientist of Duality Technologies. Prof. Goldwasser gained her BSc in mathematics at Carnegie Mellon University, and her master’s and PhD in electrical engineering & computer science at UC Berkeley. She has garnered numerous accolades for her research, including twice receiving the Turing Award and the Gödel Prize.
Susan and Henry Samueli, USA
Susan Samueli was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. She earned her B.A. degree in Mathematics from UC Berkeley in 1972. From 1972 to 1985 she was with IBM Corporation, where she worked initially as a software programmer in the Federal Systems Division, Westlake Village, CA, and then as a Systems Engineer in the National Marketing Division, Los Angeles, CA, providing technical marketing and sales support for IBM's mid-range computer systems. In 1985 she left IBM and focused her energy on raising her children, at which time she developed a keen interest in integrative health care, studying in the areas of nutrition, homeopathy and Chinese herbs. Susan subsequently received a Ph.D. degree in nutrition from the American Holistic College of Nutrition in 1993 and a diploma in Homeopathy from the British Institute of Homeopathy in 1994.
Henry Samueli was born in Buffalo, NY and grew up in Los Angeles, CA. He earned his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from UCLA in 1975, 1976 and 1980, respectively. From 1980 to 1985 he was employed in various engineering and management positions in the Electronics and Technology Division of TRW, Inc., Redondo Beach, CA, a military communications defense contractor now part of Northrop-Grumman. Since 1985 he has been a professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at UCLA, and since 2003 he has also served as a Distinguished Adjunct Professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at UC Irvine. In 1991 he co-founded Broadcom Corporation, a global leader in providing semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications. Henry took a leave of absence from UCLA in 1995 and joined Broadcom full-time as Chief Technology Officer (CTO). In 2016 Broadcom was acquired by Avago Technologies Limited and renamed Broadcom Inc. Henry retired as CTO of Broadcom in 2018 and now serves as Chairman of the Board of Broadcom Inc. In 2019 Broadcom had revenues of $22 Billion and employed over 20,000 people.
Hanna Zohar, Israel
A lifelong volunteer, Hanna Zohar is the founder and former director of Kav LaOved (“Workers’ Hotline”), a non-profit organization that protects the rights of the most disenfranchised workers in Israel through personal assistance, advocacy and outreach. After experiencing wage discrimination herself, she decided to establish the Hotline in 1991 to combat labor injustices, funding its activities from her salary as a typist. The Workers’ Hotline combats the exploitation of workers and the denial of basic rights by their employers, offering victims representation vis-a-vis authorities such as immigration, the police and others. To date, the Hotline has aided thousands of employees in need and fought for their equal rights in court. Ms. Zohar has been recognized for her endeavors with diverse awards, including the New Israel Fund Human Rights Award.
2021 HONORARY FELLOWSHIP RECIPIENTS
Gesher Theater, Israel
After making Aliyah from Moscow in pursuit of artistic freedom, Yevgeny Arye, together with a group of Russian actors, founded Gesher Theater in 1991. Since then, under Arye’s masterful leadership as Artistic Director, Gesher has secured a prominent place in Israel’s cultural scene. It has produced over 60 productions, receiving diverse awards and being hailed as one of the world’s best theaters. Gesher, which means “bridge” in Hebrew, refers to the bridging between the diverse cultures and languages present in Israel, including Russian, Amharic and Yiddish, and Gesher performances are always accompanied by subtitles in many languages. The troupe’s unique theatrical language combines Russian stage tradition with an original, Israeli approach. Today, Gesher sees its sole task as presenting Jewish Israeli cultural heritage to the world.
Joseph Bar Natan, Israel
Joseph Bar Natan is the founder, owner and CEO of Shuval Insurance Agency Ltd. Bar Natan has served in a diverse range of public leadership and voluntary roles over the years, including in medical centers, the IDF Disabled Veterans Organization, and bodies supporting victims of trauma and sexual abuse, at-risk youth and many others. A Tel Aviv University Governor and board member of the Tel Aviv Foundation, Bar Natan currently serves as President of the Union of Boukharian Jews, which works to preserve Bucharian heritage and culture, provides vital assistance to disadvantaged individuals, awards scholarships to talented youngsters and runs social and cultural activities. A committed philanthropist, Bar Natan supports thousands of needy individuals in Tel Aviv, including via a scholarship fund to encourage youngsters of disadvantaged families to pursue higher education. Against this backdrop, the Tel Aviv Municipality granted him a special distinguished citizen award.
