By Yair Ron

Fleeing war in their homeland, Ukraine’s top teenage math geniuses have landed in Israel, and the high school students are now starting a specially-created program at Bar-Ilan University's International School.

When the war began, the young members of Ukraine’s world championship math team found their lives and studies thrown into chaos. 

What is the microscopic process behind quantum phenomena such as superconductivity and magnetism that occur in materials? Dr. Jonathan Ruhman, of the Department of Physics at Bar-Ilan University, is a theorist who studies quantum phenomena in many-body systems. His field of research, "Quantum Condensed Matter", focuses on “quantum liquids, quantum solids and everything in between," he explains. "A great example of a quantum liquid is a superconductor: when certain metals are cooled below a critical temperature they become 'perfect' (without resistance).

The world's coral reefs are becoming extinct due to many factors such as global warming and accelerated urbanization in coastal areas, which places tremendous stress on marine life. "The rapid decline of coral reefs has increased the need for exploring interdisciplinary methods for reef restoration," explains Natalie Levy, a Ph.D. student at Bar-Ilan University in Israel.

Just one single neuron can realize deep learning algorithms, which previously required an artificial complex network consisting of thousands of connected neurons and synapses. This new discovery by Bar-Ilan University researchers is expected to have important implications on future AI hardware architecture.

What is the connection between memory and the brain, and how do changes in the brain affect memory? In Prof. Eli Vakil's laboratory for brain, memory, and amnesia research at Bar-Ilan University's Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, they are investigating, inter alia, the impact that age, brain injuries, and neurological diseases such as Parkinson's disease have on memory.

Prof. Yuval Feldman, Associate Dean for Research at the Bar-Ilan University Faculty of Law who studies behavioral and experimental analysis of regulation, compliance and enforcement, is the recipient of a European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant.

Congratulations to Yael Sherer and Dr. Simcha Gathon of Bar-Ilan University, who were chosen to light torches at this year’s Israel Independence Day ceremonies. Social activist Yael Sherer, currently a graduate student in Health Systems Management at BIU’s Faculty of Social Sciences, is the founder of the Lobby to Combat Sexual Violence. Sherer is a journalist, filmmaker, and writer, who has been involved in human rights for many years and is known chiefly for her work on behalf of victims of sexual abuse.

The scattering of light is among the most common and widely employed phenomena in optics. Many technological applications rely on identifying the exact location of a scattering event in space. For example, light detection and ranging (LiDAR) in autonomous vehicles is based on the collection of light that is scattered off objects in the scene. The origin of an optical scattering event in the backward direction is readily identified: One can launch a short pulse of light towards a target, and measure the time required for a reflected echo to arrive.