Nearly 30 US undergraduate students from the US recently participated in the 14th annual Summer Science Research Internship Program, a joint Bar-Ilan University-Yeshiva University initiative. This program enables students to gain hands-on experience in emerging scientific fields while being mentored by Israel’s finest scientists.
This year’s cohort is comprised of students from Yeshiva College, Stern College for Women, Columbia University, Cornell University, Rutgers University, The Cooper Union, Queens College, Brooklyn College, Touro College, Lander College, and the State University of New York at Binghamton.
During the seven-week research experience, the students conducted intensive internships in STEM research with faculty members from BIU’s Institute for Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials, Gonda (Goldschmied) Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Alexander Kofkin Faculty of Engineering, Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, Faculty of Education, and the Departments of Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics, and Psychology. There were many lectures by BIU scholars on a wide range of topics, as well as night activities, Torah learning, and Shabbatonim at YU’s Gruss Institute in Jerusalem, where the group is housed.
The program also included one-day enrichment trips to sites around the country. This year’s itinerary included visits to the Teperberg Winery, Israel Aerospace Industries, the National Library, the Volcani Institute for Agricultural Research, and an emotional visit to some of the sites of the October 7 massacre including Re’im, where the Nova Festival took place, Tkuma, which features an exhibition of destroyed cars, the city of Sderot, and more.
The BIU-YU Summer Science Program falls under the aegis of Bar-Ilan University’s International School. Applications for the 2025 program will soon be available.
The program is generously funded by the late Dr. Mordecai Katz OBM and Dr. Monique Katz, the Irving I. Stone Foundation, and the Zoltan Erenyi Fund.
Photo: Maryam Youness