BGU Vice-Presidents
Michal Bar-Asher Siegal is a scholar of rabbinic Judaism. Her work focuses on aspects of Jewish-Christian interactions in the ancient world, and compares early Christian and rabbinic sources. She is a faculty member at the Goldstein-Goren Department of Jewish Thought, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and she was an elected member of the Israel Young Academy of Sciences. She was the Horace Goldsmith Visiting Professor in Judaic Studies at Yale University and the Gruss Visiting Associate Professor in Talmudic Civil Law
Harvard Law School. Her first book is Early Christian Monastic Literature and the Babylonian Talmud (Cambridge University Press, 2013; winner of the 2014 Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award). Her second book is Jewish-Christian Dialogues on Scripture in Late Antiquity: Heretic Narratives of the Babylonian Talmud (Cambridge University Press, 2019; finalist, National Jewish Book Award, 2019).
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As Vice-President for Research and Development, Prof. Dan Blumberg oversaw a range of initiatives and collaborative efforts in Israel and abroad, on a wide range of academic areas. During his tenure as Vice-President, BGU developed research ties with universities in Arizona and Illinois, hospitals in China and Cincinnati and more. He also oversaw the development of collaborative efforts with the Israel Police, Israel's defense establishment, private industry and successfully lobbied for many large research grants.
In his role as Vice-President for Regional and Industrial Development, Prof. Blumberg is responsible for developing and protecting the University's role in the ongoing expansion of the hi-tech industry at BGU, in Beer-Sheva and around the Negev region and has a key role in promoting applied research around the world. He also focuses on maintaining and expanding the University's relationships with the private sector.
Prof. Blumberg is a member of the International Academy of Astronautics and is the head of BGU's Earth and Planetary Image Facility. He received his PhD in Planetary Geology and Physical Geography from Arizona State University. He has conducted groundbreaking research in remote sensing, including experiments involving observation systems installed on satellites and aircraft to study planetary geography, on Earth and other planets. He is a member of the NASA Spaceborne Imaging Radar Science Team, as well as the Israel Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. He is the director of Israel's Homeland Security Institute, as well as of BGU's award-winning Green Campus initiative.
In 2017 Prof. Blumberg's lab launched a nano-satellite, BGUSAT, equipped with a CCD camera, a Tri-Axis inertial sensor, an experimental space GPS sensor from Honeywell, a magnometer, an optic communication sensor and optional extra payload to allow it to take photographs of a variety of weather patterns. The University also built a lab to save the photographs and to give faculty members and students access to the images.
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Tel: +972-8-6472421
Fax: +972-8-6477745
Email: vpdrd@bgu.ac.il
Prof. Raz Jelinek was born and raised in Beer-Sheva. His connection to BGU began as a teenager when he participated in youth programs for science on campus. He graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (summa cum laude) with a degree in physics in 1988 and completed his doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley in 1993, followed by post-doctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania.
In 1996 Prof. Jelinek joined BGU's Dept. of Chemistry, and has served as visiting professor at leading research universities around the world, including the University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins University, Jilin University (China) and New York University – Shanghai. He is the author of four science textbooks, two scientific books and more than 180 research papers that have appeared in peer-reviewed scientific journals.
His academic awards include the 2010 Ruth L. Kirschstein Senior Fellowship Award, presented by the National Institutes of Health (USA), the Toronto Prize for Research Excellence (2009) and Ben-Gurion University's Distinguished Lecturer Award (2011).
In addition to his academic activities, Prof. Jelinek is active in community affairs on behalf of the environment, serving as the head of Residents Influence Modi'in NGO, which acts to preserve open spaces and the ecology in and around the city.
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Tel: +972-8-6472396; +972-86428325
Fax: +972-8-6472879
Since making aliya from his native Scotland in 1981, Jeff Kaye has established himself as a leader of Israel's third sector. After a 10-year career in the field of special education as a teacher and school principal, he turned his efforts to the philanthropy sector. Over the past 25 years he has built a track-record of securing significant philanthropic contributions, building partnerships and conducting successful negotiations with Israeli government ministries of Finance, Defense, Housing, Education, the Prime Minister's Office, the IDF and others. He has also monitored and secured grant opportunities offered by the United States Department of State.
In addition to Kaye's public service roles as Director General for Resource Development & Public Affairs at the Jewish Agency for Israel, Community Emissary (shaliach) to the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit and most recently as Executive Vice President and Director-General of The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (Keren L'Yedidut), he is the co- founder of The Israel Academy of Philanthropy, and has been involved in teaching dozens of non-profit professionals in Israel, providing them with the tools they need for building capacity, effective philanthropy and sustainable development.
A member of the Department of Education, Prof. Abu-Rabia Queder is the first Arab woman from the Negev promoted to professor at BGU. Her research focuses on issues of diversity and inequality among minorities in academia. She has been an active member of University committees, most recently as part of the planning and budget committee to promote lower socio-economic sectors of society. She also led a team tasked with promoting Arab women doctoral candidates.
In her new position, she will be responsible for equal representation in the student and faculty body of Arabs, women, those with disabilities, Ethiopian immigrants, Haredim and LGBTQ+.
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