Ora Kedem

Prof. Ora Kedem

Ora Kedem (Hebrew: אורה קדם, born 1924) is professor emerita at the Weizmann Institute of Science and a recipient of the Israel Prize.

Biography

Kedem studied chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She wrote her M.Sc. thesis on the absorption of bromine by ammonium bromides, used for safe transport of bromine.

In 1949, she joined the Department of Polymer Research at the Weizmann Institute of Science, headed by the late Prof. Aharon Katzir, and was involved in the research of membrane biophysics, which later became the basis for her activity in modern desalination techniques.

In the late 1960s, Kedem became interested in desalination. In 1967/8 she spent a year in Beer-Sheva, working at the Nuclear Research Center Negev, organizing courses and teaching at the Institute for Higher Education in Beer-Sheva, that later became Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

In 1973, her mentor and partner, Aharon Katzir, was killed in a terror attack. With support and encouragement from the international scientific community, Kedem founded and chaired the department of membrane research at the Weizmann Institute, to continue Katzir’s research of membrane biophysiscs. The department brought together scientists from different disciplines, focusing on different aspects of transport in living systems.

Kedem headed the Department for Desalination and Water Treatment at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev from 1995 to 2003.

In 2005, she was named a foreign associate to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering (NAE) that works to promote the technological welfare of the United States by marshaling the knowledge and insights of eminent members of the engineering profession. Kedem was recognized "for contributions to the thermodynamics of irreversible transport processes and the development of separation processes for the treatment of water and waste water."^[1]

Kedem is Professor emerita at the Weizmann Institute and Adjunct Professor at Ben Gurion University. She continues to be involved in desalination research at BGU, specifically in improved nanofiltration membranes and in concentrate disposal by enhanced evaporation. At the Weizmann Institute she cooperates in research on the emergence of order in model systems which may be relevant to the origin of life.

Awards

• In 1961, Kedem was awarded the Israel Prize, in life sciences, together with Prof. Aharon Katzir,^[2] for her contribution to the life sciences and is a recognized leader in desalination technologies worldwide.

• In 2007, the University of Twente, in the Netherlands, conferred on Kedem an honorary doctorate.

See also

• List of Israel Prize recipients

References

1. ^ National Academy of Engineering website
2. ^ "Israel Prize recipients in 1961 (in Hebrew)". cms.education.gov.il (Israel Prize official website). Archived from the original on 11 April 2010 by WebCite®. http://cms.education.gov.il/EducationCMS/Units/PrasIsrael/Tashyag/Tashkab_Tashyag_Rikuz.htm?DictionaryKey=Tashka. 

External links

• Bio from University of Twente, Netherlands
• Bio in JewishVirtualLibrary.org

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Name	Kedem, Ora
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Date of birth	1924
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