Philanthropist Zuckerman launches STEM leaders program

The program is designed to support future generations of leaders in science, technology, engineering and math in the US and Israel.

By LIDAR GRAVÉ-LAZI
Updated: JANUARY 26, 2016 02:45
PROFESSORS, BUSINESSPEOPLE and politicians announce the launch of the Zuckerman STEM Leadership Program yesterday in New York. (photo credit: TECHNION)
PROFESSORS, BUSINESSPEOPLE and politicians announce the launch of the Zuckerman STEM Leadership Program yesterday in New York.
(photo credit: TECHNION)
American businessman and philanthropist Mortimer Zuckerman announced the launch of the Zuckerman STEM Leadership Program on Monday in New York.
The program is designed to support future generations of leaders in science, technology, engineering and math in the US and Israel and foster greater research collaboration between the two countries.
The new initiative will provide over $100 million in scholarships and related educational activities to benefit participating scholars and universities over the next 20 years, and the first Zuckerman scholars are set to begin in the 2016-2017 academic year.
“At a time when collaboration is essential to advanced scientific research, this program gives the next generations of leading American and Israeli academics the ability to work together on cutting edge research in ways that stand to benefit their fields for years to come,” said Zuckerman.
“The result will help transform not just the work of the scholars involved, but the way the United States and Israel approach collaboration and cooperation across the sciences,” he said.
The program will grant the highest- achieving American post-doctoral researchers and graduate students the ability to collaborate with leading researchers at Israel’s top research institutions – Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Tel Aviv University and the Weizmann Institute of Science.
The aim of the program is to provide American graduate students and post-doctoral researchers with exposure to Israel’s renowned cutting-edge research and startup culture, to raise a generation of academic, scientific and industry leaders in the US infused with a unique spirit of Israeli entrepreneurship and innovation.
The program simultaneously aims to bolster Israeli research institutions as world-leading centers for cutting edge research by providing Israeli institutions access to large-scale funding needed to develop top-tier research labs, projects and programs.
The new initiative also aims to help strengthen the US-Israel partnership over time, by helping to build long-lasting relationships based on mutual collaboration in science between the two nations.
The announcement of the new program was attended by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo along with Nobel Prize laureates, leaders from business, technology, politics, academia and the arts.
“New York and Israel share a deep and unparalleled connection – and the Zuckerman Scholars Program is a prime example of how we can keep that relationship strong today and in the future,” said Cuomo.
“By helping some of America’s best and brightest students work and learn alongside leading researchers in Israel, this program gives us a new model for cooperation and partnership that will ultimately better society as a whole.”