Rivka Carmi
October 2013 Honorary Degree Recipient
Doctor of Laws (honoris causa)
President, Ben-Gurion University of Negev
Professor Rivka Carmi knows what it means to be a pioneer. In 2000, she was elected Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, the first woman to hold this position in Israel. In 2006, she was elected to serve as Ben-Gurion University of the Negev鈥檚 President, again a first, as the first and only woman to serve as the President of an Israeli university. In 2010, Professor Carmi added a third 鈥渇irst鈥� to her resume: she became the first woman to serve as the Chairperson of the Committee of University Heads in Israel, a role she occupied until December 2012.
She has also been a pioneer in medical research, focusing on genetic diseases in the Negev Arab-Bedouin population. Her research began more than 30 years ago when she realized that few researchers were exploring the hereditary diseases of the marginalized Bedouin Arabs. Since then, she and her team have identified more than 40 genes and new mutations, including the discovery of a new syndrome now referred to as the Carmi Syndrome.
Professor Carmi was born in Israel and graduated from the Hadassah Medical School of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She completed a residency in pediatrics, a fellowship in neonatology at the Soroka University Medical Center and an additional two-year fellowship in medical genetics at Boston Children鈥檚 Hospital and Harvard University Medical School. Rejecting an offer of a post at Harvard, she returned to Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, where she went on to hold several important academic administrative positions in the Faculty of Health Sciences, culminating in her election as President.
Professor Carmi鈥檚 pioneering skills make her ideally suited for her role at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, a university that was established as a solution to southern Israel鈥檚 educational, developmental and research needs. According to a recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, she has encouraged closer ties between Israel鈥檚 seven research universities and the public colleges now attended by many Israeli students. She has urged universities to open their libraries and labs for use by the colleges so that students and faculty members can develop their research skills. She has breached other barriers, as well. A program created by Ben-Gurion University with the Jordanian Red Crescent, and financed mostly by the university, trained Jordanian students in emergency medicine.
Under her leadership, the university has had a significant local impact and has established itself as an outstanding university in a variety of fields, due in no small part to Professor Carmi鈥檚 innovative research and her ability to transcend barriers. That local focus has translated into global excellence, as Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, for example, has developed deep expertise in areas such as advanced water technologies that have in turn resulted in collaborative research relationships with universities around the globe.
In all, Professor Carmi has an impressive track record of nurturing the local impact of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in southern Israel, creating strong regional affiliations with other Israeli universities and colleges while cementing Ben-Gurion University of the Negev鈥檚 global reach through international research collaborations. In recognition of her pioneering accomplishments, I ask you Mr. Chancellor, on behalf of Senate, to bestow upon Professor Rivka Carmi the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa.