Weekly Report February 14th-20th, 2010

Generally the semester break is a quiet period but this week was very busy.

• On Sunday, David Weisberg, Executive Director of the Friends of the Arava Institute visited the institute and met with staff and faculty. David had attended the Alumni Conference in Aqaba and came away with many new ideas and information.
  The same day, the Academic Programs Department held the mid-year faculty meeting, going over the expectations for the coming semester, the schedule, courses and special events.


• Following the faculty meeting, the PELS Committee met to discuss the plans for the seminar for spring semester.


• On Monday morning the staff was drafted to help move furniture from northern most prefab student dorm. The reason was in order to prepare the dorm to be moved to closer to the other dorms to make room for a new faculty house. The Hevel Eilot Regional Council has arranged to distribute a number of prefab family houses among the different settlements in the region. Kibbutz Ketura was offered the option of receiving (renting) one of these family houses. The kibbutz did not have an area ready with the appropriate infrastructure. It has been in the long term plan of the institute to build houses for faculty in order to be able to host scholars in residence and to house faculty when they come for overnight stays. Due to the lucky circumstances, the institute is able to fulfill this long term dream within the next few months when the house will arrive.


• Tuesday morning the Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation dedicated the new Arava Technology Validation Center, a testing site for photovoltaic (PV) panels. Companies interested in putting up PV installations in the Arava will be able to contract with the Arava Institute in order to have their technology's efficiency tested under the Arava's climactic conditions. The Technology Validation Center was built in partnership with the Eilat Eilot Renewable Energy Initiative and the Hevel Eilot Regional Council. Uzi Landau, Minister of Infrastructure cut the ribbon to dedicate the Center. The ceremony was attended by over 100 participants in the Eilat Eilot 3rd Annual Renewable Energy Conference. Other attendees to the dedication ceremony included former US Ambassador to Israel, Richard Jones, Korean Ambassador to Israel, Young San Ma, US Congressman Steve Israel from New York, Korean Ambassador Young San Ma and Slovenian Ambassador, Boris Sovic.


• After the ceremony the participants joined the other 1,500 participants in the three day Eilat Eilot Renewable Energy Conference in Eilat. In three years, the annual conference has grown from 300 participants to over 1,600 and become the largest conference dedicated to Renewable Energy in the Middle East. The conference is sponsored by the Eilat Eilot Renewable Energy Initiative (REI) headed by Dorit Banet and Noam Ilan. Dorit is employed by the Arava Institute as Co-Director of the REI which is funded by the Greater Toronto Jewish Federation Partnership 2000 Program. Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed, Director of the Arava Institute Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation participated in a conference panel on the impact of academic research on renewable energy progress in Israel. Other panel members included representatives from all of the major universities and research institutes in Israel.


• I also attended the first day of the conference but had to rush back in order to eat dinner with the Jewish Nation Fund' Makor Mission. The Makor Mission is the special lay leader leadership mission. The mission helps young JNF lay leaders learn about JNF projects in Israel in order to represent them in the US. Russell Robinson recommended that the mission stay at the Ketura guest house. During the day, the mission visited various JNF sites in the Arava including time at the Arava Institute meeting with staff and students. In the evening, I had dinner with the mission and met with Joel Leibowitz, JNF NJ Zone Director and Makor staff coordinator, about a possible large scale donation to the institute. Afterward, Clive Lipchin and I met with Sharon Davidowitch, the Israeli National Shaliach to the JNF to discuss cooperation between the Arava Institute's Center for Integrated Water Resource Management and the JNF Parson's Water Fund. We discussed possible cooperation on waste water projects in the West Bank and hosting the Parson's Water Fund Board of Directors on a trip around the Dead Sea Basin.


• The Renewable Energy Conference was held for three days, February 16th through the 18th. Many of the Arava Institute staff members attended the conference. I also ran into a large number of Arava Institute Alumni who are now working in the field of renewable energy. The conference was a great opportunity to network with companies, academics and politicians looking to promote the use of renewable energy technology. We had the opportunity to meet with the Deputy Minister of Negev and Galil Development who is very interested in promoting Israeli cooperation with Jordan.


• Thursday morning, Avner Simon, the architect who is designing the Research and Visitors Park outside the offices of the institute came down to see developments in the park and to consult with staff members and kibbutz members about finalizing plans for development.


• That afternoon, the RE Conference concluded by offering participants tours of the region to look at the current RE instillations. In addition to visiting the Kibbutz Samar solar tower and the Kibbutz Yotvata parking lot PV shade, bus loads of conference participants came to the institute in order to see the newly erected Arava Technology Validation Center.
  
  Next week does not look any quieter with 42 students arriving for the start of the spring semester on Sunday.
  
  David Lehrer