104 Israeli academics returned to local universities this year

Over one hundred Israeli academics employed at educational institutions around the world returned to Israeli universities this year, according to figures released yesterday by the Council for Higher Education and the Finance Ministry.

The data indicate 104 "returning scientists" came back this year, including both lecturers and researchers, some of whom are young doctorate holders with four to six years of experience in their field.

Ninety new university positions have been created to cope with the influx, compared to just eight new positions created last year. The council estimates that in recent years, universities have absorbed only several dozen returning scientists annually.

Prof. Ran Kaneti, a security expert who has worked at IBM research laboratories and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is one such returning academic. "I received an offer from Tel Aviv University in conjunction with Check Point Software in the field of encoding and security," he said.

"They established a research institute, and that's one of the things that caused me to return to Israel. My wife is also a scientist, and she was also offered a position at Tel Aviv University. I see how good Israeli students in the U.S. are, so I'm happy to meet them while they're still here," he added.

Around NIS 95 million has been allocated to absorb the new arrivals and to create new laboratories for their research. This sum was taken from the NIS 500 million outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert committed to the higher education system in October.

The economic crisis in the U.S. has also spurred Israeli academics to return home, as leading American universities have been forced to cut salaries in recent months. According to Prof. Shlomo Grossman, chair of the education council's planning and budget committee, "the global economic crisis has created a window of opportunity for Israel to return the best minds that have left Israeli academia and taken key positions in leading universities and research institutions worldwide."

Still, experts on Israel's "brain drain" said the return of one hundred researchers is merely "a drop in the ocean." According to Prof. Dan Ben-David, head of Tel Aviv University's Taub Center for Social Policy Research, his own university has experienced a 20-percent drop in faculty positions in the past 25 years, despite Israel's population having doubled in that period.