Reflections on My Time at Hebrew University
By Joshua Moss, Israel
I began my studies at Hebrew U in 2009. A few degrees and 10 years later, I’m hoping to finish up my time as a student in its historical walls this year.
After moving to Israel from Montreal, I enrolled in Hebrew University’s Rothberg International School’s preparatory ‘mechina’ program for students who graduated high school abroad but wanted to study at the university. I left the program having learned the fundamentals of physics and mathematics from some of the best minds in the fields but more importantly, having joined a group of inspiring people from around the world with a dream of studying and settling in Israel. To this day, I cherish the relationships I made with many other participants of the program, but most of all, my wonderful wife and mother to my two beautiful children, Gal, with whom who I fell in love during that year in the mechina.
Thanks to the help and guidance of the staff at the mechina, I went on to study medicine at Hebrew U. Early on during my time at the Faculty of Medicine, I discovered the amazing biomedical research that takes place at the university and decided that I needed to be a part of it. As a result, I committed to an extra three years at the university towards a PhD in biomedical sciences which was partially funded by the CFHU Toronto Alumni and Friends Prize for Excellence in Cancer Research.
So, in addition to learning medicine from brilliant scientists and doctors over the past nine years, I’ve also learned to be a computational biologist, through time at Prof. Yuval Dor’s laboratory at the Faculty of Medicine and Prof. Tommy Kaplan’s lab at the School of Computer Science and Engineering. Together with other members of the labs, I developed a new kind of blood test which we hope will allow for better detection and monitoring of diseases such as cancer and diabetes.
So, what has my time at Hebrew U given me? A life partner, a group of friends facing similar dreams and challenges, more than 10 academic publications, skills to better the world both through medical practice and science, and a home for the past 10 years.
- Josh is a MD-PhD candidate at Hebrew University
