The Hebrew University of Jerusalem proudly congratulates five of its esteemed researchers for receiving prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grants. These grants, each valued at approximately 1.5 million euros, are awarded to young researchers at the early stages of their careers, specifically those with 2-7 years of research experience since completing their PhDs.
“At Hebrew University, we are immensely proud of the outstanding achievements of these five exceptional researchers. Their work embodies the spirit of innovation and rigorous inquiry that defines our academic community. The prestigious ERC Starting Grants they have received are a testament to their dedication and the groundbreaking nature of their research. We look forward to witnessing the profound impact their studies will have on their respective fields and beyond.” — Prof Tamir Sheafer, Rector of Hebrew University
The recipients from Hebrew University are:
Dr Karma Ben Johanan, from the Department of Comparative Religion, for her research titled “Christosemitism: Christian Anti-antisemitism in Europe, 1945-2020.” This study explores the Christian rejection of antisemitism in post-World War II Europe, as it is expressed in theological, institutional and liturgical changes. Dr Ben Johanan’s work examines the Christian struggle against antisemitism against the backdrop of Western Christianity’s re-crystallisation, in light of processes of secularisation, decolonisation, and the shift of Christianity’s center of gravity from the West to the Global South.
Dr Moran Frankel Pinter, from the Institute of Chemistry, for her research on the chemical origins of life, which seeks to bridge the gap between contemporary biochemistry and the chemical principles that led to life on Earth. Her ERC project focuses on characterising how simple sugars, which were present on ancient Earth, combined to form functional catalytic polymers capable of self-assembly. Additionally, she investigates the role of these sugars in the emergence of complex catalytic chemical networks.
Dr Ilan Komargodski, from the School of Engineering and Computer Science, for his research on fast and secure communication protocols. His work centers on the fundamentals of cryptography, with a focus on developing distributed communication protocols that ensure safety and privacy, protecting users from information leakage. His research in large-scale communication networks represents an area with potentially groundbreaking applications. Dr Komargodski aims to deepen existing knowledge and uncover new approaches for secure computations involving vast numbers of participants and large volumes of information, a setting that is still relatively new and whose full applicability is not yet fully understood.
Dr Noam Lifshitz, from the Einstein Institute of Mathematics, for his research in the analysis of Boolean functions, which take a string of zeros and ones as input and output either zero or one. Although Boolean functions are combinatorial objects, their study in this field utilises tools from Fourier analysis, with “hypercontractivity” being one of the main techniques. His proposal aims to apply this tool in the context of group theory and representation theory, which focus on the study of symmetries.
Dr Gideon Mamou, from the Faculty of Medicine, for his research on the structure of the bacterial envelope and its role in protecting against antibiotics. His work focuses on the multi-layered envelope that shields the bacterial cell, enabling it to withstand antibiotic treatments. While many components of this envelope have been identified, the understanding of their interrelationships remains limited. Dr Mamou aims to deepen the understanding of how the cell coordinates the construction of all the envelope components and to uncover interactions within the envelope that contribute to its capability to protect against antibacterial substances.
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is Israel’s premier academic and research institution. With over 23,000 students from 90 countries, it is a hub for advancing scientific knowledge and holds a significant role in Israel’s civilian scientific research output, accounting for nearly 40% of it and has registered over 11,000 patents. The university’s faculty and alumni have earned eight Nobel Prizes, two Turing Awards a Fields Medal, underscoring their contributions to ground-breaking discoveries. In the global arena, the Hebrew University ranks 81st according to the Shanghai Ranking. To learn more about the university’s academic programs, research initiatives, and achievements, visit the official website at http://new.huji.ac.il/en
The ERC, set up by the European Union in 2007, is the premier European funding organisation for excellent frontier research. It funds creative researchers of any nationality and age, to run projects based across Europe. The ERC offers four core grant schemes: Starting Grants, Consolidator Grants, Advanced Grants and Synergy Grants. With its additional Proof of Concept Grant scheme, the ERC helps grantees to bridge the gap between their pioneering research and early phases of its commercialisation. The ERC is led by an independent governing body, the Scientific Council.