Tel Aviv University - Global TAU

A technology developed at Tel Aviv University is moving closer to what could become the world’s first implantation of an engineered spinal cord.

Biotech company Matricelf has signed an agreement with Loewenstein Rehabilitation Medical Center to begin identifying and evaluating potential patients and collecting blood samples to produce personalized neural implants.

The technology, developed in Prof. Tal Dvir’s lab at TAU, uses a patient’s own cells and tissues to create a biological neural implant designed to replace damaged spinal cord tissue.

The goal: to test whether it can help people living with paralysis following spinal cord injury stand, walk, and regain greater independence.

If all scientific and regulatory milestones are completed as planned, Matricelf estimates that treatment of the first selected patient could begin in the first half of 2027.

Read the full story in the comments.

Congratulations to the graduates of the Azrieli School of Architecture!

Recently we celebrated the opening of the graduate exhibition, called "Architecture in Transition,” showcasing their remarkable final projects.
It was deeply moving to see our graduates, together with their families, mark the end of this meaningful chapter at such a festive and special event and celebrate the beginning of a new journey.

The exhibition offered an opportunity to discover the ideas, questions, and perspectives they developed throughout their years of study, and to see how these have taken shape in their final projects.

Best of luck on the journey ahead!

Lifetime Achievement Award for Prof. Dina Porat for her Contribution to the Study of Antisemitism

Congratulations to Prof. Dina Porat, Professor Emerita in the Department of Jewish History, on receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award from CASA, an association that brings together academic research centers in Israel and around the world dedicated to the study of contemporary antisemitism.

The award recognizes Prof. Porat’s “academic and public contribution to the study, documentation and definition of antisemitism as it manifests today.” It was presented during a recent conference hosted by the Comper Center in Haifa.

Tel Aviv University’s Conference on Innovation and Creativity in Teaching offered a compelling answer to a question many young people are beginning to ask:

- If AI can teach me almost anything, why should I go to university?

The conference suggested that the future value of higher education may lie less in delivering information and more in creating experiences that are difficult to reproduce alone.

As access to explanations and established knowledge becomes easier, educators can devote more attention to mentorship, experimentation, intellectual friction, and meaningful human interaction. The question is no longer only what students should know, but what they should be able to do, and who they should become through the process.

Perhaps this is the opportunity AI creates for universities.

TAU’s conference showed that innovation is not simply about adding more technology. It is about redesigning learning around the things technology cannot easily replace: community, curiosity, responsibility, dialogue, and encounters with people and ideas we did not yet know to seek.

Learn more from the article in the comments.

A dream 60 years in the making: At 78 Yaakov Schreibman has just earned his PhD in Archaeology from Tel Aviv University, fulfilling a passion that began when he was a teenager.

More than 60 years ago, as a high school student, Yaakov joined the archaeological excavations at Masada led by legendary archaeologist Yigael Yadin. The experience sparked a lifelong fascination with the past. But life took him in other directions: he went on to build a long career as an engineer, senior healthcare executive, intelligence officer and lecturer.

Then, years later, he returned to the passion that had stayed with him all along.

At TAU’s Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures, Yaakov completed his master’s and doctoral degrees under the supervision of Prof. Oded Lipschits and Prof. Yuval Gadot. His doctoral research developed a new method for dating archaeological layers by analyzing soil originating from mud bricks, a technique that could open new avenues for research into archaeology, ancient climate and the study of destruction sites.

Reflecting on his years at TAU, Yaakov says:

"I met wonderful people, an endless range of courses and uncompromising excellence that lives here and keeps pushing forward, never giving up. Thank you for allowing me to be part of it."

For Prof. Oded Lipschits, Yaakov’s supervisor and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, the experience was a lesson in itself:

"Jacob reminded us again and again that research is not a question of age, but of passion, courage and perseverance."

At TAU, it’s never too late to return to a dream. And curiosity has no expiration date!

📬 Before we hit "Send"... are we still connected?

Our next international TAU Alumni newsletter is almost here, and we'd love to make sure it reaches every member of our global alumni community—wherever life has taken you.

Whether you're building startups in New York, conducting research in London, creating in Paris, or making an impact here in Israel, you're always part of the Tel Aviv University family. 💙

If you've changed your email address, moved to a new country, or haven't received our newsletters lately, now is the perfect time to update your details.

👉 Update your information here: https://www.ims.tau.ac.il/Bogrim/Default_Eng.aspx

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The Tel Aviv University Alumni Community — A World Changing Community

Tel Aviv University ranks among the world’s top universities for producing unicorn founders🦄.

A new analysis by Ilya Strebulaev, Professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business, who studies venture capital and private equity and tracks more than 4,000 unicorns and their founders, places Tel Aviv University third worldwide among non-US universities whose master’s programs have produced founders of US unicorns.

With 12 unicorn founders, TAU follows the University of Cambridge (19) and University of Oxford (16), and ranks ahead of leading institutions including Technion, the University of Toronto, Tsinghua University, and the University of Edinburgh.

The analysis examined 347 founders of US unicorns who earned master’s degrees at 206 universities outside the US.

Another powerful indicator of TAU’s global impact: the research notes that while UK universities dominate at the master’s level, Israeli universities lead among non-US institutions at the bachelor’s level.

What should medical school look like in the age of AI?

According to Prof. Anat Gafter-Gvili, the incoming dean of Tel Aviv University's Gray Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, the answer isn't to compete with artificial intelligence, but to train doctors who know how to use it wisely.

As AI rapidly reshapes healthcare, Tel Aviv University is rethinking how future physicians are educated: integrating AI into medical training while strengthening the uniquely human skills that technology can't replace—clinical judgment, ethics, empathy, and communication. For example, Gafter-Gvili proposes introducing training where students learn to critically evaluate AI-generated diagnostic suggestions, using them as a second opinion rather than a final answer.

Read how the Faculty is preparing tomorrow's doctors for a rapidly changing world: https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/hy2gdbcd1

“AI tools will not replace doctors, but they will save us work” | CTech Prof. Anat Gafter-Gvili, incoming head of Tel Aviv University’s medical school, says artificial intelligence will force medical schools to rethink training, reduce reliance on memorization, and prepare physicians for a changing profession.