Congrats to Tova Finkelstein who recieved Dr. Bessie F. Lawrence ISSI Scholarship!

Congratulations to Tova Finkelstein who is one of the 19 US students who has received the 2016 Dr. Bessie F. Lawrence International Summer Science Institute Scholarship! This is a full scholarship for a program that includes roundtrip airfare to Israel, 3 weeks of scientific learning and discovery at the Weizmann Institute campus in Rehovot, Israel, as well as an additional week at the Sde-Boker field school in the Judean Desert and the Negev.

We're excited to have Tova in the O'Donnell lab for the first half of the summer before she departs for this amazing opportunity, and after she returns she will continue in the O'Donnell Lab until she departs for Barnard College of Columbia University in the fall of 2016.

Since 1969, the ISSI program brings together approximately 80 highly talented high-school graduates from all over the world to experience the challenges and rewards of scientific research and to learn more about the Weizmann Institute of Science and life in Israel.

During the month-long program, the students spend the first three weeks conducting research in the campus labs. The work combines the exploration of problems in the fields of biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematical and computer science, and instruction in the use of sophisticated lab equipment such as electron microscopes, advanced computers, a high-energy particle accelerator, and lasers. There are also lectures by senior Weizmann Institute scientists, departmental talks, and visits to some of the state-of-the-art facilities on campus. After three weeks on campus, the group moves to an altogether different scientific focus: a field school in the Judean Desert and the Negev. Expert guides from the Sde-Boker field school lead hikes that acquaint the students with the unique ecological, geographical, geological, zoological, and archaeological characteristics of the area – some of which are one-of-a-kind in the world.