2011 Honorary Doctorate Recipients
Ruth Arnon
Ruth Arnon is the Paul Ehrlich Professor of Immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science and President of the Israel National Academy of Sciences and Humanities. A 2001 Israel Prize laureate in Medicine for research in the use of synthetic molecules for studying the immune system, she is a co-developer of the multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone and the founder of BiondVax Pharmaceuticals, which is developing a universal vaccine against the flu virus. Arnon gained her bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She joined the Weizmann Institute of Science in 1963, holding senior positions in the administration, including as Dean of the Faculty of Biology and as Vice President. She has been a visiting professor at numerous institutions and is the recipient of several awards including the Wolf Prize for Medicine, the Rothschild Prize in Biology and the Knight of the Legion of Honor, France.
Tarun Das
Tarun Das is one of India’s most prominent business leaders. He has dedicated his professional career to the promotion of Indian industry, culminating in his service as the head of CII, the Confederation of Indian Industry, from 1974 to 2004. Under Das’s leadership CII has become the largest organization of its kind in the world. Serving in a broad range of public roles including as president of the Aspen India Institute, as member of the G20 advisory committee of the Indian government, and as joint chairman of several bilateral strategic dialogue forums, he is considered the guiding force behind efforts to integrate and promote India in the global economy. Das was awarded an honorary CBE by the Queen of England for his contribution to Indo-British relations, in addition to numerous other accolades. He holds two bachelor’s degrees in economics and commerce from Calcutta University, India, and Manchester University, UK, as well as an honorary doctorate from the University of Warwick, UK. Das is co-founder and co-chair of TAU’s India-Israel Forum.
Mody Enav
Mody Enav was born in Tel Aviv in 1955. As a child, he left with his parents to live in East Africa, where they remained for ten years. In 1981, he completed his business studies at the University of Southern California, US, before founding and running his own real estate development company. In 1986 he founded US Property Management Inc., taking on the role of CFO and later developing the corporation’s operations in Europe, the Far East and North America. He relocated to Geneva in 1998 and has served as Honorary Consul of Belize in Israel since 2004. Mr. Enav has been an engaged philanthropist for many years, championing higher education, scientific research, Jewish education and Israeli culture. He has served on the Board of Trustees of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and, in 2002, he was elected as a member of the Board of Governors of Tel Aviv University. He is married with three children.
Yoram Kaniuk
Yoram Kaniuk is one of Israel’s leading authors and cultural figures. He has written dozens of works, including novels, novellas and books for children and youth, many of which have been translated into over 20 languages and turned into plays, films and television series. Among his most well-known works are Himmo, King of Jerusalem, Adam Resurrected, Rocking Horse, The Last Jew, Between Life and Death and 1948. Born and educated in Tel Aviv before the establishment of the State, Kaniuk served in the Palmach and fought in Israel’s War of Independence. During his multifaceted career he has been a painter, a sailor and an adventurer searching for gold in Mexico and diamonds in Guatemala. He is the winner of numerous prizes including the Brenner Prize, Bialik Prize, President’s Prize for Literature and the 2010 Sapir Prize for Literature.
Sir Harold Kroto
Sir Harold Kroto, a pioneer in the field of nanotechnology, has been a professor of chemistry at Florida State University since 2004. He was knighted in 1996 and, in the same year, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, together with his colleagues Robert Curl and Richard Smalley, for the discovery of a new form of hollow carbon. This finding laid the foundation for new directions in nano-scale technology and materials science. In 1995 he co-founded the Vega Science Trust, a UK educational charity that produces science films for the general public. Kroto gained his bachelor’s and doctorate from the University of Sheffield, UK, and joined the faculty of the University of Sussex in 1967. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences (US), and a former President of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He has received 29 honorary degrees.
Bruno Landesberg
Bruno Landsberg is one of Israel’s most prominent and influential industrialists. He is the founder, General Manager and Chairman of Sano-Bruno’s Enterprises Ltd., a manufacturer of cleaning products in Israel and the world. He was a pioneer in forging Israeli-Chinese commercial ties, opening a factory in Xinyang, China, in 1995. A humanist and intellectual, Landsberg has been involved in numerous philanthropic enterprises and is the recipient of many awards including the State of Israel Industry Prize; Italy’s Knight of Honor Award; the Advertising Association Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Field of Advertising; the Hugo Ramniceanu Prize in Economics of Tel Aviv University in 2007; and a Distinguished Industrialist Award from the Manufacturers Association of Israel. Landsberg is a TAU Governor and longtime University supporter.
Angela Merkel
Angela Merkel was born in Hamburg in 1954, the daughter of a pastor and a teacher, and raised in Templin, East Germany. She was educated at the University of Leipzig, where she studied physics from 1973-1978. She worked and studied at the Central Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin-Adlershof from 1978-1990, during which time she completed her doctorate in quantum chemistry. She also learned to speak fluent Russian, earning a statewide prize for her proficiency. In 1989, Merkel became involved in the growing democracy movement following the fall of the Berlin Wall, eventually becoming deputy spokesperson of the new political party Democratic Awakening. In 1990 she was elected to the Bundestag, becoming Minister for Women and Youth in Helmut Kohl’s third cabinet, representing the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). In 1994 she was made Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. When Kohl was defeated in the 1998 general election, Merkel was named Secretary-General of the CDU, later chairperson and, in 2002, leader of the opposition. In 2005 she assumed the office of Chancellor, and was reelected in 2009.
Miguel Angel Moratinos
Miguel Angel Moratinos was born in Madrid in 1951. After gaining degrees in both law and political science, Moratinos joined the Spanish Foreign Service in 1977, serving as Director General for Development Cooperation with the Arab World in and Director General of Foreign Policy for Africa and the Middle East, among other roles. He served as Ambassador of Spain to Israel in 1996, before becoming European Union Special Envoy for the Middle East Peace Process until 2003. From 2004-2010, Moratinos served as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation. During this time, he pushed through the proposal instituting Holocaust Remembrance Day in Spain; initiated the first ever conference on anti-Semitism and other forms of intolerance in Spain; and founded, in cooperation with the Municipality and Regional Government of Madrid, the Casa Sefarad-Israel which raises awareness both of the importance of the Jewish legacy to Spain and the richness of Israeli society and culture to the Spanish public.
Donald W. Seal
Former judge and highly esteemed member of the Quebec Bar for more than 55 years, Donald W. Seal, QC, is senior partner in the Montreal law firm, Seidman and Seidman. Seal graduated from McGill University in 1954, was received at the Bar in 1955, and was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1974. During his distinguished career he has set ground-breaking precedents in jurisprudence that are taught in universities and cited in courts. He serves on the boards of numerous private and public companies, as well as community and charitable organizations. He is currently Chairman of the Board of Saratoga Electronic Solutions Inc. Seal has long been a generous supporter of the arts and education. He has been a TAU Governor and dedicated member of the Canadian Friends of TAU for over 30 years, serving on its Executive Board and as its legal advisor.
Adina Tal
Adina Tal has led a prolific career in the arts and theater, including writing and directing for the Jerusalem Theater Group. In 1985 she established the independent “Erua Theater,” whose hallmark is interactive theater with social content. She is a pioneer in developing methods for working with blind, deaf and mute actors; in 2002 she founded the “Na Laga’at” Association, the first deaf-blind theater ensemble in the world, and in 2007 she established the “Na Laga’at” Center in Jaffa, for which she serves as President and Artistic Director. She wrote and directed the play, Light Is Heard in Zig-Zag, which brought her troupe international fame, including a Certificate of Excellence of the Massachusetts State Legislature in Boston. Other awards won by Tal include the Medal of Equality of the Ministry of Justice Commission for Equal Rights of Persons with Disabilities and, together with the “Na Laga’at” Association, the Celia Trump “Chesed” Award, granted by Beit Issie Shapiro to a worthy individual or group which has made a major contribution in the sphere of developmental disabilities in Israel.
Michael S. Waterman
Michael Waterman is a professor of biological sciences, mathematics and computer science at the University of Southern California. A founding father of the field of bioinformatics, Waterman has made significant contributions to computational biology and to the mathematics of genome research for over 30 years. He was also the founding editor of the first journal in the field, the Journal of Computational Biology. Waterman gained his master’s and doctorate in statistics from Michigan State University, and has been a visiting professor at leading institutions. He is a fellow of the American National Academy of Sciences, a foreign member of the French Academy of Science, an inaugural fellow of the International Society for Applied Mathematics and the International Society of Computational Biology, and others. He is the recipient of numerous international prizes, including the prestigious Gairdner Prize.
