Adar Ben-Eliyahu (University of Haifa) – Social Science

Dr. Adar Ben-Eliyahu is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Education at the University of Haifa. She joined the Faculty of Education after completing her PhD in Developmental Psychology from Duke University and two post-docs in Learning Research and Development Center (University of Pittsburgh) and The Center for Evidence-Based Mentoring (University Massachusetts at Boston). Dr. Ben-Eliyahu's interests lie in how learning processes (self-regulated learning) are influenced by different situations. She is curious about the influences of traumatic events on self-regulated learning as during emergency and disaster situations, formal learning is highly disturbed. By promoting learning during disaster and emergency situations, victims may be better equipped for post-traumatic growth.

Yedidia Bentur (Rambam Health Care Campus;  Technion) – Public Health and Emergency Medicine

Clinical Professor, Faculty of Medicine, Technion. Graduated the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa. Was trained in Intensive Care and completed a full residency program in Internal Medicine in Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa. This was followed by a three-year fellowship in Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario.

Current positions are director of the Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology Section and the Israel Poison Information Center, Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa, and Clinical Professor of Medicine and Toxicology, The Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion, Haifa. Served as chairperson of the Israel Society of Toxicology and chairperson of its Scientific Committee. Has been chairperson of the National Antidote Committee of the Israel Ministry of Health, and member of several other national committees dealing with preparedness of hospitals to multi-casualty toxicological incidents, CBRN (Medical Corps, Israel Defense Forces), drug registration, children safety and standards of consumer products.

Edited the last two editions of Medical Management Monographs of Hazardous Materials Multi-Casualty Incidents: Hospital Guidelines, published by the Emergency Division, Israel Ministry of Health.

Served as Vice-Dean for Clinical Academic Appointments, The Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa.

Has been on the editorial boards of Clinical Toxicology (the official journal of the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology, American Association of Poison Control Centers, and the European Association of Poison Control Centres and Clinical Toxicologists), and the Israel Medical Association Journal (IMAJ).

Was elected as fellow of the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology, American College of Medical Toxicology, and the European Association of Poison Control Centres and Clinical Toxicologists.

Research areas: epidemiology of acute poisonings, poisonous plants, venomous animals, and pharmacokinetics and toxicokinetics.

Published more than 110 articles in scientific journals dealing mainly with clinical toxicology, and 20 chapters in toxicological and pharmacological textbooks.

Tal Berman (Madatech,  Museum of Science, Technology & Space; Haifa) - Engineering, Technology and Planning

Dr. Tal Berman, Head of the MadaTech Exhibitions and R&D Division and its Chief Curator, holds a Ph.D. in Physical Oceanography from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Tal is former director of OMAKIM – The Aqua Marine Enterprises Study Center and researcher at the Israel National Institute for Oceanographic Research. Among MadaTech exhibitions produced, with Dr. Berman as chief curator: Road Safety; The Secrets of Life – World of DNA; Aviation; Imagine…- Ilan Ramon – Israel's First Astronaut Green (Alternative) Energy; My Green Home; Magical Science; Smile , and many others. Newly added Noble Energy Science Park is an outdoor museum of a different kind, which combines science and entertainment to make for a unique learning experience. He also leading the establishment of three science museums in Ethiopia.

2017 Madatech's yearly theme is RESCUE. The international exhibition Rescue presenting at the museum. Cooperation with different rescue organizations such as Home Front Command, Firefighting and Rescue Services, Magen David Adom and many others is taking place. As a result of this cooperation, many activities and demonstrations of these organizations is present for the public at  Madatech. All of these  project is being lead by Tal.

Amit Bernstein (University of Haifa) – Social Science

I received a B.A. in psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology as a NIH Research Service Award Fellow at the University of Vermont. I completed an APA-accredited pre-doctoral clinical psychology internship at the Palo Alto Veterans Affairs Health Care System, and Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine and the Center for Health Care Evaluation at the VA Palo Alto. In 2008, I was privileged to join the Department of Psychology at the University of Haifa, where I am currently an Associate Professor and recently completed my term as Director of Clinical Training. My laboratory is housed in the Department of Psychology at the University of Haifa (https://irca-haifa-6h5e.squarespace.com/#). In partnership with members of the E. African refugee community and NGOs dedicated to their wellbeing, my team also runs a small satellite laboratory from the South Tel Aviv Central Bus Station – dedicated to the mental health of forcibly displaced persons (e.g., refugees, asylum seekers from E. Africa) who have survived traumatic atrocities and violent conflict. Our lab’s work to-date has only been possible due to generous support of the University of Haifa and a variety of (inter)national funding agencies (e.g., European Union FP-7 – People Programme, Israeli Council for Higher Education, National Institutes of Health, Psychology Beyond Borders, Israel Science Foundation, European Commission – European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights, Rothschild Caesarea Foundation, Mind and Life Institute, European Mind and Life). I am interested in the bio-psycho-behavioral  processes underlying the development and maintenance of prevalent forms of suffering and psychopathology. In addition to gaining insights about the nature of the human condition, suffering and thriving, illuminating these processes is important to advancing intervention and prevention science. Accordingly, in recent years my work has focused on topics including: (I) The nature and function of attentional (dys)regulation in suffering and mental health. (II) The mechanisms through which present moment attention and awareness or mindfulness contributes to mental health. (III) Application of our lab’s work to a critical public mental health crisis – the development of novel means to improve the mental health of survivors of mass atrocities and violent conflict.

Noemi Bitterman (Technion) - Engineering, Technology and Planning

Prof. Noemi Bitterman  is the founder and Chair of Masters of Industrial Design with focus on Medical and Social Design at the Division of the Technion in Tel Aviv. 14 years head of Research Unit at the Israeli Naval Hyperbaric Institute (INHI), leading applied and basic research on performance at extreme environments. Teaching studio courses of "design for emergencies" at the Technion as a Visiting Prof. at University of Venice IUAV, Italy (Since 2016 -recent). Investigating portable healthcare facilities for disaster and rescue situations.

Anna Brook (University of Haifa) – Social Science; methodological aid to all groups

Anna Brook is a lecturer and the head of the Spectroscopy and Remote Sensing Laboratory at the department of Geography and Environmental Studies, the University of Haifa. Her current research interests are a. Spatial-temporal analysis including 3-D data to assess impacts of the natural disasters and extreme weather, b. investigation and explore advanced signal and image processing algorithms for disaster pre- and post-management. c. Merging spectral domain with the spatial/temporal, which makes the results of her research highly demanded as well as discovers new frontiers for environmental applications.

Naomi Carmon (Technion) - Engineering, Technology and Planning

Naomi Carmon is a Professor with the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. She is an urban planner and a sociologist, a teacher, a researcher and a consultant. She served as President of Israel Sociological Society, holder of the Technion Chair for Urban and Regional Planning, Head of the Technion Graduate Program for Urban and Regional Planning and head of the Center for Urban and Regional Studies. Her academic writings include books (in English and Hebrew) and more than 200 articles, chapters, research reports and other publications, mainly in the following areas: social issues in urban and regional planning, urban resilience, evaluation of broad-aim plans, housing policy, urban regeneration, quality of life of minorities and immigrants, and also water-sensitive urban planning and sustainable management of stormwater. Her research and consulting work were commissioned by research foundations, governmental ministries, municipalities, other public bodies and NGOs. Among her current research works are:

• Housing and community preparedness to earthquakes in peripheral towns in Israel, with Yechiel Rosenfeld, Tami Gavrieli, Inna Burstein and Doron Asis
• Sustainable management of stormwater, including flood mitigation, with Tali Alon-Mozes, michelle Portman, Shula Golden and Nadav Shapira
• Measuring urban resilience in urban localities in Israel, with Amnon Frenkel and Aya Dolev
• Practices of urban resilience: learning from the experience of selected cities and towns, with Romy Couriel

Shaul Chorev  (University of Haifa) - Social Science

Shaul Chorev is a retired Israeli Navy Rear Admiral and a Professor in the International Relations division of the School of Political Science, University of Haifa. He is also the Director of the Haifa Research Center for Maritime Policy & Strategy and the Reuven Chaikin Chair in Geostrategy. Chorev lectures on maritime strategy and Israel defense policy, international security and arms control technology transfer, and innovation system in the defense laboratories. From 2007 to 2015, he served as the Head of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission. Chorev has also held numerous senior positions in the Israeli defense establishment, including: Assistant to the Minister of Defense for Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Defense; Deputy Chief of Naval Operations; Commanding Officer of the Haifa Naval Base; and Commanding Officer of an Israeli Naval Flotilla (missile boats & submarines). He was the project manager of the Dolphin Submarines Project in the German Shipyards (HDW & TNSW) between 1989 and 1992. Chorev holds a BA in Economics and Political Sciences from Bar Ilan University (1985), an MSc. from the United States Naval Postgraduate School (1989), and a Ph.D. from Bar Ilan University in Science Technology and Society (2005).

Amichai Cohen (Israel Democracy Institute, and Ono Academic College) - Law

Amichai Cohen is a Senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, and a Professor of Law at the Ono Academic College- Faculty of Law. He hold an LL.B. (Magna Cum Laude) from the Hebrew University (1998) and an LL.M. (2001) and J.S.D. (2003) degrees from the Yale Law School. He was a visiting professor at the Columbia Law School, and American University, and a visiting Researcher at the Lauterpacht centre for international law in Cambridge University.

Amichai Cohen is an expert in International Humanitarian law and Israeli National Security Law. In his writings he dealt extensively with the application of emergency norms in the Israeli legal system, including in areas of security and economics, and with the ways in which the Israeli Supreme Court dealt with emergency norms.

Miri Cohen (University of Haifa) – Welfare and Social Work

Miri Cohen, Ph.D. is Professor and the head of the School of Social Work, Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences, University of Haifa.  Received BSW in Social Work from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel in 1973 and  MSW from Haifa University in 1986. Received her PhD in 2000 from the Faculty of Medicine, the Technion, Israel in the area of psycho-neuro-immunology. Between the years  2006- March 2012  she served as the head of the Gerontology Department.

Miri is the president of  the Israel Psycho-Oncology Society,  a board member of the Israeli Oncology Council, a board member of the Journals Psycho-Oncology and The journal of Research in Social Work Practice and a former Associate Editor of Quality of Life Research.

Her main area of research is coping with stress and trauma. This includes the study of coping and adjustment to various acute and chronic stressors, such as life-threatening illness, terror attacks and war, accidents, older people coping with the early trauma of the Holocaust. In these studies she focuses on the multicultural aspects of coping as well as physiological markers of stress (e.g., immune functions, inflammation, heart rate variability). A related topic of her research is the functioning of hospital social workers in emergency, including preparedness of social workers in hospitals, family support and victim identification in mass casualty terrorist attacks, compassion fatigue and burnout in hospital social workers.

Miri Cohen published more than ninety papers in refereed journals and several books and chapters in edited books. Many of her papers have been published in leading journals such as Journal of Trauma and Stress, Cancer, Breast Cancer Research and Therapy, International Journal of cancer, Psycho-Oncology, Journal of the Geriatric American Association, Gerontologist.