A Great Honor: 2023 Ramniceanu Prize awarded to Prof. Amnon Shashua

Tel Aviv University awarded the 2023 Hugo Ramniceanu Prize in Economics to Prof. Amnon Shashua. The prestigious prize was awarded as part of the university’s annual Board of Governors meeting. 

The Ramniceanu Prize is awarded in recognition of exceptional achievements in building up the economic, social and technological strength of Israel. 

Prof. Amnon Shashua: "It is a great honor to be a part of a special group of people who were awarded the Ramniceanu award. My work over the years focused on technology. My academic career, from its beginning to this very day, dealt with the possibilities of developing machine intelligence. The success of technology led to economic growth which led in its turn to the creation of new industries. Mobileye, OrCam, the digital bank One Zero, AI21 and Mentee Robotics, all have a direct connection to my academic work. Computers will continue to change humanity. We are on the verge of a new era. The artificial intelligence revolution will have a greater impact than any other revolution the human race has yet encountered. I believe that Israel has the ability to lead it".

Prof. Amnon Shashua is the founder, President and CEO of Mobileye, a world leader in the field of autonomous driving and driver assistance systems. Recently, Mobileye was reissued on the NASDAQ stock exchange and became the largest Israeli company in terms of market capitalization. In addition, Prof. Shashua founded four companies that use artificial intelligence applications in various fields, from robotics and language models through fintech: Mentee Robotics, OrCam, AI21 Labs and "One Zero,” the first digital bank in Israel. 

Prof. Shashua was born in Givatayim and, after completing his studies in computer science at the ORT Technikum, he served as an armored corps officer in the IDF. Shashua is a Professor of Computer Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 2023, he received the Israel Prize for Lifetime Achievement for his special contribution to society and the country. 

Prof. Shashua is also the recipient of the 2020 Dan David Prize in the field of artificial intelligence awarded at Tel Aviv University and, in 2022, he was inducted into the global Automotive Hall of Fame. 

The justifications of the Prize Committee at Tel Aviv University: "The prize is granted to Prof. Amnon Shashua, who, in parallel to his academic and business activity, makes sure to share his success with other communities in the State of Israel. 

In this regard, Shashua acts to integrate men and women from the Haredi religious sector into the labor market and, together with his wife, founded the "Center for Social Solidarity" to assist startup businesses during the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic. 

The Committee found Prof. Shashua worthy of receiving the prize for his global impact on vehicle safety and applied artificial intelligence, his commitment to supporting Israeli entrepreneurship and small businesses; and his philanthropic generosity toward social causes."

In addition, the Kadar Family Award for outstanding research 2023 was awarded at TAU’s Board of Governors:Four scholars conducting some of Tel Aviv University’s most exciting research received this year’s TAU faculty Kadar Family Award for Outstanding Research: Prof Marek Karliner (Exact Sciences), Prof. Ron Harris (Law), Dr. Uri Ben-David (Medicine), and Dr. Ella Daniel (Humanities).

The Kadar Family Award, supported by the Naomi Foundation, honors the memory of Naomi Prawer Kadar PhD, a lifelong Yiddish specialist, educator, and the late wife of Dr. Avraham Kadar, a physician, educator, innovator, and TAU benefactor. The three Kadar children, Einat Kadar Kricheli, Nadav Kadar, and Maya Kadar Kovalsky, are all TAU alumni and active board members of the Kadar Foundation along with their father. Avraham, Nadav and Maya are also members of TAU’s Board of Governors. 

The 2023 Kadar Family Awardees: 

Prof. Marek Karliner is a full professor at the Raymond and Beverly Sackler School of Physics and Astronomy. His research focuses on particles called quarks which make up much of the visible universe; the unusual combinations of quarks which he studies can help scientists better understand the basic mechanics of existence.

Prof. Ron Harris is the Kalman Lubowsky Professor of Law and History, and former Dean, at the Buchmann Faculty of Law. He researches the history of business corporations in the context of economic history. His recent book, Going the Distance: Eurasian Trade and the Rise of the Business Corporation, 1400-1700, examines how changes in business models led to European corporate dominance of trade. 

Dr. Uri Ben-David is a senior lecturer at the Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry in the Sackler Faculty of Medicine. He studies cancer cells and what differentiates them from regular human cells, in order to develop treatments which will kill cancer without harming surrounding cells.

Dr. Ella Daniel is a senior lecturer at the Jaime Constantiner School of Education in the Entin Faculty of Humanities. She has made important contributions to the field of children’s value formation, studying and foleducalowing the evolution of how children learn to prioritize and understand their values. She plans to continue this work by looking at the role of mothers and social media in this value formation.