A 12-member team of chemistry professors from Israel’s Hebrew University participated in a two-day seminar in March in Bangalore, India with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to encourage student exchanges.

Israel’s Consul General in Bengalore Menahem Kanafi spoke about studying in his country, current student programmes between the two countries and scholarships. He mentioned the upcoming World Science Conference co-hosted by the Hebrew University and said, “We invite Indian students to be a part of WSCI to be held in Jerusalem from 15-20 August.” He said, “Israel has an excellent higher-education system, with one-fourth [of its institutions] in the top 150 schools in the world. We are glad to be able to co-operate with and educate Indian students [who will be] leaders tomorrow.”

Prof. Sanford Ruhman from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and Prof. S. Umapathy from IISc’s Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry led the first seminar, which aimed to strengthen the ties between the two institutions. It was pointed out that half of the 12 Nobel prizes won by Israel are for chemistry.