In cooperation with the Program for Teachers and Researchers, the Schwartz/Reissman Center for Scientific Education has recently opened on the Safra Campus of the Hebrew University. The Center is the fourth of its type in Israel and the first to feature instructors who are also active researchers in the University. The Center provides a futuristic campus that will house about 400 students and is designed to provide Jerusalem’s students the chance to study quantitative science, in an all new and particularly high-level format. The program is intended to provide a unique center for scientific analysis that will directly contribute to Jerusalem’s quality as an academic and scientific leader. As a result of similar centers that are already operating in Tel Aviv, Rechovot and Rishon Letzion, the number of students pursuing advanced physics studies has already increased significantly.

The launch event was attended by many prominent figures including Hebrew University President Prof. Asher Cohen, Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion, the Chair of the Schwartz/Reisman Centers and former President of the Weitzman Institute Prof. Daniel Zajfman, Hebrew University Director General Mr. Yishai Frankel, the Director of Jerusalem’s Education authority Aviv Keinan and academic heads of the Teacher/Researcher program at Hebrew University: Prof. Eran Sharon, Director of the Racah Institute for Physics at Hebrew University and Prof. Nathalie Balaban.

Mayor Lion addressed the gathering saying, “I welcome the launch of this unique campus in Jerusalem as a center that will provide its students with a quality path in the study of quantitative science.  We will continue lead in helping further develop this center as a basis for only strengthening our younger generation.”

Prof. Cohen said, “This innovative center will provide Jerusalem’s students with the chance to study quantitative science at a particularly high level, and represents a further component in our University’s to strengthen Jerusalem’s educational capabilities. I thank all the partners who contribute to make this center possible and to the University researchers who are taking part in this important program.”

The Center’s academic program will rely on a unique approach that integrates the “Schwartz-Reisman Centers” that was first developed at the Weitzman Institute (and has been implemented in the other centers around the country) that combines aspects of the “Instructor/Researcher” program that was developed at Hebrew University together with the Jerusalem education authority and that has been responsible for training leading teachers in 14 schools across the city. The instructors at the Center will PhD level academics who are actively involved in both research and classroom instruction alongside other teachers with advanced degrees in all the relevant fields of study. The teachers will be trained within the Center utilizing a variety of equipment and tested curricula and in classrooms defined as “scientific teaching incubators”. So far 50 10th grade students from five schools have begun to learn at the new Center and next year we project an additional 150 students from eight schools will be added to the program.