MIT-ISRAEL
ANNUALREPORT
STAFF
ERAN BEN-JOSEPH
PROFESSOR, URBAN STUDIES AND PLANNING
FACULTY DIRECTOR, MIT-ISRAEL
DAVID DOLEV
SENIOR ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, MIT INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVES (MISTI)
MANAGING DIRECTOR, MIT-ISRAEL
CHRISTINE ORTIZ
PROFESSOR, MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
FACULTY ADVISOR, MIT-ISRAEL
RACHEL BUONAIUTO
PROGRAM COORDINATOR, MITISRAEL
OVERVIEW
MIT-ISRAEL
Maintaining connection between MIT and Israel in turbulent times
This year has been particularly challenging for many of us connected to Israel. The events of October 7 and its aftermath have left a profound impact on many individuals and communities worldwide. We have restructured regular programming to support the connection of the MIT community to Israel despite being unable to send students to the region at this time.
In response to these challenges, we have prioritized initiatives focused on serving as a bridge between MIT and Israel, with programming anchored in science, technology, and entrepreneurship. For example, over this past academic year we have:
hosted a dinner for Israeli students to gather and support one another immediately after October 7 set up remote volunteer opportunities for MIT students to work with Israeli startups who needed support organized a talk on “Healthcare innovation in wartime” with MIT alum Avner Halperin MBA ‘01 (CEO of Sheba Impact)
With the MIT Israel Alliance, co-hosted an event with Lior Ron, Israeli founder and CEO of Uber Freight
Additionally, with strong demand for the MIT-Israel seed funds, we awarded 11 new grants to faculty across MIT. These faculty members will be collaborating with academic peers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Hebrew University, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, Tel Aviv University, and the Weizmann Institute of Science. The full list of past seed fund awardees can be found here.
As we look ahead, the upcoming year presents us with opportunities to continue to innovate new approaches to deepen our impact, both on campus and in Israel. We want to extend our gratitude for your support and belief in our vision. It is your engagement that drives our success and inspires us to continue our work. We invite you to read through the detailed sections of this report, where you will find insights into our programs, and personal reflections from MIT-Israel alumni.
We hope for more peaceful, stable times in the year to come.
MAKINGANIMPACTWITH MIT-ISRAEL
MIT is fiercely committed to empowering students to work with others to learn about and solve the world’s most complex problems. As MIT’s hub for global student experiences, MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) provides the global learning and collaboration opportunities that give our students the perspective they need to make positive change happen in the world. A MISTI student's experience abroad is so much more than just an internship. These unique MIT-caliber experiences expand students’ worldviews and provide the foundation from which they will come to understand their own potential for impact in the world. MISTI has identified four impact areas that are core to our activities:
Climate & Sustainability
Global Health
Artificial Intelligence
Social Impact
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT
MAYA MAKAROVSKY ‘25
WhatdidyoustudyatMIT?Whenwillyou graduate?
ComputerScience,Economics,andDataScience BusinessAnalytics
Classof2025
AtMIT,IfocusonComputerScience,Economics, &DataScienceaswellasBusinessAnalytics
SinceMIT-Israel,I’vedoneaninternshipinLondon atafintechstartup,helpingthembecomedatadriven.IalsoworkedwithanESG-focusedMIT acceleratorinDubaiwhereIhelpedanearlystage startupdeveloptheirdatamodel Currently,I’m interningatBaininmanagementconsulting
When did you participate in MISTI Israel? What did you do during your MIT-Israel internship experience?
I did MIT-Israel during the summer of 2022. While I was there, I worked at Tel Aviv University and did research in the biophysics field—specifically, optic nanosensors. I worked on a project in the Bisker Lab focusing on single-walled carbon nanotubes, which have a variety of applications in medicine like cancer and diabetes. My goal was to explore how cells interact with these nanotubes to better understand the optimal conditions for these nanotubes to be used. I would transfuse cells with nanotubes and use laser/optic-imaging to research cell reaction to nanotubes.
What were the highlights of your time in Israel?
The highlight of my time in Tel Aviv was the daily lifestyle. Each day I would go to the beach after work and join beach volleyball games with strangers, where I would get to know fascinating Israelis from tech CEOs to backpackers. I would play until the sun set over the water and then grab a pita from the local Shawarma place around the corner. Israel is such a diverse and versatile country—from beautiful beaches to stargazing in the Negev desert to the Tel Aviv city life to lush gardens in Haifa. There’s always so much to do and so much to explore.
How did your internship in Israel impact your personal and professional development?
Israel is the tech start-up capital of the world, and you meet incredible people who took the risk to start a company over an idea they are passionate about. It’s inspiring to be surrounded by people like that who want to change the world. It helped me see that I want an impact-driven career. I received a lot of advice and guidance about entrepreneurship and expended my entrepreneurial mindset. Working in a different country also taught me how to adapt to new environments and to be okay with leaving my comfort zone. MITIsrael was transformative for my life at MIT and beyond.
Is there anything else you want to share?
MISTI-Israel was by far the best summer of my life. I will always look back to it as a time of exploration, adventure, and excitement. It was a life-changing experience that reminds me to always stay curious and follow my passions.
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT
ARSEN VASILYAN PHD ‘24
Arsen’s internship built off of a MIT-Israel Zuckerman STEM fund collaboration between Ronitt Rubinfeld, Edwin Sibley Webster Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT and Talya Eden, Bar Ilan University.
What did you study at MIT? When did you graduate?
I graduated in June 2024, and now I am a Research Fellow at the Simons Institute for Theoretical Computer Science at Berkeley. I continue to do research and write papers at my new job.
When did you participate in MISTI Israel? What did you do during your MIT-Israel internship experience?
I participated in MISTI Israel in Summer 2023, and worked on a research project together with Talya Eden at the Bar Ilan University, as well Ilan Cohen at Bar Ilan and Alon Eden at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. During the internship we have worked on learningaugmented mechanism design, as well as a novel framework for testing whether a stream of elements is randomly permuted (using only a small amount of memory).
What were the highlights of your time in Israel?
I got to work in one of the top countries for my research field, together with prominent researchers in my area. I also got to experience Israel’s culture and meet many wonderful friends.
How did your internship in Israel impact your personal and professional development?
Doing research with someone I have not worked with previously has allowed me to grow as a researcher. For example, I had never worked previously with a junior faculty, and now I have this experience. Collaborating with more people allows me to better understand what are the different styles people can have when it comes to research, which is something very useful in one's career. Additionally, I acquired a new collaborator. I plan to continue working with Talya after the internship is over and hope that we will be able to make more progress on our projects. This could potentially result in a publication in a peer-reviewed venue. I have also been acquainted with the culture of work and research in Israel. In Israel, this culture differs in many ways from that in the United States. Differences include things such as how meetings are scheduled and how long research meetings last. Moreover, people in Israel are known for their very direct communication style. Through this summer internship, I have been able to gain more experience with these differences. I believe that this will help me be more effective in working with people in Israel. Given that Israel is home to a sizable fraction of all researchers in my field of theoretical computer science, this experience will undoubtedly be a useful asset for me in my career
Anything else you want to share?
As a result of our project, we wrote a paper that was accepted to NeurIPS, which is a wellknown machine learning conference. https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.07024
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT
FATIMA HUSSAIN SB’11, PHD’20
WhatdidyoustudyatMIT?Whendidyou graduate?
EnvironmentalEngineeringandWomen'sand Genderstudies--SB2011;Environmental Microbiology--PhD2020
IamcurrentlyanAssistantProfessorinthe BiologyDepartmentatTuftsUniversity studyingthevaginalmicrobiome
When did you participate in MISTI Israel? What did you do during your MIT-Israel internship experience?
I did MISTI Israel with a bunch of my friends after my Junior Year (2010). I was a plant science researcher in the lab of Professor Amram Eshel at Tel Aviv University. I worked on understanding if and how Tamarix trees could be used for biofuels as well as if and how reclaimed waste water could be used to water avocado plants.
What were the highlights of your time in Israel?
I loved when David Dolev came and took our whole cohort around. We were able to learn science in our internships and about the history, culture, and complexities of Israel through the MISTI program.
How did your internship in Israel impact your personal and professional development?
While my work in Israel was both biology and engineering focused, it was during MISTI that I found myself becoming more of a scientist than an engineer. In fact, when I applied to PhD programs, my MISTI Israel advisor wrote one of my main letters of recommendation. On the personal front, I was able to go to Israel with many of my friends, who I am still very close with to this day.
MIT-GLOBAL SEEDFUNDS
MIT-Global Seed Funds (GSF) help MIT faculty create exciting new connections by supporting early-stage collaborations with researchers at peer institutions around the world. This past year the MIT-Israel program awarded ten new grants to support MIT and Israeli faculty collaboration and to engage students in this collaborative research
MIT-ISRAEL BROSHY BRAIN AND COGNITIVE SCIENCES FUND
BRIAN ANTHONY, MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
DAN RAVIV, TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY
Genometric-DL-US-wearables
RITU RAMAN, MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
AYELET LESMAN, TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY
Light-activated biohybrid actuator inspired by the human iris musculature
MIT-ISRAEL LOCKHEED MARTIN SEED FUND
ZACHARY CORDERO, AERONAUTICS AND ASTRONAUTICS
PAVEL GALICH, TECHNION-ISRAEL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Harnessing architectured lattices for tailorable mechanical damping in aerospace systems
ARIEL FURST, CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
NURIT ASHKENASY, BEN-GURION UNIVERSITY OF THE NEGEV
Improving microbial electrochemical technologies with bio-derived materials
August 14, 2023, Tel Aviv (l-r): Lina Deshilton, Executive Director, Zuckerman Israel Institute; Arsen Vasilyan, MIT graduate student; Prof. Eran Ben-Josef, MIT; Marie-Laure Charpignon, MIT graduate student
MIT-ISRAEL ZUCKERMAN STEM FUND
ROGER LEVY, BRAIN AND COGNITIVE SCIENCES
YEVGENI BERZAK, TECHNION-ISRAEL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Bridging AI and Language Processing in the Brain
EGOR MATVEYEV, MANAGEMENT
EVGENY LYANDRES, TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY
Convertible Debt Financing in Competitive Product Markets: The Case of Israel
LIANG FU, PHYSICS
EREZ BERG, WEIZMANN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE
Emergent Quantum Phenomena in Crystalline Multilayer Graphene
CHRISTOPHER VOIGT, BIOLOGICAL ENGINEERING
YITZHAK PILPEL, WEIZMANN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE
Deciphering the mRNA Design Principles and Evolutionary Origins of Bacteroidetes, The Predominant Human Gut Bacteria Phylum
VLADAN VULETIC, PHYSICS
IDO KAMINER, TECHNION-ISRAEL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Fault-Tolerant Quantum Information Processing with Photons and Neutral Atoms
DAVID DESMARAIS, CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING
YOTAM ZAIT, HEBREW UNIVERSITY
Global Urban Tree Ecophysiology Network
OR HEN, PHYSICS
IGOR KOROVER, TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY
Novel Fiber-Based Electromagnetic Calorimetry
LOOKING FORWARD
The MIT-Israel Program, a bridge between MIT and Israel, is aligned with the MIT mission of global impact and collaboration, the program supports MIT students' personal and professional growth while enabling them, and MIT faculty, to gain a deep understanding of the region.
To ensure continued MIT-Israel engagement and learning, we are proposing a multipronged approach to address the many challenges we currently face in sending MIT students to the country. In the immediate future, the program will:
When possible, our top priority will be sending MIT undergraduate and graduate students for internship and teaching opportunities in Israel;
Strengthen opportunities for MIT and Israeli faculty to engage via seed funds for collaborative research and to create opportunities for MIT professors to lead classes that have an in-country component in Israel;
Leverage current Israelis, Israel-engaged students, and program alumni oncampus as ambassadors and drivers of MIT-Israel engagement;
Raise the profile of Israeli science, technology, and entrepreneurship activities and opportunities on-campus;
Continue to engage program alumni in educational programs related to the MENA region;
Raise expendable and endowment funds to support all of the above and to ensure the program’s long-term sustainability.
DONOR ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We are thankful to our supporters who have helped us continue to grow the program and recognize those who have made major gifts over the past five years:
Dr Haim Alcalay ‘61, M Sc ‘62, PhD ‘66
Ilyas Bayar ‘71, SM ‘73
Robert Bechek ‘81
Jack A. Belz ‘48
Nancy and David Berkowitz ‘83, SM ‘84
Dr Jeffrey J Blumenstein PhD ‘87
Stephen Bram ‘63
Eran Broshy ‘79 and Feigue Berman-Broshy
Larry Broutman ‘59, SM ‘61, SCD ‘63*
Dr Stanley E Charm ‘52*
Arie and Ida Crown Memorial Foundation (Charles Goodman ‘54)
Mr Gary P Curwin ‘89
Felix A Dashevsky ‘99
Raquel and Riccardo ‘72 Di Capua
Mr Julian Dwek ‘97, MBA ‘02
Mrs. Betty Dyer and Professor Ira Dyer ‘49, SM ‘51, PhD ‘54*
Mr Michael A Fink ‘80
Fisher Family Foundation (Ron Fisher and Lisa Rosenbaum ‘77)
Dr Simson Garfinkel ‘87, PhD ‘05 and Beth
Rosenberg
Dr Jerry I Goldman ‘61
Mr Edward G Grossman ‘71
Jeff Halis ‘76
Mr Carl W Hoffman ‘80
Mr Doron C Holzer SB ‘73, SM ‘74
Dr Howard Katz ‘78
Kathryn Keen MBA ‘15
Leslie M. Klein ‘72, MAR ‘74
The Kogan Family
Dr Julian H Krolik ‘71
*Deceased
Benjamin Lantos ‘07
Mrs Phyllis Lantos ‘72, SM ‘74
Mr.* and Mrs. Mason I. Lappin
Dr. Carrie R. Muh '96, SM '97
Susan Weiss Liebman ‘68
Dr Jordan Loftus ‘50, ScD ‘64
Rebecca and Laird M Malamed ‘89
Mr and Mrs David A Polak ‘59
Eva Ratonyi
Boris Raykin '97, MNG '98 and Natalie Raykin ‘99
Arthur Reidel ‘73
Janice Rossbach ‘51
Edward M ‘59 and Harriet Safran
Rebecca and Arthur “Art” Samberg ‘62*
Joshua and Eileen Schein
Arlene and the late Harold Schnitzer ‘44
Jake Seid ‘98, MEng ‘98, MIT-Israel Founding Team
Mr. Paul S. Shapiro ‘63, SM ‘65
Dr Simeon Schwartz ‘73, Hyman and Muriel
Schwartz Foundation
Anica and David Shpilberg ‘72, SM ‘73, PhD ‘76
Kenneth R Sidman ‘67, SM ‘68
Marc D Silverstein MD ‘70
Mr Elliot Singer ‘74
Mr Philip J Solondz ‘48
Pamela and Michael Stanley ‘99
Dr Don Steiner ‘60, SM ‘62, PhD ‘67
Mr and Mrs Philip E Strause ‘65
Ann and Rick ‘70 Tavan
Mr. Jonathan B. Tepper ‘74, SM ‘75
Steven R. Weiss ‘66 and Stefani Weiss
Arnee R. and Walt A. Winshall ‘64
Kenneth C Zolot SM ‘95
Further Acknowledgments
We are grateful for our collaboration with the MIT Alumni Club of Israel for their strong partnership in helping to recruit host institutions, organize alumni events with MIT students, and really being a home away from home for the students.
In addition, we would like to extend our gratitude to:
Peter Krause, Research Affiliate, MIT Security Studies Program
Yoav Danenberg, Hebrew instructor and curriculum developer
Todd Holmes, Program Manager, International Safety and Security
MIT Associate Counsel, Office of the General Counsel, Richelle Nessralla
MIT Hillel: Rabbi Michelle Fisher, Executive Director; Marissa Feinman, Assistant Director; Shoshana Gibbor, Director of Birthright and Israel Engagement, Natalie Yosipovitch, Director of Engagement
MIT Sloan Israel Business Club
New England-Israel Business Council School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, MIT: Agustin Rayo, Kenan Sahin Dean; Anne Marie Michel, Assistant Dean for Development; Megan Hinckley, Senior Leadership Giving Officer; Britta Bell, Development Officer
The Consulate General of Israel to New England
Ernest Fraenkel, Or Hen, Tal Cohen, MIT Faculty.