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The Faculty of Natural Sciences includes six departments:
Chemistry, Geology and Environmental Sciences, Life
Sciences, Mathematics, Computer Science, and Physics.
The Faculty comprises some 145 academic staff, 2,000
undergraduate students, 500 graduate students, and over 40
scientists from the former Soviet Union. The Faculty is
responsible for providing foundation courses in the basic
sciences for the full-time equivalent of over 1800 students
majoring in engineering, medical and social sciences at
Ben-Gurion University.
The Faculty`s mission is twofold: provide for the basic
scientific and advanced research training of Israel`s
future scientists, creating a human infrastructure of the
highest standard for the industrial and applied scientific
requirements of the Negev and the State of Israel; and
pursue scholarly investigations, basic and applied, in the
full spectrum of knowledge in the disciplines of
mathematics and the natural sciences.
The Faculty continuously strives for excellence in research,
annually publishing approximately 800 research papers,
presenting over 340 invited lectures in international
forums, and raising external funding approaching $20 million.
The dynamism of research efforts is augmented by short
visits of over 130 scientific visitors each year, including
many involved in collaborative programs. Examples of recent
capital equipment acquisitions include establishment of the
Laboratory for Magnetic Resonance (administered jointly by
the Departments of Chemistry and Physics) at a cost of over
$1 million, and the acquisition of state-of-the-art X-ray
single crystal instrumentation for $500,000.
The theoretical and experimental, basic and applied
research programs have direct relevance to development of
the Negev, Israel`s southern desert. Sophisticated,
up-to-date laboratories have been painstakingly built up,
and although far from complete, contain equipment which is
vital to the development of this region. The spectrum of
scientific endeavor in the Faculty of Natural Sciences
range from computer science to biotechnology; from polymers
to lasers; high-tech industrial applications in electronics,
computers and electro-optics and transformation of the
natural resources of the Negev into the modern industrial
powerhouse of the State of Israel: phosphate and
potash-based fertilizer, glass and ceramics; bromine
compounds and intermediates in the processing of new drugs
and natural cosmetics are some examples.
The Faculty provides knowledge and expert services and
serves as an incubator for high technology developments and
successful absorption of new immigrant scientists. The
Faculty also trains science teachers for secondary
education, and qualified personnel for local industry,
government and health service laboratories. The faculty
thus not only functions as a training ground for expert
manpower but is pushing back the frontiers of the desert
while advancing those of science.
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