TAU Researcher Wins Prestigious Rothschild Foundation Award
Thursday, October 2, 2008

Prof. Karen Avraham is honored for her research into deafness in Israeli and Palestinian children

Prof. Karen Avraham

Tel Aviv University’s Prof. Karen B. Avraham champions research into the genetics of hearing disorders, creating opportunities and changing the quality of life for Israeli and Palestinian children who suffer from genetically-inherited deafness. As part of her quest to cure the rare disorder, Prof. Avraham has achieved international fame by isolating a number of genes that cause the unfortunate condition.

To recognize her bold achievements, the prestigious Rothschild Foundation, known as Yad Hanadiv in Israel, has awarded Prof. Avraham the Michael Bruno Award for her inspiring work.

The monetary award is named after Israeli economist Professor Michael Bruno, who proposed the award to the Foundation but did not live to see it to fruition. In 1999 the Foundation, which is primarily active in Israel, launched a special program granting lucrative awards to young Israeli academics with outstanding promise and potential.

Selected annually, winners are chosen by the Foundation’s steering committee and the twenty-eight individuals have received the Michael Bruno Memorial Award so far.

Prof.  Avraham, from the Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry, Sackler School of Medicine at Tel Aviv University, received the prize for her work in human genetics. The two other recipients this year are Prof. Elon Lindenstrauss for mathematics and Prof. Israel (Eli) Nelken for neurobiology. The award ceremony will take place on October 23, 2008.