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Reflections on my time at Hebrew U

By Jonathan Mostovy, Toronto, Canada

Last month I travelled to New York to attend Nexus: Israel – a one-day conference showcasing the powerful stories at the intersection of invention, innovation and commercialization of new technologies from the Hebrew University and its affiliates. Seeing once more the wealth of pure knowledge that is the Hebrew University faculty is certainly impressive, but not necessarily more so than any of the other fine academic institutions here in North America.

What sets the Hebrew U’s faculty apart is the fact that such a conference, in New York, exists at all. Unique to the Hebrew U is a ubiquitous mindset – a sense of wanting to reach beyond one’s academic responsibilities (certainly a product of being in Israel as well). Many professors at the Hebrew U do not simply publish papers, they also might communicate these results to people outside of their field, or they could start a business utilizing this new research, or maybe they include an illustration of these results to their students. Now as an academic myself, I look back at my time at the Hebrew U for inspiration when asking myself: what else can be done to break down the barriers of academic research to make it more accessible and impactful?

My intention to study in Hebrew U was motivated by two reasons – a love for game theory and a desire to experience living in Israel. In the year before, I had gained much admiration for a particular area of mathematics/economics: game theory. I then learned that not only was the Hebrew U the world’s best institution for game theory with many of the pioneers still conducting research, but they also had an economics program in English with a strong focus on it. Combining this with my interest in experiencing what it would be like to live in Jerusalem and travel across Israel, this program at the Hebrew U couldn’t have been better tailored.

Jonathan received an Einstein Legacy Student Scholarship from the BERNARD & ELINORE PERSIKO MERIT SCHOLARSHIP FUND at CFHU to study at Hebrew U in the summer of 2015 where he took Economics and Game Theory.

  • Jonathan is currently the Managing Director for Research & Partnerships at RiskLab Toronto, and a Ph.D. Candidate for Mathematics at the University of Toronto.