| |
Description and Objectives > History of the Institute
The idea of an Institute for Advanced Studies at Tel Aviv University was born in the mid-1970's, in a conversation that Prof. Yuval Ne'eman, TAU's president at the time, had with Raymond and Beverly Sackler. As Prof. Ne'eman recalled at the Institute inauguration, "It was barely a year since Raymond, Mortimer and Arthur Sackler had made their donation to the Medical School, thus starting their work in this University. Now Raymond asked me whether an institute for advanced study would be useful addition some day." Over time the concept emerged of the Institute as a University-wide body, which would select candidates from those recommended by faculty members, and host them at Tel Aviv University as Institute Fellows. The Institute would provide Fellows with maximum flexibility to carry out their research without any formal responsibilities. They would be free to participate in academic activities as they saw fit. The proposal was enthusiastically approved by Senate members. Following that, the Institute for Advanced Studies was inaugurated in 1979.
Inaugurating the Mortimer and Raymond Sackler Institute of Advanced Studies (from right to left):
Prof. Haim Ben-Shahar, President, Tel Aviv University; Mr. Aharon Sacharov, Outgoing Chairman of the Executive Council of Tel Aviv University; Prof. Bernard Lewis, Cleveland Dodge Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University; Dr. Nahum Goldman, Former President, World Jewish Congress; Dr. Mortimer Sackler, member, Board of Governors, TAU: Prof. Yuval Ne'eman, Past President, TAU, Director, Mortimer and Raymond Sackler Institute of Advanced Studies; Dr. Raymond Sackler, outgoing Chairman, Board of Governors, TAU, Dr. Harry Woolf, Director, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton; Prof. Saul S. Abarbanel, Rector, TAU.
|
|
