Tel Aviv University

In 1931, a Biological-Pedagogical Institute (later, the Institute of Natural Sciences) was established in the city of Tel Aviv in British Mandatory Palestine.

Four years later, in 1935, a second institute—the School of Law and Economics—opened there, as well.

In 1954, the Academic Institute of Jewish Studies was founded in the same city, now a part of the State of Israel.

Finally, in 1956, the three aforementioned research institutes were combined—along with a new library and several new academic and administration buildings—to create the modern Tel Aviv University (TAU).

Today, TAU comprises nine separate faculties, eight schools, and more than 130 research institutes and centers. The student body numbers more than 26,000 individuals.

TAU is associated with one Nobel laureate–the physicist, François Englert and one Turing Award winner–Adi Shamir.

Other notable TAU–connected individuals include the following:

• Mathematicians, Noga Alon, Shoshana Kamin, Boris Tsirelson, Michael Krivelevich, Boris Trakhtenbrot & Joseph Bernstein
• Computer scientists, Micha Sharir, Yossi Matias & Shmuel Safra
• Astrophysicist, Mario Livio
• Physicists, Yuval Ne’eman, Yakir Aharonov, Lev Vaidman & Leonard Susskind
• Chemist, Abraham Nitzan
• Microbiologist, Nahum Sonenberg
• Geneticist, Karen Avraham
• Plant geneticist, Daniel Chamovitz
• Computational biologist, Aviv Regev
• Psychologist and author, Dan Ariely
• Historians, Yisrael Friedman, Benjamin Isaac & David S. Katz
• Linguists, Paul Wexler & Ghil’ad Zuckermann
• Economist, Ariel Rubinstein
• Sociologist, Aviad Raz
• Archaeologist, Israel Finkelstein
• Poet, Natan Yonatan
• Graphic novelist and screenwriter, Etgar Keret
• Classicist, Raphael Freundlich
• Composers, Leon Schidlowsky & Simon Shaheen
• Playwright and theater director, Hanoch Levin
• Actor, Moni Moshonov
• Filmmaker, Moshé Mizrahi
• Film and TV director and screenwriter, Gideon Raff
• Historian and diplomat, Itamar Rabinovich
• Israeli general and politician, Benny Gantz
• Former Israel Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon