Bar-Ilan University publishes an ongoing series of articles on students who are studying at BIU. They’re asked questions about why they chose their specific degrees, what they enjoy most at the university, their favorite corner on campus, what they will take with them from their studies, and what their future plans include.
In this article, we feature four of those students: Undergraduates Miriam Blum and Shira Cohen, and Ph.D. graduates, Srikanth Dutt, and Orlando Marin.
Miriam Blum, 22, is completing her final year of undergraduate studies at BIU’s School of Communication and Department of Political Studies. She was also an intern in the International School’s Marketing and Recruitment Department until she left to focus on her final exams.
Miriam made Aliyah from New York four years ago and, during her National Service, was a tour guide in Jerusalem’s Old City. As one of Bar-Ilan University’s 900 international students, she is glad to have been able to pursue a BA degree in Israel and actively encourages others from abroad to enroll.
Orlando Marin of Costa Rica and Taiwan made a novel scientific breakthrough while pursuing his doctorate in Physics and Chemistry at Bar-Ilan University’s Institute for Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials (BINA). Orlando discovered a new strategy for the formation of faceted nanoparticles in sizes, materials and shapes, which had been previously unachievable by any other method.
Orlando, who was awarded a merit-based Doctoral Fellowship of Excellence to study at Bar-Ilan University, was selected to participate in the Erasmus+ Student Exchange Program at the University of Granada in Spain last year. He speaks five languages, including Spanish, English, Hebrew, Chinese and Japanese. Orlando is currently working on his postdoctoral research in Chemical and Biological Physics at the Weizmann Institute of Science.
Shira Cohen, 26, of Ferrara, Italy, is majoring in Chinese and Asian Studies. Immigrating to Israel in 2019, Shira attended Ulpan to improve her Hebrew skills before enrolling at BIU. She is pleased that the university granted her credits for academic courses that she took in Italy, so that she can complete her BA studies in 2021.
The daughter of Israeli parents, Shira recounts that her father – heartbroken after his brother was killed during the 1982 First Lebanon War – decided to study medicine in Italy, and remained until after Shira made Aliyah (immigrated). “I always knew that I would feel at home in Israel, and that I want to build my future here,” she relays.
Srikanth Dutt, 29, from Srikakulam, a small town in southern India, is now completing his Ph.D. studies in Neuroscience at BIU’s Azrieli Faculty of Medicine in the Galilee. His research, under the guidance of Dr. Hava Gil-Henn and Dr. Evan Elliot, focuses on deciphering the mechanism of learning, memory and anxiety, and developing novel therapeutic methods that may ultimately be used to treat Alzheimer’s disease.
Srikanth has already co-authored several research articles in highly reputed journals about the role of Pyk2, a protein tyrosine kinase in brain and behavior, and it’s potential to treat Alzheimer’s disease.
