How did locust, a biblical plague, become a modern crisis? - Watch

Israel is often heralded for its track-record of technological and academic innovation. Now, the Boris Mints Institute’s 2020 Conference is going online to showcase groundbreaking Israeli research that has the potential to create a brighter global future. 

Entitled ‘Israeli Innovation for a Better World’, this year’s conference is taking place on Thursday, July 9, 2020 at 16:00 Israel time, both on Zoom and on JPost.com. 

This is the first Boris Mints Institute annual conference to take place solely online and will provide a global platform for world-leading researchers that are working alongside the Boris Mints Institute at Tel Aviv University to create a greener future and tackle social inequalities.   

The theme of ‘creating a greener future’ is conveyed by two presentations. The first, by Professor Hadas Mamane, head of the Environmental Engineering Program, Faculty of Engineering at Tel Aviv University introduces a groundbreaking new Tel Aviv project in urban ecology - ‘The Green Wall’. This will be a new and sustainable ecosystem for waste and water management at the university’s Naftali building.  This is followed by a presentation from Ms. Hila Bar from Vertical Field Ltd, a research-oriented firm working with the Boris Mints Institute to develop nature-based solutions for carbon neutral cities and improved air quality.

The second section of the conference explores efforts to address Poverty and Inequality, both within Israel and in communities globally.  Dr. Nechumi Yaffe from the Department of Public Policy at Tel Aviv University focuses on the distinctive nature of poverty within Ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities and how this can be tackled.

The discussion then expands to the issue of locust swarming, the biblical phenomenon that has become a very modern crisis. In the last two years alone, locust swarms have devastated 2.25 million hectares of land around the world and left 20.2 million people facing severe and acute food insecurity. Professor Amir Ayali from Tel Aviv University’s School of Zoology will demonstrate research into the underlying mechanisms that influence individual locusts and their swarm behavior, which is crucial for any attempt to control this global crisis.  

Prof Ayali’s presentation leads into a discussion on ‘Demographic Challenges in the 21st Century,’ hosted by Dr. Isaac Sasson (Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Tel Aviv University), followed by an exploration of how ‘Distributed Ledger Technology’ could make institutions fairer and more decentralized, led by Boris Mints Institute Fellow Eve Guterman.

The Boris Mints Institute is a part of the School of Social and Policy Studies at Tel Aviv University in Ramat Aviv and was founded by Dr. Boris Mints in 2015 to encourage research, planning, and innovative thinking in order to promote a significant positive change in the world. The Institute is focusing on delivering detailed strategic blueprints for implementation to decision-makers worldwide, based on research conducted by the finest researchers and students in five research labs: Inequality, Renewable Energy, Sustainable Development, Water and Conflict Resolution. For more information about the Institute, please click here.