Weekly Report Jan 21st - 28th

Week ly Report January 21st – 29th

• This was the final week of the fall semester. The students spent the week, taking final exams, finishing papers, preparing for the final party and cleaning the campus.
• The students had their final party Tuesday night. Cecil Rimer handed out funny awards to each student – these were special achievement awards, with each student receiving recognition for some personal stand-out characteristic that has earned them fame (or notoriety) at AIES. Students also received a copy of the Yalla yearbook, full of memories and also a bit of gossip. There was dancing, karaoke, live music provided by the students and a full barbecue dinner. A good time was had by all.
• The students are now off for a three week break. Spring semester starts on February 24th. We expect once again to have over 40 students.
  

In addition to the Academic Program, a number of important meetings took place in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Ber Sheva.

• On Monday morning, Miriam, Elad and I met with our PR Consultants, Ben Or to discuss plans for the coming year. The calendar of events for 2010 looks packed and filled with opportunities for engaging the media.
• The next day, Elad and I met with the staff from the Heschel Center to discuss the new Sustainable Food Initiative that the Institute and Heschel are planning on launching this year in light of the very successful Food Conference held last November. The initiative will try to raise awareness about the need for a more sustainable, healthy, equitable and carbon reduced food supply in Israel. The team spent a lot of time discussing other partners for the inititative.
• On Wednesday, the Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation (CREEC) Steering Committee met at Hebrew University to review last year's achievements and the current research. The committee discussed some of the challenges facing the proposed Energy and the Environment Masters Degree program and went over the committee's job description. The CREEC Steering Committee is chaired by Professor Yaakov Karni from the Weizmann Institute. Many of Israelis leading experts in renewable energy are members of the committee.
• Following the CREEC Steering Committee meeting, the Academic Advisory Board met to review the work plans of the Academic Department and the Research Department. Dr. Elli Groner, the Academic Director, went over plans for developing new programs and Dr. Clive Lipchin presented current research programs at the institute.
• Finally on Thursday, Jonathan Schiff, the Institute's lawyer, and I met with, Professor Jimmy Weinblatt, the Rector of BGU, Professor Shaul Krakover, the Dean of the Eilat campus and the university's lawyer to finalize financial and legal issues in the new agreement. All outstanding issues have been resolved opening up the door for implementing the new agreement as of next semester.
• Finally, through a connection with Dr. Donny Ornstein, one of our faculty, the Arava Alumni Peace and Environmental Network has been given the opportunity to host Alan Weissman, the author of the best selling book, "The World Without Us" at the February Alumni Conference in Aqaba.

David Lehrer