Chief Kes Berko Tegegne reads from the Orit, written in the Ge’ez language. (photo credit: Michael Zekri and the Jerusalem Post)

Dr. Dalit Rom-Shiloni, a past fellow of the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies and a member of the research group "Convergence and Divergence in Pentateuchal Theory: Bridging the Academic Cultures of Israel, North America, and Europe," has been closely involved in a project that will make ancient manuscripts from the Ethiopian Jewish community, Beta Israel, accessible to the public.

Image courtesy of Xinhua

Gideon Shelach-Lavi, a past fellow of the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies and a member of the "Animals and Human Society in the Sinitic World" research group, recently commented on a remarkable archaeological find in China—a 5,000-year-old jade artifact in the shape of a “dragon,” discovered in a tomb belonging to the ancient Hongshan culture.

The IIAS is pleased to feature a recent publication by former fellow Daniel Neuhauser, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UCLA. Neuhauser, who was part of two IIAS research groups — Computer Simulation Methods in Chemical Physics and Molecular Electronics — has co-authored a new paper on the time-dependent Hartree-Fock (TDHF) method. The study, titled "No More Gap-Shifting: Stochastic Many-Body-Theory Based TDHF for Accurate Theory of Polymethine Cyanine Dyes," was published in The Journal of Chemical Physics.

Achim Lichtenberger, a past member of the "Contextualizing the Cult of the Southern Levant in the Greco-Roman Period: Monotheism and Polytheism between Continuity and Change" research group at IIAS, is co-curating an exciting new exhibition at the University of Münster.

Photo courtesy: University of Toronto

Jennifer Nagel, a past fellow of the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies and a member of the research group "Practical and Theoretical Rationality: A Comparative Study," has recently shared insights into one of philosophy of language's most enduring puzzles, the Gettier Problem, in an interview with The New Statesman.

Daniel R. Schwartz of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has been awarded the prestigious 2024 Landau Prize for Science and Arts, granted by the National Lottery, in the field of Jewish history.

This award recognizes his unparalleled and extensive contributions to the study of Jewish history during the Hellenistic-Roman period.

Professor Uzi Leibner, a past fellow of the IIAS and a key member of the "Variety and Variability: Mapping the Cultural and Social Diversity of the Southern Levant in the Hellenistic Period" research group, is leading a new archaeological excavation at the Ophel, offering a fascinating glimpse into Jerusalem's rich history.

Dennis Gaitsgory, along with a team of mathematicians, has proved the geometric Langlands conjecture, a major milestone in modern mathematics. This achievement, which spans over 800 pages in five papers, resolves a crucial part of the Langlands program, a framework connecting number theory, geometry, and function fields.

Brown widow spiders, scientifically known as *Latrodectus geometricus*, are swarming Israel. Recent research reveals that 86% of these spiders carry a strain of Rhabdochlamydia, a bacterium related to Chlamydia. However, it's important to note that bites from these spiders do not transmit Chlamydia.

Jan Grabowski, a Polish-Canadian professor of history at the University of Ottawa and IIAS Fellow for the 2024 academic year, recently appeared on Israeli national television. During an interview on the program "The World Today" with Yoav Zehavi, Grabowski discussed the rise of the extreme right in Poland, the implications of recent European election results, and the severe threats he has faced due to his controversial stance on the Polish people's involvement in the Holocaust.

Jan Grabowski, a fellow at IIAS during the 2024 academic year, is publishing an important essay for the forthcoming issue of The Jewish Quarterly (JQ257 - August 2024): "Whitewash: Poland and the Jews," addresses the ongoing challenges Poland faces in acknowledging its role in the Holocaust.

The IIAS is proud to extend heartfelt congratulations to Daniel R. Schwartz from the Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, on receiving the prestigious Landau Prize for 2024 in the field of Jewish History.

Schwartz's association with the IIAS is longstanding. He began his journey with the IIAS as a fellow, contributing significantly to the "From Hellenistic Judaism to Christian Hellenism" research group in 2001, and later served on the Board of Directors.

Eric Ford, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State and a past fellow of IIAS, has developed a new method for detecting low-mass, potentially Earth-like planets around stars beyond our solar system.

Using advanced spectrographs to observe the subtle "wobble"—stellar spectrum variations—of stars caused by orbiting planets, he seeks to identify potential Earth-like planets with the aid of AI processing.

Eyal Benvenisti, a past fellow of IIAS, has inaugurated the Center for Applied Research on Risks to Democracy at Tel Aviv University. This center, which he heads, aims to identify and address the challenges facing contemporary democratic societies. Benvenisti emphasizes the importance of understanding and mitigating risks to democracy, promoting civic education, and fostering public engagement to rebuild trust and community cohesion in Israel and globally.

Former IIAS fellow and member of the "Molecular Electronics" research group, Ferdinand Evers (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology), together with María Camarasa-Gómez and Daniel Hernangómez-Pérez, explores a new way to control magnetism at the molecular level in an important new paper just published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters: "Spin-Orbit Torque in Single-Molecule Junctions from ab Initio".