BEN GURION UNIVERSITY -  first Israeli university to become member of US National Academy of Inventors

 

 

 

The Beersheba institution of higher learning was recognized as being one of the 100 leading universities in the world for the number of applied US patents.

Students at Hebrew University. (photo credit:MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)

 

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev has accepted the invitation of the US National Academy of Inventors to become an official associate member.

“We appreciate your innovative institution and your researchers, and we are excited to accept you as a member of the NAI,” the academy’s founder and president, Prof. Paul R. Sanberg, said.

The academy has associate member universities in seven countries outside the US, and BGU will be the first in Israel, BGU president Prof. Rivka Carmi said on Sunday. “We are proud to receive the invitation as recognition of our achievements. It will help us innovate and promote applied research.”

In 2013, the Beersheba institution of higher learning was recognized as being one of the 100 leading universities in the world for the number of applied US patents. Having many such patents, said Carmi, reflects the “spirit of fruitful innovation through unusual inventions that have a tangible influence on the quality of life, economic development and the welfare of the society.”

The NAI includes more than 3,000 inventors at 200 institutions.

It was founded four years ago by Sanberg, who is executive director of the University of South Florida’s Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair.

The academy’s aims are to enhance the visibility of university and nonprofit research institute technology and academic innovation; encourage the disclosure of intellectual property; educate and mentor innovative students; promote the translation of the inventions of its members to benefit society; and increase public exposure to technology and innovation based in academic institutions.                   

             

            

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Israeli researchers: Not so fast on artificial sweetener settled science

 

Find artificial sweeteners boost diabetes risk — Will anti-Israel academic boycotters ignore these

findings?

     

Posted by William A. Jacobson    Thursday, September 18, 2014     

 

It’s a good thing we still have scientists who refuse to accept settled science and scientific consensus, and keep on digging and questioning prevailing wisdoms.
It seems that many of such scientists are in Israel, perhaps because politicized scientific conformity is not as prized in the “start-up nation” as it is in Euorpe and the U.S.

One example from Israel we reported on previously was Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded scientific denier:

Israeli scientist Daniel Shechtman won the 2011 Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday for his discovery of quasicrystals, a mosaic-like chemical structure that researchers previously thought was impossible.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said Shechtman’s discovery in 1982 fundamentally changed the way chemists look at solid matter. It initially faced strong objections from the scientific community, and even got him kicked out of his research group in the United States.

Now another, from AFP via Times of Israel, Sweeteners boost diabetes risk, Israeli study finds:

Promoted as an aid to good health, artificial sweeteners may in fact be boosting diabetes risk, said an Israeli study Wednesday that urged a rethink of their widespread use and endorsement….
After leaving a sensation of sweetness on the tongue, NAS [Non-caloric artificial sweeteners] molecules pass through the intestinal tract without being absorbed.
This explains why, unlike sugar, they add negligibly, if at all, to the calorie count.
But Israeli scientists reported in the journal Nature that experiments on lab mice and a small group of humans found NAS disrupted the makeup and function of gut bacteria, and actually hastened glucose intolerance.
“Artificial sweeteners were extensively introduced into our diets with the intention of reducing caloric intake and normalizing blood glucose levels without compromising the human ‘sweet tooth,’” the paper said.
“Our findings suggest that NAS may have directly contributed to enhancing the exact epidemic that they themselves were intended to fight,” it said bluntly.
Scientists led by Eran Elinav and Eran Segal of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel added three commonly-used types of NAS — aspartame, sucralose or saccharin — to the drinking water of mice in body-size appropriate doses equivalent to recommended maximum human intake.

Oh, and one more thing.
The Weizmann Institute of Science is subject to the academic boycott of Israel championed by Steven Salaita, the controversial almost-U. Illinois professor and his supporters at the American Studies Association and in some pockets of academia.

[Weizmann Institute of Science via Wikimedia Commons]

The academic BDS supporters should ignore these Israeli research findings, in the spirit of anti-Zionist solidarity.

Israeli IPO’s World-Beating 73% Surge Leads August Rally

 

 

By Gabrielle Coppola   

 

Mobileye NV (MBLY), the technology company that went public a month ago, led gains among U.S.-listed Israeli stocks in August as investors shrugged off concern that the seven-week Gaza conflict will weaken the economy.

Mobileye has surged 73 percent to $43.22 since listing in New York on July 31, the biggest rally among all companies globally that raised $500 million or more in the past three months. Caesarstone Sdot-Yam Ltd. (CSTE), the maker of quartz counter-tops, climbed 20 percent in August, the second-best performance on the Bloomberg Israel-U.S. Equity Index, which rose 4.8 percent.

While signs have emerged that the Gaza fighting is starting to curb output at some Israeli businesses, hurt tourism and cut into consumer spending, investors have shown little concern, instead bidding up stocks in line with gains being posted in the U.S. and other major global markets. The performance of Mobileye and Caesarstone, which has more than tripled since its 2012 listing, could help bolster demand for more Israeli initial public offerings, according to Josef Schuster, the founder of Chicago-based IPOX Schuster LLC.

“Momentum drives everything right now,” Schuster said by phone Aug. 28. “Mobileye and Caesarstone, if you held that, you made a lot of money.”

The Nasdaq Composite Index (CCMP) advanced 4.8 percent this month, while the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index gained 3.8 percent, breaking the 2,000 mark on Aug. 26, 27 and 29.

Investors are pouring money into equities on optimism the U.S. economy is strengthening and as European Central Bank President Mario Draghi signaled policy makers may introduce an asset-buying plan to bolster growth amid slowing inflation.

Record IPO

Executives at Mobileye didn’t respond to a request for comment made after business hours in Israel.

Mobileye’s $1 billion IPO was the biggest in the U.S. by an Israeli company on record, part of a rush of deals last month. Six Israeli companies have gone public in the U.S. this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Eight more have offerings pending.

“We’re continuing to see moderate appetite for IPOs in the U.S. by Israeli companies,” Phyllis Korff, a lawyer at Skadden Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in New York, said in an e-mail. “This activity could continue through the end of 2014 and into the first quarter of 2015,” said Korff, who worked on the Mobileye offering.

The Jerusalem-based technology company, whose customers include luxury electric-carmaker Tesla Motors Inc., posted 2013 net income of $19.9 million following two years of losses, according to its IPO prospectus. Revenue in 2013 was $81.2 million, more than double the figure from 2012.

Rate Cut

“People are buying it on the hope of great growth,” Brian Krawez, who oversees $3 billion at Scotts Valley, California-based Scharf Investments, said by phone Aug. 28. “People were very skeptical of the stock market, they missed a lot of the rally. Now with the market up, they’re moving cash from the sidelines.”

While global financial markets have shrugged off fighting in Gaza, it has begun to take its toll on Israel’s economy. The Bank of Israel unexpectedly cut interest rates to a record low on Aug. 25 in an attempt to boost an economy already hit by slowing exports.

Israeli growth slowed in the second quarter to 1.7 percent from 2.8 percent in the previous three months, as exports, which account for about a third of the economy, tumbled 18 percent, according to official data released Aug. 17.

Stock Gains

An Egyptian-brokered truce that started Aug. 26 halted seven weeks of fighting that killed more than 2,100 Palestinians and 70 on the Israeli side, according to official tallies.

The local TA-25 Index (TA-25) rose 0.6 percent this month, trailing the 4.8 percent gain on the Bloomberg Israel-US Index. Tel Aviv stocks have appreciated 5.3 percent this year, compared with an 11 percent advance for U.S.-listed Israeli stocks.

Caesarstone, which makes quartz kitchen counter-tops, surged this month after issuing a new full-year sales estimate that surpassed analysts’ projections. The stock has appreciated 373 percent since its IPO in March of 2012.

“They’re just executing extremely well and the stock was cheap at the onset,” Schuster said. “It’s one of those stocks you wish you had held on to forever.” ((An earlier version of this story corrected the law firm’s name in the ninth paragraph.)) 

 

 

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