Palestinian-German Science Bridge PGSB

PGSB Fellows Competition 2020 Results

To prioritize the health and safety of all our participants during the COVID-19 pandemic, the yearly PGSB Cooperation Workshop in 2020 was cancelled. Among other things, this meant we lost out on the opportunity to hear the annual progress reports from our BSc. MSc. and PhD Fellows. The PGSB Fellows Competition, in which all past and current PGSB Fellows were invited to submit a video of themselves giving a scientific presentation of their work, aims to give the fellows a platform to share their results with a wider audience in 2020.

Students were asked to present on all areas of their cooperation, including scientific background, science case/motivation for their project, original results and knowledge-transfer and/or cooperation between their institute in Jülich and a Palestinian research institution.

We received 24 contributions, all of which can be found under the fellow profiles on both the PGSB Homepage at Forschungszentrum Jülich and the PALAST Homepage for PGSB. Both the professional presentation and the strong scientific content of all the videos was very impressive. In a challenging year, this initiative represents a big success for the stated purpose of the Science Bridge: Connecting people and knowledge.

On behalf of the advisory committee, we would like to congratulate all Fellows on a job well done and to award the following prizes for the following outstanding videos:

Best presentation from an undergraduate:

Best presentation from an undergraduate Sara Abu Zayed (Birzeit University/ZEA-1) for her presentation ‘Measurement of deformation due to thermal effect on a carbon fiber composite structure using digital image correlation’

Best presentations from PhD Fellows (alphabetical order)

• Abdalhalim Abuawad (IBI-3) for his presentation ‘Development of magnetic based biological sensors for the detection of Brucella spp’
• Falastine Abusaif (IKP-2) for her presentation ‘Development of compact, highly sensitive beam position monitors for storage rings’
• Hebah Fatafta (IBI-7) for her presentation ‘The simulation of amyloid aggregation under in vivo conditions’
• Hanan Hamamera (IAS-1) for her presentation ‘Ultrafast charge, spin and orbital physics’
• Lotfi Talalwa (ZEA-1/INM-4) for his presentation ‘Development of a dedicated brain phantom for hybrid PET/MRI acquisition’

The Palestinian-German Science Bridge is a pilot project financed by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research BMBF and implemented jointly by Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH and Palestinian Academy for Science and Technology PALAST to develop a joint research and education programme.

It provides bright science and technology graduates from Palestinian universities with access to state-of-the-art equipment for the experimental part of their Bachelor or Master thesis and the possibility complete a PhD thesis project in Jülich. After successful completion, PGSB alumni are expected to return to a Palestinian university to establish their own research groups in science and technology, contribute to the development of new PhD programmes there, and thus create the nucleus of a Palestinian science and technology infrastructure.

Objectives:

• Provide access for Palestinian students to Jülich’s scientific infrastructure
• Assist Jülich in recruiting the brightest students from Palestinian universities for Bachelor, Master and PhD projects
• Transfer knowledge to Palestinian universities in the development of Graduate and Research Programmes
• Facilitate the mobility and exchange of students and academics in both directions
• Give highly qualified and motivated Palestinian scientists a perspective for adequate career opportunities – in the Palestinian territories, Germany, or worldwide.
• Support the peace-making efforts of both countries in the area

Long-term vision:

• Continued cooperation with returning PGSB alumni as they establish their own research groups and set up PhD programmes at Palestinian universities.
• Establish critical mass to create a nucleus for the development of a national science and technology infrastructure in the Palestinian territories.

Impact on the national level:

More information about the important contribution of activities at Forschungszentrum Jülich and the Palestinian-German Science Bridge to German-Palestinian relations is found in the Joint Statement of the 5th German-Palestinian Steering Committee, published on 19.05.2020: https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/en/newsroom/news/pse-steering-committee/2342688