2014 Summer Institute kicks off

This past July 6-18, 2014, Tel Aviv University's Manna Center Program for Food Safety & Security launched its first graduate level Summer Institute. The intense two-week program included five diverse courses which took place simultaneously: (1) Introduction to Food Security, (2) Food Security and Public Health, (3) Food Security Policy & Economics, and two advanced biology courses: (4) Plant Responses to Abiotic Stress, and (5) Molecular Plant Breeding Lab. These courses were given in partnership with the School of Public Health, the Department of Public Policy, ICORE – Israeli Center of Research Excellence in Plant Responses to a Changing Environment, and the Faculty of Life Sciences.

Faculty included leading global experts and local Tel Aviv professors including Prof. Molly Jahn (U. Wisc), Prof. Elliot Berry (Hebrew University), Prof. Ram Fishman (GWU), Dr.  Ezra Barzilay (CDC), and more.

The program was attended by nearly 100 students from countries including Israel (numerous universities), Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Cameroon, Tanzania, India, Ecuador, Canada, and the Palestinian Territories, and from fields as diverse as biology to public policy. The interactions and insights that arose from bridging the social and life sciences, Israeli and International students, developed and developing world outlooks, were fascinating and resonated with many in the group.

The program would like to thank the faculty and students for making our first year such a success!

We would like to share an article featuring our 2014 Summer Institute students in AFTAU:

A poster child for TAU's important international work is the first Manna Summer Program in Food Safety and Security. One hundred students are attending the two-week program from 13 countries. What's inspiring and heartening is that, despite the security situation, these students (and most others in our international summer programs) are staying the course. For example, food technologist Rhitah Nabirye, 25 years old and from Uganda, is gaining wider perspectives on energy, economics and policy making that she can apply to urban farming back home. Angela Siele, a 26-year-old Cornell University student from Kenya, intends to set up a women's empowerment program in small scale agriculture in Tanzania, and Kristin Bruce, 26, is learning about global aspects of food and water security that she'll be taking back to the University of Saskatchewan, Canada.

Kristin told us that "when the sirens first went off, I was a little scared but the staff at the dorms immediately ushered us into the shelters and gave us information on how to conduct ourselves. The communication network here at TAU is amazing.