Editor’s note: Hebrew University’s Prof. Yechezkel Barenholz, a recent EMET Prize winner, was one of three panelists at the Jerusalem Post Annual Conference in its segment titled “Shaping The Jewish Future.” He’s featured in the 15-minute video excerpt below. Prof. Barenholz’s liposome technology is also powering the first-of-its-kind CBD drug delivery platform.
Three of Israel’s most creative and talented individuals – architect Bracha Chyutin, Prof. Emeritus Yechezkel Barenholz of Hebrew University-Hadassah medical school and Prof. Yitzhak Ben-Israel, chairman of the Israel Space Agency and a member of the Board of the EMET Prize, participated in a panel discussion at Thursday’s The Jerusalem Post Annual Conference.
Chyutin is the 2020 winner in architecture, and Barenholz is the 2020 winner in the exact sciences.
The EMET Prize is known as Israel’s Nobel Prize, and is awarded to individuals who have made significant contributions to Israeli society. It is sponsored by the A.M.N. Foundation for the Advancement of Science, Art, and Culture in Israel, and is awarded annually for excellence in academic and professional achievements. The A.M.N. Foundation for the Advancement of Science, Art, and Culture was founded in 1999 by Alberto Moscona Nisim, a Mexican friend of Israel.
Chyutin, who planned some of Israel’s most important buildings, said that the COVID-19 pandemic has re-framed questions about cities and urbanization. In the past, she noted, architects advocated increasing density of cities to create cultural and economic opportunities. Now, people may want to reduce city density and alter the urban fabric.
Barenholz, who has done extensive research in developing ‘nanomedicine’ injected directly into an affected area, explained that this work makes medicine more effective and decreases side effects.
Both winners epitomize the tagline of the prize, which is “striving for excellence.”