67 Notable alumni of
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Updated:
The Ben-Gurion University of the Negev is 845th in the world, 178th in Asia, and 6th in Israel by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 67 notable alumni from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff.
-
Mordechai Vanunu
- Occupations
- technicianwhistlebloweractivist
- Biography
-
Mordechai Vanunu, also known as John Crossman, is an Israeli former nuclear technician and peace activist who, citing his opposition to weapons of mass destruction, revealed details of Israel's nuclear weapons program to the British press in 1986. He was subsequently lured to Italy by the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, where he was drugged and abducted. He was secretly transported to Israel and ultimately convicted in a trial that was held behind closed doors.
-
Dany Cushmaro
- Occupations
- television presenterjournalistbroadcaster
- Biography
-
Danny Kushmaro is an Israeli journalist, news anchor and television presenter.
-
Tamar Zandberg
- Occupations
- human rights activisteducatoractivistpolitician
- Biography
-
Tamar Zandberg is an Israeli politician who served as Minister of Environmental Protection from 2021 to 2022. Zandberg also served as a member of the Knesset for Meretz from 2013 to 2021, and as the party's leader between 2018 and 2019.
-
Miriam Peretz
- Enrolled in the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
- Graduated with Bachelor of Arts in history and literature
- Occupations
- school superintendenteducator
- Biography
-
Miriam Peretz is an Israeli educator and public speaker. After the deaths of two of her sons during their service in the Israel Defense Forces, Peretz became a lecturer on Zionism and living with loss. She was the recipient of the Israel Prize in 2018, for lifetime achievement.
-
Avi Issacharoff
- Occupations
- journalistdocumentarianwriterscreenwriter
- Biography
-
Avi Issacharoff is an Israeli journalist, known for his focus on Palestinian affairs. He is a Middle East commentator for The Times of Israel and its sister news outlet Walla!, and the Palestinian and Arab Affairs Correspondent for Haaretz. Issacharoff is known as one of the creators of the TV-series Fauda.
-
Gila Gamliel
- Occupations
- politiciantrade unionist
- Biography
-
Gila Gamliel is an Israeli politician who currently serves as the Minister of Intelligence and as a member of the Knesset for Likud. She also previously served as Minister for Social Equality and as Minister of Environmental Protection.
-
Shlomo Karhi
- Enrolled in the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
- Studied in 2011-2013
- Occupations
- politicianuniversity teacher
- Biography
-
Shlomo Karhi is an Israeli academic and politician. He is currently a member of the Knesset for Likud and serving as the Minister of Communications in the thirty-seventh government.
-
Orna Barbivai
- Occupations
- Knesset member
- Biography
-
Orna Barbivai is the former Minister of Economy, a retired major general in the Israel Defense Forces, and the former head of its Manpower Directorate. She was the first woman to be made Major-general (Aluf), the IDF's second highest rank. On 1 January 2019, she announced that she would enter politics and seek a Knesset seat on the list of Yesh Atid, which she won as part of the Blue and White slate. Her place in the Knesset was taken by Yasmin Fridman.
-
Shelly Yachimovich
- Occupations
- journalistreporterwriterpolitician
- Biography
-
Shelly Rachel Yachimovich is an Israeli politician, who served three terms as the official Leader of the Opposition, a member of the Knesset, and a member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. She served as leader of the Israeli Labor Party between 2011 and 2013. Before entering politics, she was a journalist, an author, and a television and radio commentator.
-
Silvan Shalom
- Occupations
- economistinternational forum participantpoliticiandiplomat
- Biography
-
Zion Silvan Shalom is an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Likud between 1992 and 2015. He held several prominent ministerial positions, including being Vice Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior. He resigned on 24 December 2015 following allegations of sexual harassment. Later on, the Attorney-General closed this investigation and said these claims were unsubstantiated.
-
Amos Yadlin
- Occupations
- politicianinternational forum participantmilitary officer
- Biography
-
Aluf Amos Yadlin (Hebrew: עמוס ידלין; born 20 November 1951) is a former general in the Israeli Air Force (IAF), Israel Defense Forces military attaché to Washington, D.C., and head of the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate (Aman).
-
Ruvik Danilovich
- Occupations
- mayor
- Biography
-
Reuven "Ruvik" Danilovich is an Israeli politician. In 2008, he was elected mayor of Be'er Sheva, after serving as deputy mayor under Yaakov Turner.
-
Meir Cohen
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
-
Meir Cohen is an Israeli politician. A former mayor of Dimona, and former Minister of Welfare and Social Services. Cohen is currently a member of the Knesset for Yesh Atid. He previously held the position from 2013–2014.
-
Eliezer Shkedi
- Occupations
- air force officer
- Biography
-
Aluf Eliezer Shkedy is a retired general in the Israel Defense Forces, who served as commander of the Israeli Air Force from 4 April 2004 until 13 May 2008. He is also a former CEO of El Al, the flag carrier of Israel.
-
Michael Biton
- Occupations
- activist
- Biography
-
Michael Mordecai Biton is an Israeli politician. He formerly served as Minister of Strategic Affairs and as minister for civic issues within the Ministry of Defense. He was previously mayor of Yeruham between 2010 and 2018.
-
Yaakov Turner
- Occupations
- military officerpolitician
- Biography
-
Yaakov Turner was the mayor of Beersheba. Prior to his election as mayor, he was an Israel Air Force pilot and Israel's Chief of Police. Turner was the founder and head of the Israeli Air Force Museum.
-
Dror Mishani
- Occupations
- university teachereditorman of letterswritertranslator
- Biography
-
Dror Mishani is an Israeli crime writer, translator and literary scholar, specializing in the history of detective fiction.
-
Alon Schuster
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
-
Alon Natan Schuster is an Israeli politician. He was mayor of Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council between 2002 and 2018 and the Minister of Agriculture from 2020 to 2021. He has been Deputy Minister of Defense since 2021.
-
Shuli Mualem
- Occupations
- pedagoguepoliticiannurse
- Biography
-
Shulamit "Shuli" Mualem-Rafaeli is an Israeli nurse and politician. She served as a member of the Knesset for the Jewish Home between February 2013 and March 2015, and again from October 2015 until December 2018, when she joined the New Right.
-
Haim Jelin
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
-
Haim Jelin is an Israeli politician. He served as a member of the Knesset for Yesh Atid from 2015 to 2019, having previously been head of Eshkol Regional Council from 2007 to 2015.
-
Hossam Haick
- Occupations
- chemistchemical engineer
- Biography
-
Hossam Haick is an Arab-Israeli scientist and engineer, and the current dean of undergraduate studies at the Israel Institute of Technology. He is a pioneer known for inventing the Nano Artificial Nose (NA-NOSE) for detection of disease from exhaled breath, by which he was highlighted as MIT's Innovators under 35; and which is widely used for sniffing out diseases' biomarkers in labs and industries. He has many contributions in multidisciplinary fields such as Nanotechnology, Nanosensors,, Volatile Biomarkers, and Molecular Electronics.
-
Gonen Ben Itzhak
- Years
- 1971-.. (age 53)
- Occupations
- intelligence officerlawyeractivist
- Biography
-
Gonen Ben Itzhak is an Israeli lawyer, former Shin Bet coordinator, and social activist. He is one of the former handlers of mole Mosab Hassan Yousef ("The Green Prince"). He is one of the leading figures in the protests against Benjamin Netanyahu, and is among the founders of the anti-Netanyahu protest movement "Crime Minister".
-
Yehiel Lasri
- Occupations
- physicianpolitician
- Biography
-
Yehiel Lasri is an Israeli physician and politician who serves as mayor of Ashdod. He previously served as a member of the Knesset for the Centre Party, Lev and Likud.
-
Karim Younis
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
-
Karim Youssef Fadl Younis is a Palestinian citizen of Israel who served 40 years in Israeli prison after being convicted in 1983 of the 1980 kidnapping and murder of Israeli soldier Avraham Bromberg. After serving his sentence, he was released in 2023. Younis was the longest-serving Palestinian in Israeli prison.
-
Yoav Gelber
- Years
- 1943-.. (age 81)
- Occupations
- military historianhistorianuniversity teacher
- Biography
-
Yoav Gelber is a professor of history at the University of Haifa, and was formerly a visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
-
Agi Mishol
- Occupations
- writerpoet
- Biography
-
Agi Mishol is an Israeli poet. Considered by many to be one of Israel's most prominent and popular poets, Mishol's work has been published in several languages, and has won various awards including the Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award and the Yehuda Amichai prize for literature.
-
Yael Cohen Paran
- Years
- 1973-.. (age 51)
- Occupations
- politicianchief executive officer
- Biography
-
Yael Cohen Paran is an Israeli environmentalist and politician, and co-chair of the Green Movement. She was a member of the Knesset for the Zionist Union from 2015 to 2019.
-
Michael W. Sonnenfeldt
- Years
- 1955-.. (age 69)
- Occupations
- entrepreneur
- Biography
-
Michael W. Sonnenfeldt is an American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and political activist. Currently, he is the founder and chairman of TIGER 21, chairman of MUUS & Company and MUUS Climate Partners, Co-Chairman, Climate Pathways Project at the Sloan School, MIT, Board member Center for New American Security (CNAS), President, Goldman-Sonnenfeldt Foundation and author of “Think Bigger and 39 Other Lessons from Successful Entrepreneurs" published by Bloomberg/Wiley in 2017.
-
Gilad Bracha
- Occupations
- engineer
- Biography
-
Gilad Bracha is a software engineer at F5 Networks, and formerly at Google, where he was on the Dart programming language team. He is creator of the Newspeak language, and co-author of the second and third editions of the Java Language Specification, and a major contributor to the second edition of the Java Virtual Machine Specification.
-
Barak Feldman
- Years
- 1972-.. (age 52)
- Enrolled in the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
- Studied in 1990-1994
- Occupations
- engineersongwriterpoet
- Biography
-
Barak Feldman is an Israeli songwriter, known especially for his collaboration with Yoni Bloch and Efrat Gosh.
-
Pini Badash
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
-
Pinhas "Pini" Badash is an Israeli politician who has served as mayor of Omer local council since 1990. He was also a member of the Knesset for Tzomet between 1992 and 1998.
-
Marcelle Machluf
- Occupations
- physicianbiochemist
- Biography
-
Marcelle Machluf is an israeli biologist.
-
Avi Vartzman
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
-
Avraham "Avi" Wortzman is an Israeli politician and a former member of the Knesset for the Jewish Home. He also served as Deputy Minister of Education between 2013 and 2015.
-
Hamed Abu Daabas
- Years
- 1961-.. (age 63)
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
-
Sheikh Hamed Abu Daabas is an Arab-Israeli of Bedouin descent, and the chairman of the southern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel.
-
Gabi Siboni
- Occupations
- military officeracademic
- Biography
-
Gabriel "Gabi" Siboni is a colonel in the Israel Defense Forces Reserve service, and a senior research fellow and the director of the Military and Strategic Affairs and Cyber Security programs at the Institute for National Security Studies. Additionally, he serves as editor of the tri-yearly published, Military and Strategic Affairs academic journal at INSS. Siboni is a senior expert on national security, military strategy and operations, military technology, cyber warfare, and force buildup. Siboni is an Associate Professor, working specificaly in the management of Cyber Security and a part-time lecturer at the Francisco de Vitoria University in Madrid
-
Hagar Yanai
- Occupations
- writerjournalist
- Biography
-
Hagar Yanai is an Israeli author. She is the recipient of the 2008 Prime Minister's Award for Israeli Authors, and of the Devora Omer Award for Work of Literature for Middle Grade and Young Adults. She is also a three-time recipient of the Geffen Award for Best Original Hebrew Fantasy.
-
Aviram Dahari
- Occupations
- politiciansoftware engineermayor
- Biography
-
Aviram Dahari is an Israeli politician and current mayor of the Israeli city of Kiryat Gat since 2003.
-
Eli Eshed
- Years
- 1965-.. (age 59)
- Occupations
- literary criticjournalist
- Biography
-
Eli Eshed is an Israeli researcher of popular culture.
-
Alon Chen
- Years
- 1970-.. (age 54)
- Occupations
- neuroscientist
- Biography
-
Alon Chen is an Israeli neuroscientist and the 11th President of the Weizmann Institute of Science.
-
Moshe Bar
- Years
- 1964-.. (age 60)
- Occupations
- researcherneuroscientist
- Biography
-
Moshe Bar is an Israeli cognitive neuroscientist. He is a professor at Bar-Ilan University. He was previously head of the Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center at Bar-Ilan University and before that director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.
-
Anastasia Gloushkov
- Occupations
- synchronized swimmerswimmer
- Biography
-
Anastasia Gloushkov is an Israeli Olympic synchronized swimmer.
-
Amira Dotan
- Occupations
- military officerpolitician
- Biography
-
Amira Dotan is an Israeli military figure and a former member of Knesset for Kadima.
-
Juma Azbarga
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
-
Juma Azbarga is a Bedouin Israeli Arab politician. He served as a Member of the Knesset for the Joint List between 2017 and 2019.
-
Shimon Solomon
- Occupations
- human rights activistactivistpoliticiandiplomat
- Biography
-
Shimon Solomon is an Israeli dipolomat and former politician. He served as a member of the Knesset for Yesh Atid between 2013 and 2015 and was appointed Ambassador to Angola in 2022.
-
Amir Ganiel
- Years
- 1963-2018 (aged 55)
- Occupations
- surgeonswimmer
- Biography
-
Amir Ganiel was an Israeli swimming champion.
-
Avishai Henik
- Enrolled in the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
- 1967-1971 graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- cognitive scientist
- Biography
-
Avishai Henik is an Israeli neurocognitive psychologist who works at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Henik studies voluntary and automatic (non-voluntary/reflexive) processes involved in cognitive operations. He characterizes automatic processes (in various areas of research), and clarifies their importance, the relationship between automatic and voluntary processes, and their neural underpinnings. Most of his work involves research with human participants and in recent years, he has been working with Archer fish to examine evolutionary aspects of various cognitive functions.
-
Dr. Muhammad Al-Nabari
- Years
- 1970-.. (age 54)
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
-
Dr. Muhammad Al-Nabari is a Bedouin, citizen of Israel, who served as the mayor of Hura, a Bedouin village in the south of Israel. He was elected in 2004, when he was only 34 years old. During his tenure, Al-Nabari successfully decreased the unemployment rate, improved the education system and developed four models to provide employment for the men and women of Hura. Al-Nabari received the Movement for Quality Government in Israel award, for local government for his achievements in Hura.
-
Shimshon Rozen
- Occupations
- military officermilitary personnel
- Biography
-
Shimshon Rozen was an Israeli Air Force weapon systems officer and a colonel in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). Rozen participated in the Yom Kippur War and 1982 Lebanon War, accumulating hundreds of operational flying hours. Rozen also participated in the IAF's historic flight over the Auschwitz concentration camp.
-
Amir Rapaport
- Years
- 1970-.. (age 54)
- Occupations
- journalist
- Biography
-
Amir Rapaport is an Israeli analyst, journalist, entrepreneur, and cyber expert.
-
Golan Shahar
- Enrolled in the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
- 1990-1993 graduated with bachelor's degree
- Occupations
- researcherpsychologist
- Biography
-
Golan Shahar is an Israeli clinical health psychologist and an interdisciplinary stress/psychopathology researcher.
-
Ofer Lahav
- Enrolled in the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
- Studied in 1985
- Occupations
- physicistresearcherastrophysicistastronomer
- Biography
-
Ofer Lahav FRAS FInstP is Perren Chair of Astronomy at University College London (UCL), Vice-Dean (International) of the UCL Faculty of Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MAPS) and Co-Director of the STFC Centre for Doctoral Training in Data Intensive Science. His research area is Observational Cosmology, in particular probing Dark Matter and Dark Energy. His work involves Machine Learning for Big Data.
-
Tuvia Friling
- Occupations
- archivisthistorian
- Biography
-
Tuvia Friling is an Emeritus professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. Previously he served as a senior researcher at the Ben-Gurion Research Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism and a lecturer at the Israel Studies Program both at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
-
Arieh Iserles
- Years
- 1947-.. (age 77)
- Occupations
- mathematician
- Biography
-
Arieh Iserles is a computational mathematician, currently Professor of the Numerical Analysis of Differential Equations at the University of Cambridge and a member of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics.
-
Yosef Bittón
- Born in
-
Argentina - Occupations
- Chief Rabbi
- Biography
-
Rabbi Yosef Bittón is an Argentinian-born community rabbi and the former Chief Rabbi of Uruguay.
-
Yuval Elovici
- Occupations
- researchercomputer scientistinternational forum participant
- Biography
-
Yuval Elovici is a computer scientist. He is a professor in the Department of Software and Information Systems Engineering at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, where he is the incumbent of the Davide and Irene Sala Chair in Homeland Security Research. He is the director of the Cyber Security Research Center at BGU and the founder and director of the Telekom Innovation Laboratories at Ben-Gurion University. In addition to his roles at BGU, he also serves as the lab director of Singapore University of Technology and Design’s (SUTD) ST Electronics-SUTD Cyber Security Laboratory, as well as the research director of iTrust. In 2014 he co-founded Morphisec, a start-up company, that develops cyber security mechanisms related to moving target defense.
-
Raanan Zilberman
- Occupations
- chief executive officermanager
- Biography
-
Raanan Zilberman has served as CEO & president of several multinational corporations, most recently as CEO of Caesarstone, a Nasdaq listed multinational manufacturer of engineered quartz surfaces. Zilberman was appointed as CEO in September 2016 and his tenure at Caesarstone was from February 2017 to March 2018.
-
Michael Segal
- Occupations
- mathematiciancomputer scientist
- Biography
-
Michael Segal is a professor of Communication Systems Engineering at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, known for his work in ad-hoc and sensor networks.
-
Isaac Berzin
- Years
- 1967-.. (age 57)
- Occupations
- scientistengineer
- Biography
-
Isaac Berzin is an Israeli scientist and entrepreneur.
-
Yuval Ben-Itzhak
- Occupations
- businessperson
- Biography
-
Yuval Ben-Itzhak is an executive and entrepreneur. He received a number of honors and public recognition for his work as a Chief Technology Officer throughout his career. Ben-Itzhak has been selected as the 25 most influencing CTO by InfoWorld, 40 Innovative IT People To Watch by Computerworld, and 2017 Chief Technology Officer of the Year by GeekTime. He was the Chief Technology Officer at AVG and was part of the leadership team that took AVG through its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange in 2012. He was the Chief Technology Officer at Outbrain until 2017, and led the acquisition of Socialbakers by Astute in 2020 as the Chief Executive Officer. Yuval is the inventor of 26 US Patents.
-
Ami Moyal
- Years
- 1962-.. (age 62)
- Occupations
- electrical engineer
- Biography
-
Ami Moyal is the third president of Afeka Tel Aviv Academic College of Engineering. He is a professor in electrical and computer engineering and expert in the field of human machine interaction via speech recognition.
-
Ashraf Brik
- Occupations
- chemistresearcher
- Biography
-
Ashraf Brik is a full professor at the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry at the Technion Institute of Technology, Israel. His laboratory specializes in developing synthetic methods for chemical synthesis of proteins with post-translational modifications (PTMs) in quantities that allow for them to be studied thoroughly. Brik's group is developing novel modulators based on small molecules, peptides and peptidomimetics, to influence enzymes (such as deubiquitinases) and proteins involved in various diseases. With the help of these tools, it is possible to understand how molecules and biological systems affect health.
-
Richard K. Bell
- Occupations
- diplomat
- Biography
-
Richard K. Bell is an American diplomat who served as the United States Ambassador to Ivory Coast from October 10, 2019, to January 31, 2023.
-
Talia Rahimi
- Occupations
- children's writerwritereducator
- Biography
-
Talia Rahimi is an Israeli author, poet, teacher and linguist.
-
Yonit Naaman
- Occupations
- literary editorpoet
- Biography
-
Yonit Naaman is an Israeli poet, essayist, editor, and literary and cultural researcher.
-
Dan Amiram
- Years
- 1977-.. (age 47)
- Occupations
- scientist
- Biography
-
Dan Amiram is the Dean and the Joseph Safra Capital markets and Financial Institutions Chaired professor of Business at the Coller School of Management at Tel Aviv University. He also serves as the head of the Fintech concentration in the MBA program. He served and currently serves on public companies' board of directors in the United States and Israel.
-
Alon Friedman
- Occupations
- neuroscientist
- Biography
-
Alon Friedman is a professor of Neuroscience at both Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheba, Israel, and in Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He is best known for his discoveries of the link between blood–brain barrier (BBB) disruption and Epileptogenesis (development of epilepsy) and the mechanisms underlying it, and for the utilization of BBB imaging as a potential Biomarker of epilepsy and other brain diseases.
-
Avigad Vonshak
- Occupations
- biologist
- Biography
-
Avigad Vonshak is a Professor Emeritus at the French Associates Institute for Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands at the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.
